Kristaps Porzingis Injures Ankle vs. Cavaliers

New York Knicks big man Kristaps Porzingis suffered a sprained right ankle in the second quarter of Thursday night's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

According to Knicks PR on Twitter, Porzingis was ruled out for the remainder of the contest before the second half started. 

Kristian Winfield of SB Nation reported after the game that there's concern within the Knicks organization that Porzingis may have damaged ligaments in his ankle.

He missed a handful of games earlier in the season due to a sore Achilles, but he's otherwise been healthy during the Knicks' hot-and-cold 2016-17 campaign. 

Now in his second NBA season, Porzingis is averaging 18.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.0 blocks while shooting 44.8 percent from the field and 38.4 percent from three.

According to Basketball-Reference.com, Porzingis, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the only players averaging at least 18 points, seven boards and two blocks so far this season. 

"I'm still in awe of kind of some of the things he does on the court," Carmelo Anthony said of Porzingis in November, according to ESPN.com's Ian Begley. "... I always thought it would kind of take longer to get acclimated. He's doing a great job with just kind of taking it day by day, still getting a feel for the game and figuring it out on the fly."

As Carmelo's praise and those numbers indicate, Porzingis isn't easily replaced. 

But so long as he's banged up, the Knicks will have to make do with the solid replacement options at their disposal.

For now, that means leaning on the likes of Willy Hernangomez and Kyle O'Quinn to do the bulk of the heavy lifting until the 21-year-old wunderkind is back in the starting lineup.