Miles McBride didn’t rush back from injury too soon. But he may have returned for the wrong game. And now, the Knicks could once again be without one of the most important pieces in their playoff push.

McBride, making a hustle play midway through the third quarter of Tuesday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, grabbed at the same area that required surgery just two months ago before exiting the game for good.

It was a routine basketball play—but maybe not the kind for someone so recently removed from surgery. And maybe not the kind of environment he should have been reintroduced into.

Because Sunday night in Oklahoma City felt like a potential NBA Finals preview, the Knicks as championship hopefuls against the defending champion Thunder. And McBride made a winning play. The kind that defines his game.

It may also end up costing both him and the Knicks dearly.

“I haven’t talked to medical yet, so I don’t know how it is, but it’s tough,” head coach Mike Brown said after the game. “[Deuce has] worked his tail off to be back.”

With 5:21 remaining in the third quarter, McBride and Oklahoma City’s Luguentz Dort chased down a loose ball. Dort dove to secure it. McBride followed, diving onto Dort in an effort to secure possession.

Then he reached for his midsection.

McBride underwent surgery to repair a sports hernia after suffering the injury on Jan. 27 against the Sacramento Kings. The procedure typically addresses damage to the tendons in the lower core—the same area McBride immediately grabbed.

It was a gutting moment for a Knicks team that had just welcomed its sixth man back following a 28-game, two-month absence. McBride played just under 11 minutes in his return. He did not score, but the energy he brought on both ends was noticeable.

And just like that, it was gone.

McBride remained on the floor for several moments before trainers helped him to his feet. He walked slowly to the bench, sat briefly, then headed to the locker room. He did not return. Brown didn’t have answers after the game, either.

“He didn’t make a shot the first half, but he gave us a lift,” Brown said. “You felt his presence, and he made us deeper. And because of the foul trouble that we had, we were a little shorthanded in that second half. That’s part of the reason they pulled away too.

“I haven’t spoken to medical. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to anybody on [Deuce], yet.”

It’s fair to assume McBride could miss time following the scare. How much remains unclear, but the optics were concerning for a player whose game is built on physicality, effort and toughness.

Before the injury, McBride was in the midst of a breakout season in Brown’s system, averaging career highs of 12.9 points and 42% shooting from three-point range. Now there’s a possibility he could be back in rehab—and, quite frankly, for as long as it takes to ensure a full recovery.

Because if McBride isn’t right, stepping back onto the floor isn’t worth the risk. He signed a three-year, $13 million extension and has one year remaining before hitting unrestricted free agency. McBride has developed into a starting-caliber guard capable of commanding a significantly larger deal, but only if he stays healthy.

Right now, that health is a big concern.

The good news is New York went 20-8 while their backup guard rehabbed from surgery. The bad news: His return was expected to stabilize a rotation that has been pieced together in his absence. He now joins Landry Shamet on the injury report. Shamet has been sidelined with a knee injury since March 20 and did not participate in practice on Saturday.

The Knicks acquired Jose Alvarado from the New Orleans Pelicans shortly after McBride’s injury in late January, but his offensive production has fluctuated. After an efficient start —including an 8-of-13 performance from three on Feb. 11— Alvarado hit a prolonged slump, missing 29 of his next 34 attempts from deep. He has since begun to recover, hitting eight of his last 17 attempts and going 2-of-4 from three against Oklahoma City on Sunday.

Brown has also returned to Jordan Clarkson minutes to stabilize the second unit in McBride’s absence, but the options, particularly combined with Shamet’s absence, feel like a bandage.

And now, the Knicks are once again left waiting, hoping the cost of one winning play isn’t far greater than it seemed in the moment.

CLEVELAND – The Miami Heat’s desire remains to get to the playoffs for a franchise-record seventh consecutive season.

Friday night’s game offered a reminder of what can happen when you get there as an overmatched opponent.

Last year, the Heat were swept out of their first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers by an NBA-record margin of 30.5 points in those four games.

