Carmelo Anthony’s injury status just went from day-to-day to week-to-week.
The star Knicks forward is expected to miss one-to-two weeks after straining his right groin in Monday’s win over the Jazz. And the shorthanded Knicks will be without Amar’e Stoudemire again tonight in Washington as he mourns the death of his brother in a car accident early Monday morning.
“I’m humbled by all of the thoughts and prayers I have received. Thank you for all of the support,” Stoudemire said. “I’m going to take a few days to be with my family and grieve the loss of my big brother, Hazell Stoudemire. Although it is not clear to me now, I hope to make some good come from our tragedy.’’
Stoudemire’s status remains up in the air for Friday’s game against the Lakers and Saturday’s game in Minnesota — his agent, Happy Walters, said more would be known in “a couple of days” — but the Knicks know they will be without Anthony for the rest of the week and perhaps next week.
With point guard Baron Davis (back, elbow) and forward Josh Harrellson (wrist) already on the shelf, Jared Jeffries got his first start of the season at power forward Monday, and Anthony’s injury likely thrusts Billy Walker into the lineup at small forward and Steve Novak and Jerome Jordan into the rotation.
“One-to-two weeks, I guess — we’ll see,” coach Mike D’Antoni said of Anthony’s absence. “With the attitude and effort playing as well as we did [Monday], we’ll come up with some wins.
“You’re definitely not happy that he’s out, or Amar’e. But we just have to understand our limitation and play even harder. If we do that, there are other areas of the game we can pick up and try to get a win.’’
Anthony, who appeared to hurt himself pump-faking before an alley-oop midway through the first quarter of Monday’s Jeremy Lin-sparked victory, was not available to the media after the game or at yesterday’s practice. But D’Antoni offered a timeline that could have Anthony missing anywhere from four or five games (if he returns in a week) to as many as 10 should he not return until after the Feb. 24-27 All-Star break.
The Knicks start their Anthony-less spell tonight in Washington, having to rely largely on the boost of energy Lin has given them the past two games at point guard.
“We’re going to have to create our own energy, and with Amar’e and Melo out we’re going to have to play together and we’re going to have rough stretches,” Lin said. “But we’re going to have to play gutsy and ugly at times to get the win.
“You can’t replace [Anthony]. We’re going to have to have people step up, and it’s going to have to be everyone. It’s not going to be one person scoring 20 points. It’s going to be two points here and two points there. Everyone’s going to have to do a little bit extra. Obviously we don’t have that same star power right now.’’
Walker has started two of the three games Anthony has missed this season, and scored 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting in 30 minutes Monday. D’Antoni said Iman Shumpert also will see time at small forward. Novak will see minutes as a stretch four.