4:03 pm: Brunson appears to have avoided a major injury, as he has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 ankle sprain, as first reported by Ian Begley of SNY.tv (via Twitter) and confirmed by several other outlets (all Twitter links here).
While Brunson will be out Friday against Miami, he will be evaluated on a daily basis moving forward, which suggests he probably won’t miss an extended period of time.
8:50 am: Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson sustained a right ankle injury late in the fourth quarter of a lopsided home loss to Orlando on Wednesday and was seen wearing a walking boot on his right foot and using crutches as he exited Madison Square Garden, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Post.
Brunson didn’t speak to reporters after the loss and head coach Mike Brown didn’t have an update on the star guard’s status, so it’s not yet clear whether the injury will force him to miss time.
Since arriving in New York in 2022, Brunson has been quite durable, appearing in at least 65 regular season games in each of his three seasons with the Knicks. However, as Bondy points out, the 29-year-old missed roughly a month near the end of the 2024/25 season after badly spraining the same ankle.
Bondy also notes that the situation in which Brunson injured his ankle on Wednesday opens up Brown to some criticism. After former Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau made a habit of leaving his starters in games that seemed out of reach, Brown told reporters during training camp that he wouldn’t be afraid to “throw the towel in early” in those scenarios in order to keep his best players as fresh and healthy as possible.
The Knicks were trailing by 16 points when Brunson suffered the injury with 1:54 left to play.