Knicks Win Without Jeremy Lin, Can Team Survive With Injured Players?
The New York Knicks were able to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night in a low scoring game, 89-80. Starting point guard Jeremy Lin missed the game due to injury along with high-scoring forward Amare Stoudemire and forward Jared Jeffries, which has caused some to wonder if the team can make a legitimate playoff run in face of more tribulation.
Jeremy Lin, 23, suffered from a knee injury that left him sitting on the bench in the team's win against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday. Although he was listed as day-to-day, the Harvard graduate sat out the entire game on Monday night.
Although Lin participated in shoot-around and told the press that his knee was only sore, he added that he was uncertain about when exactly he would return to the team, which is missing two of its starters.
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"We're gonna take it day by day. I'm day to day," Lin said. "Hopefully tomorrow it feels great or somewhere down the road. I don't really know. It def feels way better than it did two days ago."
Lin expressed concern for the absence of Stoudemire, 29-year-old Knicks team captain who was listed as being benched indefinitely after an MRI drew attention to a bulging disk in his lower back on Monday.
"He's one of the leaders of this team and one of the voices on this team so we definitely need him back as soon as we can get him," Lin said. "(He's) one of the top two scorers on the team."
Carmelo Anthony, starting small forward who led the Knicks with 28 points and 12 rebounds, spoke about missing the presence of his teammate.
"To hear he's out indefinitely really hurts us as a team. He's one of our guys, one of our leaders," Anthony said. "To see him go down like that is sad news for me. My prayers go out to him and hopefully we can get him back as soon as possible."
Still, Anthony suffered his own injury on Monday. Despite scoring a needed double-double for the team, the starting forward strained a groin injury that kept him out for multiple games during the beginning of the team's Linsanity era, where Lin became a prominent starting point guard.
Still, Anthony downplayed his injury for the press after the game.
"I tweaked my same groin. Not as bad as it was the first time - I was able to get back out there and still play," Anthony said. "I don't think it's too bad."
With injuries to Lin, Anthony, Jeffries and Stoudemire, head coach Mike Woodson expressed some concern. Still Woodson, the Knicks' new head coach who took over after former coach Mike D'Antoni resigned less than two weeks ago, said the team is looking forward after regaining a .500 percentage and pulling further ahead of the Bucks to secure a number eight playoffs spot.
"We can't look back. We've got to continue to play and try to win games," Woodon said. "But having Amar'e out, I don't want guys to feel like they can't step in and make offensive plays but what has got to be a given is our defense. (If) we do that we will put ourselves in the position to win games."
