Jalen Brunson officially has been listed as questionable by the Knicks for a second straight game due to his left knee contusion, but he appears to be trending toward a return after sitting out Tuesday’s loss to the Hawks.
Brunson, who was injured in the opening minute of Sunday’s game in Cleveland, participated in “most of practice” Thursday at the team’s facility in Tarrytown, according to coach Tom Thibodeau.
He added, “We’ll see where he is [Friday],” when asked if the All-Star point guard would be able to play in a key playoff-positioning matchup against the Magic at the Garden.
“He looked regular, looked good,” teammate Josh Hart said of Brunson. “Practice is a lot of starting and stopping, so it’s kind of hard to judge sometimes, but [he] looked good, looked confident and not like he was limping or dragging his leg or nervous to make movements. So that’s obviously a positive.
“With him, hopefully [Friday] he’ll wake up ready for shootaround — [with] not much soreness — and hopefully be ready to go.”
Brunson, who entered Thursday tied for seventh in the NBA in scoring at 27.2 points per game, also missed one game last week due to cervical spasms in his neck.
Miles McBride has played nearly 94 of 96 total minutes in Brunson’s absence over the past two games.
Julius Randle (shoulder), OG Anunoby (elbow) and Mitchell Robinson (ankle) remain out.