In the Knicks third game of the season, Frank Ntilikina seemed to have gotten the faith of first-year coach Tom Thibodeau, scoring 12 points off the bench and hitting all four of his three-point attempts while plying his usual trade of versatile defender in a one-sided win over Milwaukee.
But early in the next game he felt something wrong in his right knee and while he was able to play through it, when he cooled down he realized he’d hurt himself again. It should be a familiar feeling for Ntilikina, who has been hounded by nagging injuries in his four seasons in New York, and this time it was a sprained MCL.