Everything seemed to be going right for the New York Knicks as they entered the challenging Oklahoma City Thunder matchup on Sunday, March 29.
The young veteran Miles McBride was officially cleared for action. McBride has been recovering from sports hernia surgery, which initially placed his regular-season status in doubt.
Prior to Sunday’s action, McBride hadn’t suited up since January 27.
The veteran guard returned with a role coming off the bench. He had 11 minutes of action before he checked out with a suspected injury again.
McBride missed the rest of the 111-100 loss against the Thunder.
NBA Fans React to Knicks’ Miles McBride Concern
Here’s a look at some reactions from Knicks fans on Reddit:
“He was playing a lot for 1st game back,” said TeamPizza21.
“This fkn sucks – f*** the thunder (the refs) and Lu dort,” john0_0 wrote.
“Did he come back early? Thought they were saying he’d be out until playoffs when it first happened,” widedog4lyfe said.
“Im depressed about this. Shamet gotta come back 100%,” added jdavisjdkvjdhs23.
“I blame whoever let him play that long. Was clearly not ready, “Chewielee13088 stated.
The Knicks’ Early Reaction
With McBride leaving his first game back early, New York’s head coach, Mike Brown, was faced with questions regarding the situation during his postgame presser.
The initial messaging suggested there was no update on McBride as of Sunday night.
“I haven’t talked to medical yet, so I don’t know how it is, but it’s tough,” Brown said, via Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “He’s worked his tail off to be back… you felt his presence and he made us deeper.”
Considering the circumstances, the Knicks are going to have to move forward with plenty of caution. It’s not typical for a player to return from having such a long stretch of games off to immediately experience another setback.
Before going down with his injury, McBride appeared in 35 games for the Knicks this year. The standout guard was shooting 43.4% from the field and knocking down 42.0% of his threes to average 12.9 points per game.
Along with his scoring, McBride averages 2.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and nearly 1.0 steals per game.
Ideally, the Knicks would get McBride back and healthy before their playoff run. The setback suffered on Sunday could be a major factor for New York either way.