Knicks' nagging injuries give them skeleton crew for final preseason game
Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks reacts after hitting a three point basket during the first half against the Charlotte Hornets at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025 in New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Knicks suited up for their fifth and final test of the preseason Friday night, facing the Hornets at Madison Square Garden. Or at least some of them did.
While Mike Brown had talked about using this last game as a dress rehearsal for Wednesday’s regular-season opener against the Cavaliers, he again was juggling a roster that was missing key pieces. The Knicks will head to the regular season without one minute of having all of their key rotation pieces available in a game.
Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges were the lone starters expected to play, and they went all the way to deep in the fourth quarter. Brunson looked to be in midseason form with 31 points as the Knicks beat the Hornets, 113-108, to finish the preseason with four wins in five games.
But Josh Hart hasn’t suited up for even a practice session since suffering a back injury in the opening minutes of the first preseason game in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 2. He again was in sweats Friday night, hardly looking ready for the start of the season. Mitchell Robinson remained sidelined with what the Knicks called “workload management.” OG Anunoby missed his third game, this time with a tweaked left ankle. Karl-Anthony Towns was sidelined with a quadriceps injury.
“I said this before, any time you’re missing guys, it’s next guy step up, and knock on wood, we could be missing guys during the season,” Brown said. “So it’s just another opportunity for guys to step up and get a chance to play. We’ll go out and play the game with who’s available tonight.”
The key rotation pieces have played together for a full season, and the Knicks can take some comfort in that. However, they are working their way through a new system, and the system that Brown has put in place is based on a read-and-react style with players reading off each other. That figured to take some time in a best-case scenario — and even longer with the situation they are in right now.
“I would love to have everyone together, especially trying to play the way we’re playing, with it being new to everybody,” Brown said. “But it is what it is, and we’ve still gotta go and win games. But the result, though, whether we had everyone or we didn’t, is for us to understand, ‘Hey, this thing is gonna be a marathon. It’s not a sprint. It’s not being at our peak on opening night.’
“You’re always hoping and wishing you are, but they’re fighting their tail off. They’re learning quickly. They’re actually a little ahead of where I thought we’d be at this point. But again, the guys that have been out, they’re the key pieces to what we’re trying to do, so they haven’t gotten the reps, and for us to jell together from top to bottom is gonna take a little more time than I thought probably because of the injuries.”
“I think for us, as long as we’re moving forward every step of the way and getting better every single day, that’s where we want to be,” Brunson said after Thursday’s practice. “We don’t want to be plateaued, we don’t want to be one spot. We want to continue to get better every day. And there are going to be days where we don’t get better and we play bad and we take steps back, but it’s all about how we progress and move forward. So I mean, we’re not where we want to be, but we’re going to work to get there and continue to get better.”
If the Knicks are healthy for their opener, this might be forgotten, but there still is uncertainty, particularly surrounding the status of Hart and Robinson. The Knicks have said they are working out on their own during practice sessions, avoiding contact, and hinted that if this were the regular season or a playoff game, at least Robinson would be available.
But for now, it was a skeleton crew. At least that gave the front office one last look before Saturday evening’s deadline for the final roster cutdown.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
