HOUSTON _ Enes Kanter hobbled through the visitors locker room. A few feet away Kristaps Porzingis was on the floor, going through a stretching routine with a Knicks strength coach. But neither was in uniform or getting ready for the game.
For the Knicks, the two were exercising discretion as the better part of valor, Kanter sitting out for the second straight night with back spasms and Porzingis now joining him in the locker room with low back tightness.
Life on the road is already tough, but facing life without their starting center and power forward _ particularly against the Rockets, who have the best record in the Western Conference, is something else.
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek gave it the bold attempt, noting, "Well, just go out there and play hard. That's what we want to do every game no matter who plays. Just play hard, play together. We're going to have to help each other out. Guys that step in there to play, it's not like we need them to, hey, let's fill KP's 30 points or Enes's 20 rebounds. Just play your game and try to play together as a team, help each other out. Everybody's got to step it up a little bit in cases like that."
But the reality is that the Knicks showed in the loss to the lowly Atlanta Hawks Saturday that they aren't able to survive without a full roster. Kanter was hard enough to overcome, but Porzingis is the irreplaceable piece for the Knicks. He missed one game earlier this season in Orlando and the Knicks dropped that game.
Porzingis said that he didn't hurt himself in Friday's loss, instead, like Kanter, waking up with the problem.
"It wasn't one specific play," Porzingis said. "I didn't really feel it that much during the game. After the game once I cooled down that's when I really started feeling the tightness in my back. That's when I knew it was going to not get better. It's going to get a little worse.
"I started feeling it last night after the game when I cooled down. The flight and everything, woke up this morning, sleeping in a different bed didn't help. It just got tighter. It got a little better warming up. It's just not feeling good enough."
Porzingis is leading the Knicks and entered the night fourth in the NBA with 27.3 points per game. But even when he doesn't score, like Carmelo Anthony last season, he draws attention that opens things up for the other players.
"I know guys are going to go out and play their hearts out," Porzingis said before the game. "I have no doubt about that. Me and Enes we can help the team a lot. But other guys are going to have more minutes and have the opportunity. I know some guys are going to step up tonight. Hopefully we can have a great game without Enes and myself."
Porzingis missed 10 games his rookie season and 16 last season. Both of the games he has missed this season have come on the back end of a back-to-back set. But he said he's not protecting himself.
"I want to play as many games as I can," he said. "But when there's something like this I feel like it's better for me to be healthy than push through this game. And maybe not have a great game, have a bad game maybe even, nobody's going to be appreciate that. I'd rather be healthy and play when I'm ready to play."
