{"id":131718,"date":"2025-03-30T19:04:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T23:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=131718"},"modified":"2025-03-30T19:19:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T23:19:03","slug":"knicks-jalen-brunson-injury-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/30\/knicks-jalen-brunson-injury-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Star Inching Closer to Return from Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jalen Brunson<\/span><\/a>‘s ankle injury has kept him out of the\u00a0<\/span>New York Knicks<\/span><\/a>‘ last 12 contests, and you can’t count their matchup with the Portland Trailblazers on Sunday afternoon also. Thankfully for New York, they haven’t tumbled so significantly in Brunson’s absence that it’s knocked them down the ladder of the Eastern Conference. Instead,\u00a0<\/span>the Knicks have stayed afloat<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and maintained their third-place seed. The\u00a0<\/span>Indiana Pacers are right behind them in the fourth seed<\/span><\/a> but haven’t managed to catch or surpass the Knicks. All of that is good news, but the better news for the Knicks is the latest injury update regarding Brunson and his ankle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Knicks Star Inching Closer to Return from Injury<\/h2>\n

New York Knicks Receive Positive Jalen Brunson Update Regarding Ankle Injury; Star Set to Resume Basketball Activities<\/h3>\n

According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps<\/span><\/a>, Brunson’s right ankle, which he sprained a few weeks ago, has improved. Bontemps reports that Brunson is hopeful about returning before the playoffs begin. To go alongside Bontemps’s reporting,\u00a0<\/span>The Athletic<\/span><\/a><\/em>‘s Fred Katz reported<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that Brunson has been shown the green light to resume basketball activities. There is no definitive date for Brunson’s full return to an NBA court. However, the progress coming out of New York is positive and promising.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brunson has played 61 games this season and was on track for his second All-NBA selection. It’s unlikely he will meet the 65-game minimum mark to be eligible for any league awards this year. Of course, if he is ready to return to play in the last four games of the season, that could change things. Brunson averaged 26.3 points on 38.4% from three and 49.0% from the field before he went down. If his eligibility for this season’s All-NBA teams is nullified, there should be no doubt he won’t be in the running again in the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

A Healthy Brunson is New York’s Only Shot In the Postseason<\/h3>\n

Despite the Knicks hanging on while Brunson has been sidelined and going 6-4 in their last 10 games, the playoffs are another animal entirely. For many within the NBA media and fanbase, the Boston Celtics or Cleveland Cavaliers hold the most votes to come out of the East. The expectations for the Knicks are much lower, if any, expectations at all. Still, they posed a greater threat so long as they are healthy. Brunson must be healthy. So must\u00a0<\/span>Josh Hart<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Karl-Anthony Towns<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>OG Anunoby<\/span><\/a>\u2014all key and crucial pieces on the Knicks roster. Brunson, however, is their most important player. As long as he’s healthy, the Knicks are competitive no matter who they face in round one or beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jalen Brunson‘s ankle injury has kept him out of the\u00a0New York Knicks‘ last 12 contests, and you can’t count their matchup with the Portland Trailblazers on Sunday afternoon also. Thankfully for New York, they haven’t tumbled so significantly in Brunson’s absence that it’s knocked them down the ladder of the Eastern Conference. Instead,\u00a0the Knicks have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":131722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12,3],"tags":[1417,1004,213,1082],"class_list":["post-131718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-og-anunoby"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131718"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131731,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131718\/revisions\/131731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}