Danilo Gallinari Injury: Knicks’ Gunner To Miss 2-3 Weeks With Knee Sprain

Danilo Gallinari will miss two to three weeks of action for the New York Knicks after suffering a mild knee sprain in Sunday's win over the Indiana Pacers.The team announced the prognosis after a Monday MRI on Gallinari's left knee. Pacers forward Brandon Rush careened into Gallinari's leg in the fourth quarter, sending the third-year Knick out during crunch time.

The Knicks, 19-14, have a tough stretch of games coming up, with the San Antonio Spurs (29-4) visiting Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. The Knicks follow that up with a four-game Western road trip with stops to play the Phoenix Suns, L.A. Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz. With the exception of Amar'e Stoudemire's return to Phoenix, that constitutes four games against teams with winning records.

The silver lining could be that the Knicks would be expected to lose those games anyway. Certainly, Gallinari's absence will hurt. Despite being a rather limited player in total, his three-point shooting (37 percent on five attempts per game) is vital to New York's attack, and the team lacks depth at basically every position. Gallinari's injury will clear the way for more minutes for Shawne Williams, in all likelihood. While Williams has shot well in limited minutes this season, he's not the threat that Gallinari has been.