Woodson also said that Jeremy Lin would miss the game, too, with a sore right knee, the first time he has sat out since he became an instant sensation in New York and the N.B.A. 26 games ago. But Lin, who participated in the team's Monday-morning shootaround, was listed as day to day, and, at least for now, does not appear to be a source of real concern for the Knicks.
Stoudemire, however, is. A 6-foot-10 forward, Stoudemire originally hurt his back last spring while the Knicks were being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics last April.
"You don't wish it on any player," Woodson said of Stoudemire's injury. "All we can do is hope it's not as serious as it might be and wish for a speedy recovery."
Stoudemire, 29, had the M.R.I. in New York but afterward headed for Miami to get a second opinion from one of the doctors who assisted in the rehabilitation of his bad back last summer and early fall. When the N.B.A. lockout finally ended, Stoudemire showed up in training camp with a bulked-up physique — about 15 pounds of added muscle — designed in part to insulate his back from more problems.
But because of the rehabilitation, Stoudemire had hardly played basketball during the seven months between the Knicks' ouster from the postseason and the delayed opening of training camps. He looked rusty on the court and maybe a little bit too heavy.
As the regular season progressed, Stoudemire eventually acknowledged that he needed to lose some of the weight he had put on, that he needed to put some explosiveness back into his game. He did proceed to get lighter, getting close to the 245 pounds he played at last season, and was generally playing more effectively in recent weeks.
But on Saturday night, in a game against the Detroit Pistons, he felt his back tighten up again and had to leave in the third quarter.
"It just got a little tight, that's all," he told reporters afterward. But clearly, it has turned out to be more than that.
Now the Knicks can only wait and hope that this is not an issue that will seriously limit Stoudemire for the rest of this condensed season. The Knicks, now battling the Bucks for the eighth, and final, spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs, will have just 16 games left after Monday night's game.
As for Lin, he has averaged 34 minutes a game since he emerged on the scene. In his absence Monday night, Baron Davis was given the start but he has been dealing with a strained hamstring and, before that, a herniated disk in his back.
Just how much of a load he can take on if Lin was absent for more than one game remained to be seen.
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