Injury Updates: Stoudemire and Shump Shump

The bad news: ESPN is reporting that Amar'e Stoudemire, nursing a sprained ankle suffered in the Knicks' loss to the Lakers, did not participate in this morning's shoot-around and is a game-time decision for tonight's tilt with the Toronto Raptors. However, Coach Mike D'Antoni admitted that Stoudemire is "more on the doubtful side." As such, Knicks Bricks is officially listing him as doubtfulish. If Stoudemire is forced to miss his second straight game with the ankle injury, Jorts will likely take his place in the starting lineup.

The good news: Rookie Guard and Third-Person-Self-Referencer Iman "Shump Shump" Shumpert appears to be progressing well from the sprained MCL he suffered in the first game of the season, reportedly looking spry and dunking during the shoot-around. The original prognosis was that Shump Shump would be out 2-4 weeks, but it looks like he might come back on the early side of that range. This is a relief as the injury looked like it could be a season-ender on first glance. Shumpert's return won't put an end to the Knicks' offensive distribution woes, but he should provide depth, explosiveness and solid perimeter defense to a roster that has been slammed with injuries in the first 4 games of the season.

The neutral news: Jared Jeffries.....eh, who cares.

Stoudemire Sprains Ankle

Newsday is reporting that Amar'e Stoudemire sprained his ankle in last night's loss to the Lakers. It is unclear how much, if any, time he'll miss.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the Knicks on offense. Frankly, Amar'e has looked lost on offense this year, too often settling for a jumper that is not falling like it normally does (unless he's behind the arc -- 3 for 3!). New York was only a .500 team following the Anthony trade last year and at times it appeared that Anthony and Stoudemire were redundant players who didn't know how to compliment each other's skills. With the addition of Tyson Chandler clogging up the lane, the problem seems to be exaggerated for Stoudemire this year who has shot a combined 9 for 31 (29%) from the field in the Knicks' two losses.

I'm not saying that the Knicks will be better on offense without Amar'e, but it will be interesting to see if this opens up space for Anthony to operate and for Chandler to start diving to the basket for some easy lobs (although a competent point guard would probably help more than having Stoudemire out). Either way, this is more bad news for a Knicks team that has looked totally out of sorts the last two nights.