Injuries are happening all over the NBA and the Knicks lost Larry Johnson for 12 minutes of the first half last night when he twisted his left knee. LJ returned in the second quarter, wearing a sleeve on the knee. The Knicks called the injury a “a sore knee,” but Johnson will have it examined again today and will have an MRI. “It just doesn’t feel right,” said Johnson, who added he is concerned about the injury.
Johnson has been extremely careful with that knee, using a form of magnetic therapy over the last few weeks. The Knicks already have incurred one serious injury this year, losing Latrell Sprewell for 3-6 weeks with a stress fracture of the right heel. Sprewell is making good progress, according to one Knick official. Chris Childs also bruised his left knee and will be re-evaluated.
Johnson said he is suffering tendinitis in the knee.
“It never felt like this,” he said. “I’ve been having problems with it, but not this bad. I couldn’t put pressure on it. The past two or three days it felt great and then this whole scene. [Trainer Mike Saunders] thinks I didn’t warm up as good as I should have. There was no twisting, anything, it was weird.” *
As for facing old friend Charles Oakley, Van Gundy said: “His consistency is his greatness. You know he’s going to come out and play hard, play to win. He’s going to do that … like he does every night. He had a great career here. We can’t be stuck thinking about Charles too much and we can’t be trying to help Marcus [Camby] play too well against his former team.” *
Kurt Thomas jump-started the Knicks last night, both by defending fan-favorite Oakley in the emotion-loaded early moments and scoring 10 of the Knicks’ 21 first-quarter points on 5-for-6 shooting and assisting on another basket.
“I think basically Kurt’s been as consistent a player as we’ve had all year,” praised Van Gundy. “Game One until now, he’s basically has done the same thing – getting us off to good starts.”
Thomas picked up three fouls by halftime, however, and was stifled offensively in the second half when he picked up two more fouls. He finishing with 10 points, five rebounds, and three assists.
“He made some medium-range jumpers made good decisions with the ball,” Van Gundy added.