Knicks’ Anthony out with sprained ankle against Cavaliers

It was frustrating to see Arron Afflalo and company freeze out an occasionally-open Kristaps Porzingis down the stretch, and all the defensive switching and shoddy rebounding before that sucked as well, but… oh well. “NY is one of those teams that should always be playing on Christmas”.

While the team still has a solid cast of supporting characters, led by rookie star Kristaps Porzingis, guards Arron Afflalo and Jose Calderon and center Robin Lopez, the Knicks aren’t a team capable of competing for a postseason berth without Anthony.

Thompson had 10 points and 14 rebounds for the Cavaliers.

Kevin Love added 23 points with 13 rebounds for Cleveland. But James hasn’t created any new holiday traditions as a result.

Anthony participated fully in shootaround Wednesday morning and hasn’t experienced any swelling in the ankle, but was still having trouble moving laterally and “pushing off” on his right foot. He scored 23 points but took only two shots in the fourth quarter.

Anthony understands the importance of basketball being played on Christmas and has some beef for why the Knicks will have to instead play on the next day when they take on the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena on the 26th.

Anthony injured the ankle in a loss to the Magic on Monday night.

“I ain”™t watching nothing,” Anthony joked Wednesday before turning serious. “I think he’s going to be a very good player”.

Cleveland built an 11-point lead in the second quarter, but Porzingis’ 3-pointer at the buzzer cut it to 55-50. With Kyrie Irving back in the mix, Williams will move into a permanent bench role, and he’s unlikely to come close to seeing the 30.8 minutes per game he averaged during the month of November, particularly given how well Matthew Dellavedova has played of late.

“Usually I would try to play through these nick-knack injuries”. Earlier in the period, a Lou Amundson putback had given the Knicks their first lead of the game.

“I don’t know what they were looking at”.