Mike Woodson said before Tuesday night's game that he'd try to play Ronnie Brewer fewer minutes to avoid upsetting his recovering left knee. As it turned out, Woodson didn't really have a choice because Ronnie's knee began to swell up early in the third quarter and he had to sit the rest of the night.

Today, Brewer is skipping practice in San Antonio, instead spending the afternoon with his knee engulfed in some giant, heaving compression contraption to reduce the swelling. The graininess of that photo only makes the scene more terrifying.

Anyway, swelling in a knee with a repaired meniscus certainly isn't a good sign, but it's being treated as not a big deal so far. The Knicks say Ronnie's "probable" for Thursday's game against the Spurs. Granted, if you run that prognosis through the Knicks Injury Report Translator (KIRT), you get a readout of [beep boop beep]: "DOUBLE-KNOTTED LATERAL MENISCUS. OUT SIX TO EIGHT THOUSAND WEEKS", but let's hope we're not being deceived this time around. We should see reduced minutes for Brewer-- which was the plan anyway-- but nothing more dramatic than that. Should.

Update: Good question asked by @Homerj234: Will the combination of Brewer not being totally healthy and two big frontcourts (Splitter/Duncan*, Randolph/Gasol) coming up on the schedule lead to a new starting lineup with Carmelo Anthony moving down to the three? Seems possible.

*Might actually be Duncan/Diaw, but still...

Update: Nope, nevermind. Same starters tomorrow.