The New York Knicks shouldn't have deviated from the plan.
Back on Dec. 18, the team opted to play Amar'e Stoudemire despite it being a planned recovery day, as the team would have had just nine healthy bodies without him. He played 31 effective minutes in a narrow loss, and all seemed more or less fine.
Stoudemire sat out the team's next two games for rest to make up for it, then played 22 minutes on Christmas Day. Again, all seemed fine. But Stoudemire was ruled out for Saturday's game with right knee soreness, and the team has already called him a scratch for Sunday, too.
Any knee soreness for Stoudemire is alarming, as both of his knees have been surgically repaired. He's been relatively healthy between last season and this season, playing in 93 of a possible 115 games after this weekend and averaging 23.7 minutes. His re-emergence as an effective offensive power forward has been one of the lone bright spots for the Knicks this season, with Stoudemire shooting 55.8 percent and averaging 13.1 points and 7.4 rebounds.
Quincy Acy would have stood to start Saturday were he not suspended, and he may replace Jason Smith with that unit on Sunday.
