Johnson’s Status Is in Question

The team doctor called it a Grade 2 sprain. The team president called it a Grade 1 sprain.

The severity of Larry Johnson’s injury remained somewhat of a mystery Saturday, the day after the New York Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers to earn a trip to the NBA finals against the San Antonio Spurs.

Johnson injured his right knee midway through the second quarter when Indiana’s Travis Best rolled into it, and he was unable to put any weight on it as he was helped off the court and wheeled to an ambulance.

“He’s still listed as day-to-day; he’ll receive daily treatment,” team spokeswoman Lori Hamamoto said Saturday. “He won’t practice tomorrow, and he’ll be reevaluated Monday.”

After the game Friday night, team doctor Norman Scott told reporters that Johnson had a Grade 2 sprain, an injury that typically takes one to two weeks to recover from.

But team President Dave Checketts described it as a Grade 1 sprain, which has a much shorter recovery time.

The Knicks refused to make Scott available for interviews Saturday.

The best-of-seven series begins Wednesday night at the Alamodome.

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Now that the Spurs know who they’ll play in the finals, they’re saying all the right things about the team they’ll be heavily favored to beat.

“New York is a team that believes in themselves, and I think most everything else comes from that. That is a very together group, a very dedicated group. They went and got it done,” San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich said.

The Knicks will be without Patrick Ewing, who sat out the last four games of the Indiana series because of a torn Achilles’ tendon.

“It’s a little bit different, yeah. You think about Patrick, he is the Knicks,” Spur center David Robinson said. “But the focus can’t be any less. They’re playing extremely well. They’re playing in the NBA finals. They are a solid, solid basketball team.”

The Knicks may also be without Johnson, but some Spurs hope that is not the case.

“If we win, I don’t want to hear all these excuses that all these guys have been hurt,” Spur guard Mario Elie said. “Hopefully, L.J. will be all right and be able to play Wednesday.”