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Not especially surprising news here. After Mike Woodson abruptly decided to shelve Jason Kidd five minutes into the Knicks' win over Atlanta, he's giving Kidd a full game off tonight against the Magic. Kidd missed practice yesterday and shootaround this morning, and will sit this one out to rest his sore back. And "rest" continues to be Woodson's explanation for his handling of the situation: Kidd is totally healthy enough to play, but has been overworked recently and needs a break. The team is not treating Kidd's back issue like an injury-- no tests are being done, which is always slightly frightening coming from the Knicks-- and they expect him to be ready come Friday. Oddly, though I'm inclined to be leery of New York's medical appraisals, this all makes sense. Woodson's decision to pull Kidd five minutes into a game he started was weird, but sitting him in a home game against a badly slumping Orlando team makes sense.
James White will start in Kidd's stead, shifting Iman Shumpert down to the vacant two spot after Shump started at small forward the last couple games. We'll see how that goes with all the Nelsons and Redicks to chase around the floor.
Tyson Chandler, by the way, will play tonight. I was just typing a sentence about him being "probable" with that sore neck, but Begley stopped me halfway. Cool. I hope Tyson's his neck is feeling better, and I hope Kidd's time off does good things for his back. I hope you're all taking good care of your spines. Stop slouching.