Tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET the New York Knicks (9-21) will welcome Carmelo Anthony back to the starting lineup after missing the past three games, all losses, with a sprained ankle. Unfortunately for him he returns against one of the league's top teams, the San Antonio Spurs (25-7). Live stream the game here; Knicks fans can listen to the game on 98.7 ESPN New York, while Spurs fans can tune in to the radio broadcast on 1200 WOAI.
On Monday Anthony described the ankle by saying it was "getting there, feeling a lot better each day." He added, "Each day is just trying to do a little bit more. Still some swelling in there, still some tenderness, but eventually I'll have to play with a little bit of tenderness and a little bit of pain here and there."
That time has obviously come, as he will try to help the Knicks right this season that has gone from slow start to debacle. With the slow start becoming a bad season, Anthony is hoping the Knicks can solve their problems quickly as rumors of his impending departure surface.
"This is not how we envisioned it coming into this season, but it is what it is at this point," Anthony said. "We can't be crying about it. We gotta find a solution to it." That solution could be improving defensively, if center Tyson Chandler is to be believed.
"We've got to get back to fundamentals in a lot of things," Chandler said. "Defensively, we're not as fundamentally sound as we'd like to be. It's the same thing with offense."
Although Anthony is back in the mix, the Knicks won't have Raymond Felton, Pablo Prigioni or Metta World Peace for tonight's game, hurting their depth.
While the Knicks spin their wheels figuring out injury replacements and defense, the Spurs are just trying to avoid letdown games in a soft part of their schedule. "Now we have to take advantage, no letdown, and make sure we keep improving on the stuff we need to improve like on defense," said point guard Tony Parker.
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