Knicks' Jalen Brunson will miss game vs. Heat with Grade 1 ankle sprain
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson shoots a free throw against the Orlando Magic in the second half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
First, the Knicks could breathe a sigh of relief.
After imaging and more tests, the injury suffered by Jalen Brunson in the final minutes of Wednesday’s loss to Orlando was diagnosed as a Grade 1 sprain of the right ankle on Thursday, according to a source.
It was as good an outcome as the Knicks could have hoped for after Brunson hobbled off the court and directly to the locker room before leaving Madison Square Garden in a walking boot with crutches.
And after they exhale, maybe Mike Brown can dial his old friend, Tom Thibodeau, and commiserate.
Thibodeau spent his five seasons in New York much as he spent the previous stops in his coaching career, trying to milk every bit out of his players for every minute — every second — until the final seconds ticked away. Then he absorbed the slings and arrows from critics who dissected his use of his best players, the minutes accumulated and his insistence that no game was over until it was over.
Brown did the same on Wednesday, a game in which the Knicks trailed by 20 at halftime and by 16 in the final minutes, when Brunson and most of the starters were still on the floor trying in vain to make a comeback.
It wasn’t until Brunson hit the floor that Brown emptied the bench and waved the white flag. He not only would have the loss to contend with but the reality that he had gone against the standard he had set in the preseason.
When the Knicks were just starting out the preseason in Abu Dhabi, Brown spoke about pacing his players, preserving them for the postseason and echoing all of the things that were part of the reason that the job was open for him this summer.
“The biggest thing is, you know, trying to make sure you watch everybody’s minutes instead of trying to chase games,” Brown said. “There might be some games that, maybe throw the towel in early.
“You know, just instead of — if you’re in that many close games, just instead of chasing every single game — it’s important to win, but you also have to understand, ‘Hey, I want to keep this guy’s minutes here, this guy’s minutes here, this guy’s minutes here, instead of trying to extend everybody’s minutes. Because if the season is long, we don’t want anybody worn out by the end of the season.”
It was a lesson he said that was refined during his time as an assistant coach with Golden State, a lesson that organization learned when it chased a 73-win season. He noted, “I think that year, they got beat in the Finals. Yeah, and it kind of caught up to them. And from that point on, that’s when he [coach Steve Kerr] was like, I’m not going to chase it anymore.”
So maybe chalk it up to a lesson learned. The minutes debate was always a phony issue. Thibodeau’s teams went far and stayed as healthy as any other team in the NBA.
Injuries are a part of the game — and as Brown would agree, they can happen as often in the first minute as the 35th. But the one issue that was debatable was whether to wave that white flag because the chance of stars spraining their ankles is a lot lower if they’re sitting next to the coach on the bench in the final minutes.
For now, though, Brown has a bigger issue, an immediate one. Brunson is out for Friday’s game against Miami and the timeline on a Grade 1 sprain, even for someone like Brunson, who bristles at sitting, is a week to three weeks.
After Friday night, the Knicks head out on a five-game road trip and could be doing it without their best player.
Besides riding Brunson to the finish line of games, Brown and Thibodeau have something else in common: Living by the coach’s mantra of “next man up.” Just who that next man up is remains to be seen.
Brown already has had to juggle his lineup with Mitchell Robinson sitting out six of the first 11 games. And for all of the holes the Knicks tried to fill this summer, the veteran backup point guard is one that was left lacking when Malcolm Brogdon didn’t turn out to be what the front office hoped.
To get by without Brunson, Brown might need more from the remaining key players. And he might want to keep one eye on the minutes chart he draws up before games and stick to it. It’s the big picture he talked about.
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.
