You don’t need to be some kind of basketball guru to realize that the New York Knicks are significantly worse when Kristaps Porzingis is not available. If that wasn’t blatantly obvious to you, might I suggest sitting the next few games out, maybe find a new hobby.
Saturday night against the Houston Rockets was no different as Porzingis missed his second game of the season due to back tightness. The Knicks dropped a 15-point decision to James Harden and Co. while Knicks fans calmly panicked, wondering what was wrong with their star.
Porzingis spoke about his injury later on Saturday night with the New York Post’s Marc Berman:
“I didn’t feel it much during the [Atlanta] game [Friday],’’ Porzingis stated. “After the game, once I cooled down, that’s when I really was feeling tightness in my back and knew it wasn’t getting better but worse. [After] the flight, I woke up this morning, sleeping in a different bed, it didn’t help. It just got tighter.”
It doesn’t sound like an injury that is too severe and it seems as though he is taking plenty of caution in monitoring the issue closely. The last thing the Knicks need is Porzingis to attempt to play through the issue and make it worse.
While there is no official word on whether or not he will play on Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers, this looks as though this is just a day-to-day injury, meaning his return should come sooner rather than later.
If he and Kanter are unable to go though, all signs point to the Knicks dropping their third-consecutive game of the season. The frontcourt duo have combined for 40.9 points and 17.4 rebounds per game this season.
