Jalen Brunson tested his bruised calf but apparently didn’t feel comfortable enough to play and missed his second straight game Monday.
“Pain tolerance,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He just goes through his routine to work out to get ready to play. You know, I trust him. When he’s ready to go he’ll let us know.”
It’s at least positive news that the injury to Brunson, which was sustained in last week’s loss to the Mavericks, is now just about pain tolerance, rather than fear of re-injury.
The Knicks, who are now 1-1 without Brunson after Monday’s 98-94 loss to the Magic, next face the Rockets on Wednesday at the Garden.
Houston (19-20) is playing better since the summer acquisition of Fred VanVleet but is also just 4-14 on the road.
“It’s day-to-day,” Thibodeau said of Brunson’s injury. “It’s a little better today. When he’s ready, he’s ready. We’ve got more than enough to win.”
The Knicks’ offense looked especially stagnant without Brunson in the fourth quarter Monday.
“Obviously we were missing JB. He’s a big piece for us,” Julius Randle said. “It’s tough. But we had enough to win that game.”
![The Knicks' offense was stagnant in the fourth quarter as it operated without Jalen Brunson for the second consecutive game.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/brunson-main-2-cw-1.jpg?w=1024)
Randle rolled his ankle in the first quarter and struggled Monday with just 15 points on 5-for-18 shooting.
Randle immediately hobbled and grimaced after the ankle turn, but remained in the game and claimed afterwards it wasn’t an issue.
“No, I’m fine,” he said.
It should be noted that Randle, who wasn’t wearing any wrap on his ankle in the locker room, doesn’t discuss injuries and claimed his ankle wasn’t an issue last season before it required arthroscopic surgery.
The Magic was also missing a top player, Franz Wagner, who sat his sixth straight with an ankle injury.
Wagner dropped 32 points in the Magic’s only previous game against the Knicks this season, a nine-point Orlando victory in late December.
With Wagner out on MLK Day, Paolo Banchero, the reigning Rookie of the Year, probably had his best MSG game of a very young career with 20 points and six rebounds.
It was also while often going head-to-head with Knicks defensive stopper OG Anunoby.
“That’s probably who I’m going to face for the majority of my career,” Banchero said. “So, just getting reps against those guys is good and figuring out ways to leverage their aggressiveness in my favor is something I’m trying to learn to do. Just always looking forward to accepting those challenges.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]