The New York Knicks will enter the 2025-26 season with a chance to knock off the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, a group that took the Eastern Conference by storm to win 64 games and claim the East’s No. 1 seed just one year ago.
Unfortunately, New York will have to do battle with two of their key contributors sidelined for their first game of the new campaign.
“Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart are out for New York’s season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday (7 pm ET, ESPN), sources said,” ESPN’s Shams Charania shared via X on Tuesday evening.
Both Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart had dealt with nagging injuries throughout the preseason, and it appears that their respective recovery times are droning on longer than expected.
The injury-riddled 7-foot rebounder Robinson’s regular season debut will be postponed due to an unforgiving ankle ailment.
As a result, the Knicks’ interior defense could suffer against Cleveland’s star-studded frontcourt duo of 2025 Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley and 2022 All-Star Jarrett Allen.
With regard to the energetic, hustling 6-foot-4 forward Hart, the 8-year veteran went down with a non-contact back injury during New York’s first preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Oct. 2.
Prior to the announcement from Charania, the Knicks’ newly-minted head coach Mike Brown shared that Hart’s injury would be a tricky one to handle, and that his return for the team’s first game of the new season would not be rushed.
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