The New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers are dealing with major issues at point guard after ugly performances to start their weekends.
It's unclear if the Knicks' Jeremy Lin or the Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving will be on the court Saturday night when these teams meet at Madison Square Garden.
Lin has missed the last three games for New York (26-26) with a sore left knee. The Knicks won the first two games without him before they had 18 turnovers that led to 27 points for Atlanta in a 100-90 road loss Friday.
Baron Davis continued to struggle filling in for Lin with four points on 2-of-8 shooting with four assists and four turnovers. Davis looked sluggish throughout, and coach Mike Woodson sounded like he wants to look elsewhere for better point guard play Saturday.
"I gotta start thinking about Toney Douglas playing a little bit and probably extending (Mike) Bibby a little bit more," Woodson said.
Irving, meanwhile, left Friday's 121-84 loss to Milwaukee with a sprained right shoulder. He sat out the entire fourth quarter after getting injured in the second when fighting through a screen.
"There's a lot of pain in my shoulder right now," he said. "I'm taking a lot of Advil and anti-inflammatories and just trying to get through it."
Irving, who scored a game-high 29 points and leads all rookies with 18.9 per game, said no X-rays were taken Friday and planned on joining the team on its flight to New York.
"I'm really not trying to miss any more games especially winding down the season," he said. "It all depends on how I feel in the morning."
The loss by Cleveland (17-32) helped Milwaukee move within 1 1/2 games of New York for the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot. The Knicks trail seventh-place Philadelphia by 2 1/2 games.
"We just got to go back home now and prepare for Cleveland and put ourselves back in position," Woodson said. "I think Milwaukee won tonight and Philly got beat tonight so nobody's going anywhere so we gotta just handle our business."
Carmelo Anthony scored 36 points and is averaging 29.7 in the three games Lin has missed. New York also continues to play without forward Amare Stoudemire (bulging disk).
The Knicks are 6-0 at home under Woodson, winning by an average of 21.5 points. New York last won seven straight at MSG from Jan. 26-March 2, 2007.
Cleveland has matched its longest slide of the season at six and hasn't dropped seven in a row since its NBA-record 26-game skid last season.
The Bucks' 56.8 percent shooting was the second-worst mark allowed by the Cavs this season.
"After a loss like this, I would hope the guys are real upset with how we played," coach Byron Scott said. "The only way you can do it is come back and play a lot harder. You've got to take it out on somebody. You can't take it out on your teammates. You've got to take it out on another team."
These teams have split two 2011-12 meetings, with each winning at home.
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