With the countdown underway to the end of another dispiriting season, the Knicks had pause to at least imagine brighter days ahead when Kristaps Porzingis made an appearance Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Porzingis was upright, without crutches, smiling and vowing before the Knicks lost, 110-97, to the Dallas Mavericks, “I’m going to come back better and stronger.”
Porzingis, the 7-foot-3 Latvian whom the Knicks have been trying to build their team around, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Feb. 6 in a home game against Milwaukee. He was operated on the following week and could be out for up to 12 months.