By JOSH NEWMAN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
As expected on Tuesday afternoon, the Knicks released some injury updates on Tyson Chandler and Kurt Thomas. As expected, none of the news was good.
Having missed the last three games with a left knee contusion suffered last week at the Denver Nuggets, an MRI of Tyson Chandler‘s cervical spine revealed a small bulging disc. He is expected to miss approximately one week. Chandler had played and started in all 62 games before missing the game at the Nuggets, which was one of four ugly, blowout losses during a 1-4 west coast trip that concluded on Monday evening with a 90-83 win at the Utah Jazz on Monday evening.
The team also announced that reserve forward Kurt Thomas, pressed into starting duty and heavy minutes as the injury situation has become dire, will be out 2-4 weeks after an MRI of his right foot revealed an acute stress reaction surrounding a chronic stress fracture in his navicular bone. The oldest active player in the NBA, Thomas has been playing with this injury for at least a few games.
On Monday at the Jazz, Thomas put forth arguably his best effort of the season out of necessity, scoring six points on 3-for-5 shooting, while adding three rebounds, three blocks and two assists in a season-high 27 minutes of action.
On the low end, the timetable of 2-4 weeks would have Thomas back with about eight games to go. On the high end, he could be done for the regular season or even the playoffs if that timetable doesn’t hold.
What the Knicks, who issued no update on Tuesday regarding Carmelo Anthony and his injured right knee, are left with is an injury-riddled frontcourt. Chandler and Thomas are now out, while Amar’e Stoudemire (right knee debridement) and Rasheed Wallace (fractured left fifth metatarsal) were already for the rest of the regular season if not longer. The Knicks are left with Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby as the options down low.
That leads to the question of whether or not the Knicks would look to go out and acquire some frontcourt help. They would need to cut a player in order to create a roster spot and while Wallace would seem a prime candidate to be the player cut, the team has given no indication it will head in that direction.
The Knicks’ win over the Jazz on Monday salvaged an ugly west coast swing that saw them lose the first four games at the Golden State Warriors, Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers by an average of 20 points. The win Monday held off the charging Nets, who sit one game behind the Knicks and two in the loss column in the Atlantic Division. The Knicks are back in action Wednesday against the Orlando Magic at Madison Square Garden.