Friday night, with the Cavaliers closer to full strength than they were in Wednesday night’s home loss to the Heat, Cleveland rolled to a 149-128 dismantling of Erik Spoelstra’s team at Rocket Arena, as if the two sides were back in the 2025 playoffs, this time with the Cavaliers’ lead peaking at 36.

Making it to the playoffs took a decided step back for the Heat with their sixth loss in their last seven games, still at the bottom of the Eastern Conference play-in race, at No. 10 in the conference.

With the Cavaliers injecting the 7-foot length of Jarrett Allen and the outside shooting of Max Strus back into their rotation, after the two sat out Wednesday night’s 120-103 loss to the Heat, it was a game decided even before halftime, a juncture when Cleveland led 81-46.

Strus, who scored 22 in the first half, led Cleveland with 29 points. Allen, who had missed the previous 10 games with a knee issue, returned to add 18 points and 10 rebounds in just 18 minutes.

For the Heat, there was little in response, save for a 20-point performance from Jaime Jaquez Jr.

Four Degrees of Heat from Friday night’s game:

1. Game flow: It was humbling practically from the outset, including a stretch in the first quarter when the Cavaliers got 16 consecutive points from the combined scoring of former Heat players Strus and Thomas Bryant.

That helped stake Cleveland to a 40-27 lead after the first quarter.

And then came the avalanche, with the Heat outscored 41-19 in the second period, a quarter the Heat shot 1 of 10 on 3-pointers, allowed .586 Cleveland shooting from the field, with six turnovers in the period to one by the Cavaliers.

The 35-point halftime lead was Cleveland’s largest this season, 11 more than their previous high.

Then, to add insult to injury, the Cavaliers carried a 109-87 lead into the fourth when Cleveland’s Evan Mobley ended the third quarter with a successful 32-foot buzzer-beating heave. Mobley closed with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

2. Strus loose: Held out of Wednesday night’s game, much to his chagrin as he regains his stride from an offseason foot injury, Strus made his first four 3-pointers after entering in the opening period.

Strus’ 12 points in the opening period represented his highest scoring quarter in his six games this season. His 10-point second period was his second-highest quarter.

With Strus held out, the Cavaliers made only three 3-pointers in Wednesday night’s first half. This time they were 5 of 6 from beyond the arc in the first quarter, with 12 3-pointers by the intermission.

The 22 points were one off the high-scoring half of Strus’ career, when he had 23 for the Heat against the Magic on Dec. 17, 2021.

He closed 10 of 14 from the field, 8 of 11 on 3-pointers, with it his highest-scoring game with the Cavaliers since leaving the Heat in 2023 free agency.

3. About it: About all that could be said from the standpoint of the Heat’s starting lineup is Bam Adebayo closed with a double-double, finishing with 14 points and 16 rebounds in his 31 minutes, before sitting out the final period.

In addition, Adebayo extended his streak of games with at least one steal to 15, making it the longest such streak of his career.

4.Onward: The Heat conclude their three-game trip Sunday against the Indiana Pacers, before returning for a three-game homestand against the Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards.

_____

PHILADELPHIA — In the waning days of this Chicago Bulls season, Patrick Williams has begun to fade out of focus.

The forward is hardly playing. When he makes it onto court, he often flashes a brief, promising display of the same talent that lured the Bulls to select him with the No. 4 draft pick nearly six years ago — a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer, a sudden lurch toward the rim for an offensive rebound. Then, just as quickly, Williams dissolves into the background. Easy to miss. Hard to explain. A question that the Bulls seem incapable of answering.

The trade deadline was supposed to offer a change. Or, at the least, an opportunity. The Bulls traded away seven of their most important players, clearing the runway for the remaining young core to earn significant playing time. But even in that environment, Williams can’t win.

