"I believe it happened in warmups," Stoudemire said of his injury. "I tapped the glass with my left hand and dunked with my right. That's when I felt it."
Stoudemire remained on the floor and managed a heavy workload in the first half, but he was largely ineffective. He had five rebounds and an assist, but he shot just 2-of-9 and finished with a mere four points.
He was sorely lacking the athleticism that enabled him to dominate Game 1 on Sunday night.
"I could hardly move," Stoudemire said. "I was trying to play through it. I went to the training staff and had it worked on before the game. Right before the national anthem, I went to get a little more work done. I tried to push through it and play on it, but once I felt that sharp pain, I just couldn't take it."
The hope is that Stoudemire, like point guard Chauncey Billups (strained knee) will return on Friday night for Game 3 down in New York. But Stoudemire remains hesitant to give a definite answer.
"I've never had back spasms before," he said. "But this is a normal back spasm. It just takes time for it to relax, so I think I should be ready to go by Friday.
"But I'm not sure. But we'll see how it goes tomorrow and the next day. Hopefully I'll be ready to go Friday."