Knicks wing Josh Hart will be out at least one more week as he continues to recover from a sprained right ankle, the team announced (Twitter link via Ian Begley of SNY.tv).
Hart has begun light on-court work and will be checked out again in a week, per the Knicks. The 30-year-old guard/forward hasn’t played since he injured the ankle on December 25.
Here’s more from New York:
- Friday’s loss to Atlanta marked Mitchell Robinson‘s third straight absence with what the team has called left ankle injury management, writes Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News. The Knicks say the 7’0″ center hasn’t experienced any setbacks. “Shoot, we’d rather have him than not,” head coach Mike Brown said. “When we do he definitely protects us on the back side, in a lot of different ways. At the end of the day, I truly believe the guys that we have on this roster are more than capable. I’m going to keep pushing. No matter who’s in uniform, I’m going to keep pushing them to play better because I believe in them. I feel they believe in each other, too, and what we’re doing.”
- Big man Karl-Anthony Towns was a game-time decision Friday due to an illness, but after going through his warm-up routine he decided he wasn’t feeling well enough to play, tweets Steve Popper of Newsday. It was the five-time All-Star’s third missed game of the season.
- Second-year wing Kevin McCullar Jr. has gotten an opportunity for playing time with Hart sidelined and has drawn praise from Brown in the process, per Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. “He’s tough,” Brown said Friday. “He does all the little things that don’t show up in the boxscore all the time. His shifts are really good. His physicality without fouling is really good. He can rebound, or at least he’s not afraid to get in there and hit somebody when it comes to keeping your opponent off the glass. And then he understands how to play [against] different individuals. He’s got a good feel to know, like if you’re a hot shooter or a guy that can really shoot the ball, how to close out, take away that air space. If you’re not, if you’re more of a driver, he knows how to close out where he can take away an angle. Just a good feel for a lot of little things that he has along with that toughness and that’s what you like for a guy his size.”