Stephen A. Smith drops painful reaction to Jalen Brunson’s Game 7 injury in Knicks’ loss

The New York Knicks were eliminated in the second round of the NBA Playoffs with a 130-109 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 on Sunday, and Stephen A. Smith took to X to react to the game and his team being eliminated.

“After all these damn injuries already suffered, now I just heard Brunson fractured his thumb. Damn! Thanks for the season @nyknicks. There’s only but so much we can overcome,” Stephen A. Smith said on X.

The Knicks suffered several injuries throughout the season and especially in these playoffs. Some of the injuries took players out for the playoffs, while others tried to gut through it during Game 7 on Sunday against the Pacers. The injury to Jalen Brunson seemed to be the nail in the coffin, as the Knicks were down a considerable amount and needed offensive firepower to make a comeback attempt.

Smith’s reaction to the Knicks being eliminated was one that is a common thread among fans. Many of them find it hard to be too upset about it given the injuries that the team dealt with. Still, there is a part of it that is disappointing to lose after going up 2-0 in the series and going up 3-2 as well.

Knicks’ injuries were too much to deal with in the end

The Knicks had a laundry list of injuries by the end of the season. The first really significant one was Julius Randle’s shoulder injury, which kept him out since late-January. Even in the first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers, you could see the Knicks were missing Julius Randle’s scoring ability. The Knicks were able to grind out a series win, but they ran out of juice in the second round.

The other significant injuries happened in the playoffs. Bojan Bodganovic went down against the 76ers, and missed the remainder of the playoffs. His injury shortened the rotation, putting a larger load on other players to play pretty much all 48 minutes in each game.

Mitchell Robinson injured his foot in the Pacers series, and he had just returned ahead of the playoffs from a foot injury he suffered early in the season as well. In Game 2 of the series, OG Anunoby suffered a hamstring injury. He tried to play through it in Game 7, but could not make it more than five minutes.

Josh Hart played through an abdominal strain, and while he played the majority of Game 7, he was not as effective as he was prior to the injury. Brunson went out in the second half and it seemed it was all settled.

The Knicks will move on and look to get healthy while bolstering their roster this offseason to try to contend in 2024-2025. Some key questions need to be answered with Tom Thibodeau, OG Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein.