After a seemingly endless series of ups and downs this season, the New York Knicks have finally played their way back into playoff contention in the Eastern Conference. With a .500 record of 25-25 and seven wins in their last 10, the Knicks are on a roll with new interim head coach Mike Woodson calling the shots from the sidelines.

Even though the Knicks are currently in the eighth seed in the East, that may very well change for the worst in the coming weeks as New York will have to continue to play playoff-caliber basketball for potentially up to a month. It was bad enough news that point guard Jeremy Lin has been suffering from a sore left knee over the past few games and has had to sit out as a result, but now it appears the Knicks will lose a vital piece to the puzzle in All-Star forward Amare Stoudemire.

After being diagnosed with a bulging disk in his lower back, Stoudemire will have to miss up to 2 to 4 weeks after undergoing a non-surgical procedure to repair the injury. Fortunately, Stoudemire will not have to miss the playoffs if he can get healthy in the coming weeks, but without the star forward on the floor in the final stretch of the NBA regular season this team may very well play themselves out of contention.

If any team has been able to bounce back from adversity and find ways to win this season it is definitely the New York Knicks. With that being said, there is a still a very good change that the Knicks can hold onto that eighth seed and possibly work their way up the standings in the Eastern Conference even without Amare Stoudemire in the frontcourt.

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