{"id":11498,"date":"2022-01-13T09:13:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T09:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/2022\/01\/13\/knicks-kemba-walker-may-not-play-back-to-backs-when-he-returns\/"},"modified":"2022-01-13T09:13:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T09:13:06","slug":"knicks-kemba-walker-may-not-play-back-to-backs-when-he-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/knicks-kemba-walker-may-not-play-back-to-backs-when-he-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks&#8217; Kemba Walker may not play back-to-backs when he returns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Kemba Walker still hasn\u2019t played in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Despite coach Tom Thibodeau talking for days about how close he is, Walker missed his seventh straight game Wednesday. Walker was shut down on New Year\u2019s Eve after a back-to-back set in Minnesota and Detroit.<\/p>\n<p>Thibodeau didn\u2019t rule out the possibility that even upon the Bronx native\u2019s return, he won\u2019t play back-to-backs again this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s close,\u2019\u2019 Thibodeau said before the Knicks rolled past the Mavericks 108-85. \u201cWe\u2019ll see where it is [Thursday]. He\u2019s not quite there. I think the soreness is pretty good. It\u2019s just ramping everything up again. He\u2019ll know. We\u2019ll see how it goes [Thursday] when we get him in and get some work in, see how it responds. It\u2019s really how it responds the next day after he loads it up.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Walker\u2019s return, ironically, might be for their next contest, Saturday in Atlanta, where his season hit its first speed bump.<\/p>\n<p>On that late November night, Walker elected to sit out the second leg of a back-to-back, and Thibodeau started Alec Burks at point guard.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><figcaption>Kemba Walker<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">NBAE via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It worked well in an easy Knicks win. Speculation is Thibodeau was unhappy Walker didn\u2019t play, knowing Derrick Rose was also missing, that it moved the coach to make his big starting-lineup change. Walker was then exiled for nine straight games.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>In desperation because of COVID-19 infections and the loss of Rose to ankle surgery, Walker was relaunched in Boston. But after six games of heavy minutes \u2014 and electric play \u2014 he was shelved due to soreness.<\/p>\n<p>Now the new strategy might be one the Celtics used last season: no back-to-back sets.<\/p>\n<p>Thibodeau said he\u2019s heard no concrete orders from the medical staff, but the writing is on the wall after the Minnesota-Detroit back-to-back fiasco in which Walker logged 52 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever he can handle when he comes back,\u2019\u2019 Thibodeau said. \u201cThat\u2019s your first order of business, you always see what they recommend and you\u2019re going to follow their guidelines. We wanted to make sure it completely calmed down and load him up again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think they\u2019ll approach it the same way. They\u2019ll talk to him and see where he is. If he can go, he\u2019ll go. If he can\u2019t go, if it\u2019s smarter to give him that game off, give him that game off. Right now we\u2019ve got guys back so we\u2019ve got good depth.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>After the Knicks\u2019 starting unit had its best\u00a0game of the season Wednesday, it\u2019s fair to speculate if Thibodeau would ease Walker back off the bench and keep Alec Burks as starting point guard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n<p>Julius Randle, who had 17 points and 12 rebounds, wanted nothing to do with talking about the fans turning on him, but he was effusive about the recent standout play of center Mitchell Robinson, who is turning into a lethal force on the offensive glass and as a rim protector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[He\u2019s] more confident,\u2019\u2019 Randle said before Robinson had 19 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks against the Mavericks. \u201cGetting in better shape. Obviously being out for such a long time it takes a while. And just being aggressive. As he\u2019s getting in better shape he\u2019s able to make reads out on the court he\u2019s able to think the game better.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n<p>Nerlens Noel made his return from COVID-19 after needing several days of conditioning. The former Maverick played in just his 18th game this season, logging 21 minutes and registering four points, six rebounds and two blocks.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kemba Walker still hasn\u2019t played in 2022. Despite coach Tom Thibodeau talking for days about how close he is, Walker missed his seventh straight game Wednesday. Walker was shut down on New Year\u2019s Eve after a back-to-back set in Minnesota and Detroit. Thibodeau didn\u2019t rule out the possibility that even upon the Bronx native\u2019s return,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[879,920,215,801,921],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11500,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11498\/revisions\/11500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}