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Metta World Peace got his knee drained, Raymond Felton has a pinched nerve in his hip

Oh, okay!

By Seth
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Okay, two bits of injury news heading into tonight's game against the Pistons in The Troit. The first is that Metta World Peace had fluid drained from his sore left knee:

Metta had meniscus surgery on that knee in April, so it makes sense that he'd need a little tune-up in there now and then. And hey, that does seem to allay any Twitter-generated concern that the knee soreness was a made-up thing, unless the Knicks are willing to to do invasive procedures just to hide the truth...!!! Nah, his knee is bugging him, and draining it should help. Remember that Metta will miss tonight's game not because of the knee (though he was listed as "doubtful"), but because of the death of his sister, may she rest in peace.

Begley dug to find out about Metta's knee drainage. Raymond Felton just came right out and said he's more hurt than the Knicks ever let on. From Scott Cacciola:

Felton, who is averaging 11.1 points a game and shooting 37.6 percent from the field, has also been dealing with what he described as a pinched nerve in his hip, which sends a "sharp pain" shooting down his legs, he said. He has taken medication in an attempt to ease some of the symptoms.

"Nobody’s known about that, because I don’t like making excuses," he said. "But hopefully, the treatment kicks in, and we’ll see how it goes."

This is Ray at his best and worst. His Black Knight-iest, anyway. I admire a guy willing to work through pain, but resting a strained hamstring and damaged hip nerve would not be "making excuses", it would be sensible. As has previously been the case, Ray's been wearing a stoic face and refusing to make excuses while laying eggs all over the court. He's been really bad, not just in the usual pick-and-roll coverage disasters, but on offense, too. Playing injured is hurting the Knicks *and* Ray's reputation, since we've all been sitting here grumbling about how terrible Ray has played without understanding the extent of his injury.

In a little rant about New York's opacity regarding medical issues, Frank Isola suggested Felton might sit tonight after skipping the last two practices, but I haven't seen that reported elsewhere. We'll see. I think he should. There's plenty of depth behind him! Pablo Prigioni's available to take on more minutes, Beno Udrih has way too much of a track record not to get another chance, and Toure' Murry awaits a real opportunity. The Knicks would be fine without Felton. Better, probably. And then he can return once he's healthy just like everyone else does! Sit, penguin!

In closing-- since this doesn't deserve its own post and I have nowhere else to put it-- the NBA actually studied Chris Smith's play to determine if the Knicks were acting shadily in signing him. They deemed him a "project", and not bad enough at basketball to warrant further attention, which...whatever. It's just funny that someone had to make that determination.

<3

Updates: Ray's a game-time decision:

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