Jalen Brunson. (John Minchillo, AP)
It’s a series that can turn on an ankle.
Jalen Brunson was added to the injury list with a “sore ankle,” joining the sprained-ankle duo of Julius Randle and Jimmy Butler as officially “questionable” for Tuesday’s Game 2.
Technically, “questionable” means 50-50. But teams often use the status as the cagey strategic option to throw off the opposition, even if they know more about whether the player will suit up.
Brunson’s injury was a new wrinkle and perhaps helps explain why he was so ineffective in Sunday’s Game 1 loss with five turnovers. Despite a request, the Knicks didn’t make Brunson available to the media Monday.
Randle, meanwhile, is undoubtedly ahead of Butler since his ankle turned nearly a week ago (April 26) and he was spotted warming up Sunday with intensity. The 28-year-old sat Game 1 and the Knicks felt his absence while getting hammered in the second half by the Heat in a 108-101 defeat.
The Knicks didn’t hold a regular practice Monday but Randle went through a workout, according to coach Tom Thibodeau.
“He’s gotta follow the protocol that’s set up by medical, and then there’s a bunch of steps that he has to go through,” Thibodeau said. “He’s doing that and responding well, overall.”
The Knicks are 3-3 this season without Randle and 5-5 without Brunson.
“If he’s on the court, he’s going to be Julius Randle. He’s an All-Star, so him being out there on the court definitely does something for us,” RJ Barrett said. “Whether he’s out there or not, we’ve got to try to figure it out. Because we’re in it. We’re here. But we’ve got to be prepared for everything.”
Butler sprained his ankle in the fourth quarter Sunday and limped through the final five minutes. The Knicks inexplicably never targeted Butler despite his obvious impairment, and they lost the game down the stretch as the offense went cold.
TREYS NOT FALLING (YET)
Among the reasons the Knicks lost Game 1, the easiest to feel good about for the rest of the series is this:
7-for-37.
That was New York’s 3-point shooting on Sunday, and it was as horrific as it sounds. Open treys were bricked. Three starters — Brunson, Barrett and Josh Hart — combined to shoot 1-for-16.
So there’s room for vast improvement. And as Immanuel Quickley said before Tuesday’s Game 2, the Knicks aren’t going to suddenly stop shooting from long distance.
“It’s going to go in eventually,” he said.
The Knicks’ offense was built around 3-pointers in the regular season, with the team ranking eighth in attempts despite finishing 23rd in possessions per game. But their efficiency has fallen off a cliff in the playoffs, representing the NBA’s worst in the postseason at just 26.8%.
The Knicks survived the misses against the Cavaliers because they created extra possessions with offensive rebounds. The Heat isn’t nearly as soft and seemed fine packing the paint Sunday while allowing the Knicks to miss open treys.
“We got a lot of good looks, wide open looks, too,” Quickley said. “We got the shots we wanted. We feel like there’s still some more shots that we feel we can get, keep attacking and they collapse a lot.”
Some of it was expected. Hart and Barrett, both soaking up major minutes on the perimeter, are historically poor 3-point shooters. But others — specifically Quickley, Brunson, Quentin Grimes and Randle — are misfiring uncharacteristically.
Only Obi Toppin is connecting at more than 35% in the playoffs.
“We took a lot of the right shots,” said Barrett, who was 1-for-5 from deep in Game 1. “Sometimes it happens. Sometimes they don’t fall. Sometimes you can’t miss.”
Quickley, a super sub in the regular season, is riding the struggle bus in the playoffs at just 28% shooting on his 25 treys.
“The ball just didn’t go in. I went through something like this in the regular season and everybody was questioning me,” Quickley said. “I don’t ever question myself.”
The laws of averages suggest the Knicks will eventually hit these shots. Or they’ll be in trouble like Game 1.
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Originally published at Tribune News Service