Since the All-Star break, Williams has spent 240.8 total minutes on the court. Only five players have logged fewer minutes in that span: two-way players Yuki Kawamura and Lachlan Olbrich, and injured teammates Jaden Ivey, Jalen Smith and Anfernee Simons. Williams tallied five blocks and 25 rebounds in that span. And new addition Leonard Miller — a second-year forward who barely cracked the rotation in Minnesota — has nearly doubled his playing time.

How does the forward handle his plummet down the team’s list of priorities?

“I just try to learn from all of it,” Williams told the Tribune. “That’s where I’m at.”

Williams couldn’t offer a clear-cut reason for his lack of playing time. The forward said he hasn’t talked with the coaching staff or the front office about his role reduction. He’s trying to learn from each game, make the most of the minutes he receives and absorb the feedback given by the coaching staff.

But coach Billy Donovan had a simple explanation: nothing has changed.

In his sixth season, Williams is still struggling with the same weaknesses that plagued the first years of his career. The forward is the longest-tenured player on the Bulls roster. He was the first player drafted under Donovan, the first project to which the coach fully committed himself in Chicago. And six years later, Donovan is still prodding and cajoling the forward to crash the boards and control his dribble and contribute physically to the game.

“It bothers me because there are things I see in him that I want to see him do more consistently,” Donovan said. “I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed. … But when someone shows signs of being able to do something, you feel like you want to try to get him to do it more consistently. He’s just got to take ownership of those minutes and just try to make them as valuable as possible.”

More often than not, Donovan and his staff find themselves mulling over the same questions: What do we need to do to motivate Williams to play this way more consistently? What are we missing? What does he need?

Those questions have not changed since his rookie season. They’ve grown more flustered, more confounding. Donovan doesn’t fully understand why Williams doesn’t pursue offensive rebounds at a higher rate. He can’t wrap his head around the forward’s lack of finishing ability as a dunker. He doesn’t know why this player — big, strong, smart, dedicated — can’t get this thing to click after years of trying.

Internally, the Bulls coaching staff has reached a point of bafflement with the forward. To those who work with Williams, none of this makes sense. As a one-and-done who mostly came off the bench at Florida State, it’s not as if the forward was never a surefire guarantee as a top-5 pick. Still, Williams always had the makings to meet a baseline of physicality and finishing that he’s simply never reached in Chicago.

Stardom is more nuanced than height and weight and wingspan, but Williams clearly has the physical gifts and general profile of a solid NBA player. His teammates often marvel at his strength both in the weight room and in team drills. He has a yawning reach, deft hands and light feet. So why has that never translated into consistency — of any kind — on the court?

This is the worst season of Williams’ career. He is averaging the fewest points (6.8) and rebounds (2.8) of his six years in the league. He logs less than one offensive board per game. His 2-point shooting percentage has dropped below 40%. His assist-to-turnover ratio is nearly 1-to-1.

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As a result, Williams’ career trajectory has stalled out to a standstill. There are still three years left on the forward’s five-year, $90 million deal. The Bulls did not seriously pursue trade options for Williams at the deadline due to a lack of interest on the market, per a source. Perhaps that will change once he nears the end of his contract. But in the meantime, Williams is treading water — and retreading the same talking points that have defined the last three years of his development.

“I kind of look at it as — whenever I do get out there, what can I learn from it?” Williams said. “To be completely honest, we’re not competing for a championship this year. So when I’m out there, I’m trying to learn different things. I’m trying to work on things in a game. It might look a little bit crazy, but that’s kind of what the development part of it is for me.”

Williams still talks like a young player at the start of his career. When he thinks about this season in the big picture, the forward points to foundational aspects of his game that he hopes to improve — playing at a higher pace, filling in the gaps in an undersized frontcourt.

“I hope that in Year 10, Year 12, Year 15, these lessons will start to come back around again,” Williams said. “I’ll say, ‘OK, I learned that early on when I was in Chicago.’”

There’s some sense to this outlook. After all, Williams is only 24 years old. Life is long.

But NBA careers are not. And as he fails to fight for minutes even on a floundering Bulls roster, Williams is only adding to the stagnation of his career — and the team as a whole.