BOSTON — It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt.
Less than a month ago, the Knicks were joking and laughing over Tom Thibodeau’s penchant for leaving his starters on the court at the end of blowouts.
The coach explained that he once witnessed Tracy McGrady, almost two decades prior, rip off 13 points in 35 seconds of a remarkable Rockets comeback.
“No lead is safe,” Thibodeau said.
Julius Randle smiled.
“He’s got trauma man,” the power forward said. “He’s gotta work on that.”
If no lead is safe to Thibodeau, no deficit should be insurmountable.
But a comeback Friday night in Boston would’ve required a McGrady miracle and more.
The Knicks were down 12 points with 21.1 seconds remaining when Jalen Brunson rolled his left ankle on a misstep.
About 20 minutes after the injury, Thibodeau claimed he had no information on the severity and no regrets about leaving his best player on the court.
“Nope,” he said.
The Knicks (12-9), who have dropped two straight and face the Raptors on Monday, have thus far had four of their five top players — Brunson, Randle, Immanuel Quickley and Mitchell Robinson — available for every game.
Their durability has been tremendous.
Brunson’s injury could test the streak but his teammates were hopeful for a quick recovery.
“Obviously I know him from college [as teammates at Villanova] and everything. He’s a warrior,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “So we’ll see what happens. We have a couple days. Get back to New York and hopefully everything is all good.”
On one hand, it was a fluke injury that could have occurred at any point during the game.
Brunson stepped back for a quick burst off his left foot and landed on Boston’s Payton Pritchard.
On the other hand, Thibodeau had an opportunity to sub out Brunson and the other starters 17 seconds earlier — when Jayson Tatum was on the foul line and Boston took out Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Jrue Holiday — but the Knicks coach resisted making any changes.
It brought back memories of last season’s playoffs, when the Knicks were up by 23 with 2:22 remaining and Randle was leveled by Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen on a drive attempt (luckily, Randle wasn’t injured beyond the ankle pain he was already dealing with).
Or two years ago, when RJ Barrett sprained his ankle with about 25 seconds remaining and a 15-point deficit (Barrett missed four subsequent games).
Or, most traumatizing to Bulls fans, when Derrick Rose tore his ACL with 1:22 left and a 12-point lead in the 2012 playoffs.
Regardless of Thibodeau’s history, the present feels like another inflection point for his Knicks.
They’ll be favored to win Monday’s home game versus Toronto — especially if Brunson is available — and then embark on a stretch of 10 games with eight on the road and nine against teams with winning records.
It’s a treacherous three weeks that should be easier to navigate with a healthy Brunson.
“We’ve got a couple days off, so we’ll see,” Randle said Friday night. “Right now I don’t know anything. Just trying to recover from the game and reset. We’ll figure it out.”
