March 30th 2025 at 1:50pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum
The shorthanded Knicks will be without all three of their top point guards ahead of a Sunday meeting with the Trail Blazers.
Stefan Bondy of The New York Post tweets that All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson and his backups Miles McBride and Cameron Payne will all sit out. Rookie center Ariel Hukporti is also sidelined.
Brunson has been on the shelf for New York’s last 11 contests due to a right ankle sprain. The Knicks have gone just 6-5 in that span, and have tenuous control of the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed as of this writing.
Veteran Delon Wright started at the point during the Knicks’ most recent game, a win over the Bucks on Friday. Wright scored 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field in 30 minutes.
There’s more out of New York:
Knicks swingman OG Anunoby has stepped into the scoring and leadership void left by Brunson will he sits, per Steve Popper of Newsday (subscriber link). “I always try to be aggressive,” Anunoby said. “Just depending on situations, sometimes it comes or something doesn’t. Just today I was really aggressive. I try to play the right way and read the game, and also just trying to get fouled, get teams in the bonus, create fouls, being aggressive at all times.” Across the 11 bouts Brunson has missed, Anunoby has been averaging 22.4 PPG.
Knicks reserve center Mitchell Robinson is rediscovering his rebounding acumen as he settles into life with the 2024/25 iteration of the club following a lengthy injury layoff, writes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. In the first half of New York’s 116-107 road victory against Milwaukee on Friday, Robinson pulled down 10 boards. “Yeah, I feel like [I’m getting my rhythm back],” Robinson said. “I definitely think that is true on my end. Once you get going and you get the first one, you see how shots are going, long, short, whatever, once you kind of get a pattern of it there you go.”
Veteran forward P.J. Tucker saw his 10-day deal with the Knicks expire recently. Per Bondy (Twitter link), Tucker could rejoin the club at some point this season — but he is not on the team’s roster for Sunday’s clash with Portland. The 39-year-old veteran appeared for just two minutes in one game for New York during his deal.