Knicks' starters may play heavy minutes, but they've stayed healthy

It’s been a tough season to be an NBA star.

LaMelo Ball. Ja Morant. Zion Williamson. Paul George. Joel Embiid. Paolo Banchero. Kevin Durant. Khris Middleton. Scottie Barnes. Here we are less than two months into the season, and some of the biggest names in the game have missed significant time because of injuries.

The Knicks’ starters managed to be conspicuously absent from the injury report heading into Thursday night’s 125-101 win over Charlotte. The question is just how long that luck will last.

The Knicks got a scare in the third quarter as Jalen Brunson, their team captain and the engine of their team, collided with Nick Richards underneath the basket and fell to the court.

Brunson stayed in the game temporarily but left for the locker room with 2:39 left in the third quarter. He returned midway through the fourth quarter with a wrap around his torso. Though the team said Brunson was available to play, the Knicks were up by more than 20 when he returned, so he did not get off the bench.

“He could have gone back in,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.

After the game, Brunson declined to get into the specifics of the injury. “I feel amazing. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow,” he said multiple times when asked about it.

Though you never know with the Knicks, Brunson’s injury does not seem that serious. It is kind of weird that Thibodeau’s Knicks, of all teams, have pretty much avoided the injury bug even though the coach hates the concept of load management and has long had the reputation, perhaps somewhat unfairly, of running his players into the ground.

Through 22 games, four of the Knicks’ starters have played in every game and the fifth, Karl-Anthony Towns, has played in all but one, missing a game against the Nets with a bruised knee.

This durability is somewhat counterintuitive given how heavily Thibodeau likes to use his starters. Three of them — Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and OG Anunoby — were ranked in the top 13 in the league in minutes per game played entering Thursday night. No one had played more minutes than Bridges, who was averaging 37.9 per game before playing 46:30 against the Hornets.

Hart said before the game that the whole notion that Thibodeau utilizes his starters for too many minutes is out of date.

“We play hard on game day and most of the time the next day, if we aren’t fully off, there’s not much physical going on,” Hart said. “It’s more mental. He does a good job of making sure we’re not overworked. The reputation he has is kind of old. That’s just people on the outside saying that where all they see is the starters’ playing minutes. If you only do physical stuff on game days, that’s not a bad thing.”

Still, the reputation of Thibodeau as a hard-driving coach endures. Last season, when the Knicks had to play through major injuries to a number of key players, Thibodeau’s starters-play-huge-minutes style often was fingered as the culprit.

Thibodeau said before Thursday’s contest that injuries are just a part of the game and that the key for the Knicks is learning how to deal with them.

“There’s nothing you can do, really, to prevent the injuries. They’re going to happen,” he said. “That’s why you have depth on your team, so when someone gets injured, you go to the next person, and that’s why your practices are important, your preparation is important.’’

Thibodeau noted that his team has had a number of reserves — Precious Achiuwa, Cameron Payne and Deuce McBride — miss games because of injury and that the team has used their absences as a chance to grow.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to lose guys off the bench for a few games than starters, as the Hornets can tell you. At no point this season have they had all five of their projected starters on the floor. The team that took the court Thursday night was missing a number of its top eight players, most notably Ball, who was averaging 31.1 points in 18 games when he got injured.

Of course, it’s still early. It’s doubtful that the Knicks will get through the season without losing a key player for some period of time. Hart, however, doesn’t think the amount of minutes he and the rest of the starters play will have anything to do with it.

Said Hart: “The reputation Thibs has is kind of old. People just like to complain. They have to complain about something.”

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.