Free-falling Knicks say Carmelo scratched because of his knee
ORLANDO, Fla. — Carmelo Anthony was really benched.
With the Knicks’ playoff chances going from pipe dream to plainly preposterous, Anthony sat with a sore left knee in Monday’s 113-105 victory over the Magic, the second leg of a back-to-back.
According to Jeff Hornacek, Anthony “wrenched” his knee when running back for a block against the Warriors on Sunday.
Anthony was careful to say it wasn’t an injury. If the Knicks were a real factor in the playoff race, it’s doubtful Anthony would have sat.
“I feel good,’’ said Anthony, who sat back in the locker room during the game getting treatment. “I’ll be ready for Wednesday. It got worse throughout the course of the day. It was better for me to rest and get ready for Milwaukee. I didn’t injure it — just sore.’’
It was only the second game Anthony has missed this season, and the Knicks won their first game without him since April 13, 2015.
The Knicks were 0-10 last season without Anthony, who was benched for nearly 10 minutes of the first half Sunday while the second unit excelled. Anthony curiously told reporters they’d have to ask the coach why he sat for so long.
“If it was a game that decides the playoffs, I’m sure he’d try [to play],’’ Hornacek said before Monday’s victory. “It’s pretty sore. When you wrench it like that and it’s sore, you compound it by playing tonight and you’re probably out the next two games. It’s better to take this one off and get it healed. … Hopefully, he’ll be ready the next game.”
With 18 games left and the Knicks five games out of the eighth seed, Anthony’s shutdown on the second night of a back-to-back could start a trend for the veterans.
“It’s getting slimmer and slimmer,’’ Derrick Rose said of the team’s playoff hopes.
However, Rose, despite an eye scare Sunday, isn’t ready to join the rest movement after missing so many games throughout his career due to knee surgeries.
In fact, Rose fist-bumped a reporter who asked if it’s best to rest. He acknowledged the irony of the question. Chicago media always wanted him to play sooner rather than later during his rehabs.
“It’s dope that you asked that,’’ Rose said. “In Chicago, it’s different. It’s the first time I ever got asked that. It’s something I’ve never thought about. I wish I could play in all 82. The games I missed, I was really injured instead of being hurt. I remember Thibs [former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau] a long time ago used to tell me, ‘If you’re hurt, you can go out there and play, but if you’re injured you probably have to sit down.’”