Knicks' injury reports puzzling ahead of season opener vs. Cavaliers at MSG
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns dunks against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first half of an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
While the Knicks may have an eye staring longingly at the schedule and holding dates open at Madison Square Garden for what they hope will be a title chase, the focus for a team that promises not to skip a step was on Wednesday night, opening night to the new season.
The hype and excitement of a debut for Mike Brown as coach and the unveiling of the latest incarnation of the team at Madison Square Garden brought a chance for the first explosion of affection from the fan base since the wild celebrations of last season. But instead, most of the fan base seemed to be wondering just what they were going to see.
The Knicks would like to have only had to plan for how to battle the Cleveland Cavaliers, a 64-win team last season. But instead they were hemming and hawing about injury reports, hidden injuries and bizarre status reports. And Brown was getting his first taste of life on Broadway, where the coach is not just responsible for the game plan but also for trying to talk his way through medical reports that made little sense.
The Knicks rested players through the preseason, carefully managing minutes and bumps and bruises. Yet after years of critics moaning about minutes and risk under Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks limped into the opener with key pieces out of action. They were shorthanded from Day One and maybe more important, with little clarity as to when they might be whole again.
“As a head coach you want all your guys all the time,” Brown said before the game, trying to carefully navigate the delicate path of injury reports — always a tightrope for coaches. “You want to be greedy in that regard. Also it’s a part of the game, that’s why you have in our case, I think 17 guys right now, 18 guys.
“And we, starting with me, I’m a big next man up, next player up. It doesn’t matter how many people are out. You’re hoping it’s not a ton, but that’s what all these guys get paid to do. They get paid to be ready to play whenever their number is called. They got to go out and perform and not do anything outside the box but perform at the highest level, starting with having that competitive spirit. And we still expect to win no matter who’s in uniform. That’s our goal.”
The Knicks were missing two players: Josh Hart with what the team was calling lumbar spasms and Mitchell Robinson with left ankle injury management. The team said Hart’s status was day-to-day. He went down in pain on Oct. 2 seven minutes into his first action in Abu Dhabi, and the team insisted Robinson didn’t have an injury until the official injury report had to be sent to the league Tuesday evening.
But then there was the case of Karl-Anthony Towns, who was listed as questionable Tuesday, downgraded to doubtful midday Wednesday and an hour later, returned to questionable with a league source indicating that he would play as long as he made it through pregame warmups with no issues. Both Towns and OG Anunoby were game-time decisions and opted to play, although Towns never came out for the usual workout time on the floor before joining his team on the layup line just minutes before the start.
“Just getting right for the season,” Towns said Monday. “That’s really all I’m thinking.”
Not all he was thinking as he made headlines by discussing the uncertainty about his role in the new offensive system. But he was there at least.
It helped on this night, but the Knicks still had little clarity, or at least had provided little clarity, on the status beyond opening night on Robinson and Hart. Hart at least had a visible injury, the back sending him hobbling to the locker room in that first outing of preseason. But the Knicks have maintained Robinson doesn’t actually have an injury; instead load managing was to avoid stress on his left ankle, which was surgically repaired nearly two years ago and then again in May 2024. He was held out for the first 58 games last season.
The Knicks played him in the first three preseason games, but in that third game when all of the other starters returned to the floor after halftime Robinson did not play and then was held out the last two games as well as nearly two weeks of practice.
“There may be a stretch of five games where we may sit him,” Brown said. “There may be a stretch of two preseason games where we may sit him. There’s no definition of what load management is. You just go along or myself and the medical team and the front office will go along as we see fit and we’ll decide if we want to sit him during practice or we want to sit him in a game. It’s as simple as that.”
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.
