Knicks guard Miles McBride in Game 1 against the Atlanta Hawks on April 18 at Madison Square Garden. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
The pain, no, it doesn’t go away.
On Wednesday, it will be a full month since Deuce McBride returned to the court after undergoing surgery to repair a damaged core muscle that sidelined him for most of February and March. Yet unlike previous injuries the Knicks guard has had over the course of his career, the pain from this one is something he has had to learn to live with. His body sends him constant reminders that it has endured a trauma.
“I’ve dealt with injuries before, but this one was different,” McBride said as his team prepared to host the Hawks Tuesday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series at the Garden. “Just it being your core, your groin, your hips. Everything you do in life is through your center of gravity.”
It has taken McBride a month or so, but he is now beginning to look like the player he was before herniating a core muscle in a game against the Kings on Jan. 17. McBride has been a big factor in the team tying up the series at 2-2, giving them a major infusion off the bench both offensively and defensively.
McBride kept the Knicks in it in Game 3 — which the Knicks lost on the final possession — by hitting three three-pointers and collecting a pair of steals in the final quarter. In Game 4 — one that McBride said the Knicks were "playing for our lives" to avoid a 3-1 series hole — he scored 11 points and shot 4-for-7, including 3-for-6 on three-pointers in 23 minutes of action.
Heading into Game 5, McBride’s plus-minus of plus-37 is second only to Karl Anthony Towns' plus-46. This combined with other factors has caused a groundswell for McBride to start over Mikal Bridges, whose rating through four games is a team-bottom minus-22.
For now, Knicks coach Mike Brown has stuck with starting Bridges, even though he has struggled throughout the playoffs. Yet there are signs that a change could be in the works.
Bridges was benched in favor of McBride for the second half of Game 3 as the Knicks tried to claw their way back from an 18-point first-half deficit. Bridges finished that game with zero points. In Game 4, Bridges played just 19 minutes and scored eight points.
While both Bridges and McBride have strengths as defenders, McBride has proved to be a much more effective two-way player and gives the Knicks' offense another dimension when he is on the floor with Jalen Brunson.
McBride, in his fifth season, is an elite point-of-attack defender, which has relieved Brunson of the pressure of taking on a lead guard. What’s more, McBride is both a confident spot-up shooter and the only player not named Brunson on the Knicks who can create for himself off the dribble.
“Yeah, he’s been playing great,” Brunson said after practice Monday when asked about playing alongside McBride. “To be able to use him in certain actions and play off-ball and obviously his shooting capability, the way he plays defense and everything, he does a lot for our team. So, I think regardless of who’s on the floor, he’s gonna do a lot of great things.”
McBride particularly seems to like the challenge of taking on the Hawks' CJ McCollum, the 34-year-old guard who has stunned most observers by averaging 24.5 points over the first four games. The Knicks managed to hold him to 17 points and 0-for-4 from beyond the arc in Game 4 by throwing different defenders, including McBride, at him.
“He’s crafty,” McBride said when asked about the challenges of guarding McCollum. “He has a high IQ of getting to his spots. He’s not obviously overly fast or overly athletic but he’s just playing with a pace that’s elite. He’s a talented, great player.
“He’s thinking the game at a different pace. He’s been in the league, he’s been in high-level games before. You just have to guard him as a team. It’s not one person’s job. It’s always a team. It’s a team sport, so we’re attacking him with five guys out there.”
In some ways, McBride’s strong postseason should not come as a huge surprise.
Before injuring his core muscle, McBride was in the middle of his best season as a Knick, averaging 12.0 points and shooting 42.2% from three-point range. Getting hurt like he did and having to go through midseason surgery and an arduous rehabilitation was a challenge both mentally and emotionally.
“I lean on God, I lean on the people around me and our medical staff has done a great job,” McBride said.
McBride underwent surgery on Feb. 5 and returned earlier than expected at the end of March. In his first game back he got his first indication that this was not going to be an easy return when he dove for a loose ball in a March 29 matchup against the Thunder. McBride left the game grimacing and later described the pain he felt to reporters as feeling like “someone stabbing your groin, hip and ab at the same time.”
McBride has said that the pain he feels is part of scar tissue breaking down and is just something he has to deal with. He feels at this point in the season, everyone in the NBA is dealing with something.
“No excuses," McBride said. "I expect a lot out of myself, more than anybody else, honestly. And I try not to listen to how I'm feeling day to day. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter; if I'm supposed to get a stop, I gotta get a stop. If I'm supposed to make a shot, I gotta make a shot. So I try not to think about it.
“Reality is, I've got to go out there and perform."
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
