Carmelo Anthony is expected to sit out Saturday’s game against Kyrie Irving and the Cleveland Cavaliers after spraining his left ankle in Thursday’s win over the Lakers.
He will likely return for Monday’s game against former Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin and the Houston Rockets.
Anthony is officially listed as questionable for Saturday. The Knicks did not hold practice Friday and cancelled shootaround Saturday so Anthony has not been made available to the media since he scored 30 points in 22 minutes of the 100-97 victory over Los Angeles.
Anthony was fouled hard by Dwight Howard with 6:54 remaining in the third quarter and soon left the game for good.
“He went down kind of hard,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “You just never know until you get to him. He tried to run it off, but he couldn’t do it.”
“I am going to take it day by day,” Anthony, who is second in the NBA in scoring at 27.9 points per game, said following the game.
The Knicks are 3-1 without Anthony for all or part of a game this season, including last week’s 20-point blowout of the Heat in Miami, which he missed completely. Anthony cut his left (non-shooting) hand in the team’s Dec. 5 win at Charlotte, and he missed the Miami game and the subsequent loss at Chicago.
The Knicks will now try to improve to 10-0 at home this season on Saturday likely without Anthony.
“Talking to [Anthony] I think it’s maybe a short-term thing, not long-term,” Tyson Chandler said. “Hopefully, it’s not too bad.”
Photo: Newsday
