GREENBURGH, N.Y. _ After a disappointing trade deadline, Knicks fans got a little reprieve Friday afternoon when Kristaps Porzingis said doctors detected no structural damage to his sprained right ankle and that it's possible he could play as soon as Monday.
"Feeling better," he said. "There's a lot of swelling, but I can walk around no problem and the swelling is going down, too."
Asked about playing Monday, when the Knicks face the Raptors, he said he thought it was "a possibility."
"Right now again I don't want to say anything that's gonna get me in trouble," Porzingis said. "I don't want to say that I'll play. But it all depends on them. If they see that I'm ready and I can go, then I'll play, sure."
Porzingis left Thursday's loss to the Cavaliers right before halftime and did not return. He appeared with a walking boot after, making a difficult day worse. The Knicks stayed silent during the deadline, a move that surprised even Porzingis, he said Friday.
On Thursday, it appeared the 7-3 forward feared the injury might be serious, saying then that he didn't know when he'd be back.
By Friday, though, he had already shed the boot for a pair of flip flops. During the portion of practice open to the media, he shot free throws with Courtney Lee and walked without impediment.
"I felt it right away," Porzingis said of the injury. "Obviously and I still ran to attack the next possession, but I was limping and I knew it was a sprain. Right after that play, I couldn't go no more."
Now that he has confirmation that the injury isn't structural, he plans to get rid of the walking boot for good _ if the doctors let him, that is.
"Maybe they want me to (wear it) just because of the pressure, and it's better for walking. But it kind of looks too dramatic, so I don't really like it," he said.
It's almost definite he'll miss Saturday's game against the Sixers, Jeff Hornacek said.
Porzingis has played 50 of the Knicks' 58 games, averaging 18.1 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks. But though he's often been a source of optimism in his two years with the Knicks, it briefly looked like he might be getting down, too. After injuring himself, he tweeted a meme indicating that things haven't exactly gone as planned in his path to success. It was deleted shortly after.
"With every game, it's looking tougher and tougher obviously, as we keep losing," Porzingis said about the Knicks' prospects. "But I feel like (if), mathematically we have chances to make it, we still have to keep believing and hoping that we can make the playoffs. It's just getting tougher now. But we cannot be like thinking 'playoff, playoff, playoff.' We need to focus game by game, just go day by day, and try to get better as a team. And once we really focus on every moment than we're going to make steps towards the playoffs."
