As expected, the New York Knicks will be without point guard Chauncey Billups and his 140 career games of postseason experience in Tuesday night's Game 2 against the Celtics. Instead, the Knicks will settle for Toney Douglas and his one career postseason game.
Billups suffered a strained left knee in Game 1 on Sunday night, and while the Knicks are hopeful he can return later in this series, he won't go Tuesday. Friday in Game 3 is still up in the air.
"I don't know about Friday," Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said. "We'll go back and evaluate. We'll see how fast he is, and the pain level and all that. He's day to day. We'll figure it out."
The Knicks have a pretty good backup plan with Douglas, who came off the bench Sunday and played 26 minutes. He finished with eight points on 3-of-8 shooting, including a huge 3 in the final minute to give the Knicks an 85-82 lead.
Here's the lineup card for C's-Knicks:
Celtics
Rajon Rondo, PG
Ray Allen, SG
Paul Pierce, SF
Kevin Garnett, PF
Jermaine O'Neal, C
Knicks
Toney Douglas, PG
Landry Fields, SG
Carmelo Anthony, SF
Amare Stoudemire, PF
Ronny Turiaf, C
