A little more than 90 minutes before tipoff of their 110-96 loss to New Orleans at the Garden on Monday night, all the Knicks starters were healthy, present and ready to play. In fact, the only player expected not to be uniform was Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who was suffering from stomach flu.
Then, seconds before the national anthem, the team announced that Derrick Rose was not with the team and Brandon Jennings would be starting in his place.
The Knicks gave no reason for Rose’s absence and B.J. Armstrong, Rose’s agent, did not return a text from Newsday.