Frank Ntilikina is on injury watch once more.
The Knicks level guard left Friday’s 126-103 loss to the Thunder on the Garden within the second quarter with a strained proper ankle, although he returned to play simply over 4 minutes within the fourth quarter.
“I believe [he’s OK],” interim coach Mike Miller mentioned. “We’ll see what [Saturday] brings, however the truth that he was in a position to come again [was positive]. We performed him a bit of bit, then we acquired to the purpose the place we had been simply going to take him out. We had been going to verify he had an opportunity to relaxation and get off of it so he can have some restoration time.”
Ntilikina acquired damage on offense after which needed to deliberately foul to get himself out of the sport with 8:33 left earlier than halftime. He briefly acquired checked out on the bench earlier than heading to the locker room together with his proper shoe off.
The 21-year-old level guard has battled groin points this season, the identical physique half that value him almost half of final season. He completed Friday’s sport with seven factors in 10 minutes.
Mitchell Robinson’s strained hamstring solely value him one sport because the Knicks’ second-year middle made his return Friday evening.
Robinson acquired again to pumping up the group together with his dunks and alley-oops, hitting all 5 area targets he tried and ending with 11 factors, 4 rebounds and three blocks in 22 minutes.
“I assumed Mitch was good,” Miller mentioned. “He didn’t present any results. He made an affect on the sport. He acquired in, he picked up his second foul, however we left him on the market. So I believe that’s exhibiting his maturity and his expertise to have the ability to play past that second foul within the first half. He didn’t choose up his third. I assumed he performed nicely within the third quarter as nicely.”
Point guard Dennis Smith Jr. missed a fourth straight sport with a concussion, remaining within the protocol. Miller mentioned Smith has superior to the stage of understanding on his personal, however not but in stay crew exercises.
Allonzo Trier and Damyean Dotson, who had been glued to the bench in latest video games, each acquired garbage-time minutes, opening the fourth quarter on the court docket with Ntilikina, Robinson and Bobby Portis.
“We had been in search of a spark there,” Miller mentioned.
