Irving, who has dealt with several injuries during his brief NBA career, sprained his shoulder Sunday night in a loss to Toronto. He collided with Raptors rookie forward Jonas Valanciunas while trying to drive the baseline. Irving stayed in the game, but was taken out after he was unable to raise his left arm while shooting free throws.

The Cavaliers said an MRI revealed a left AC (acromioclavicular) sprain. He is projected to miss 3 to 4 weeks, but the Cavs have just 19 games left this season, so it’s possible Irving will not play again.

Cavs coach Byron Scott would not speculate if Irving’s season is over.

“We’ll have to wait until it’s completely healed and then just go from there,” Scott said after Monday’s practice.

Irving has already missed 14 games this season with a broken index finger and hyperextended knee. He broke his right hand last summer when he punched a padded wall during a practice in Las Vegas. He missed 14 games last season — four with a concussion and 10 with a sprained right shoulder — when he was chosen the league’s top rookie.

Irving played with a broken jaw earlier this season, wearing a protective mask.

Despite the injuries, Scott doesn’t believe his young star is fragile.

“He’s still very young and his body hasn’t fully developed,” Scott said. “I’m just not that concerned about it, to be honest with you,” Scott said. “All the injuries that he has gotten have been legitimate injuries. It’s not something that keeps recurring over and over again.”

Irving played just 11 games as a freshman at Duke because of a toe injury.

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Anthony first aggravated the knee in the first half of Monday’s win against the Cleveland Cavaliers and hasn’t been on the floor since.

Woodson said Anthony’s status remains day to day.

The coach said Anthony reported earlier Saturday that his knee is “so-so” after receiving treatment during the team’s morning shootaround.

Anthony’s isn’t the only health issue the Knicks have. The team announced on Saturday that forward Amar’e Stoudemire is scheduled to have a right knee debridement next week and will miss approximately six weeks.

As for Anthony, an MRI taken recently revealed no structural damage, he said. But there has been a fluid buildup in the back of it.

Woodson intimated that the team has no plans to drain the fluid in Anthony’s knee at this point. The Knicks will continue with treatment and will give him time to rest. The team hasn’t taken any further tests on the knee.

“I know he’s getting his treatment and you don’t always have to drain, you can treat and the swelling can go away that way as well,” Woodson said. “We’ve just got to give it time and see what happens.”

When Anthony does return, Woodson hopes to reduce his minutes.

Anthony has played an average of 37.8 minutes per game. He averaged 41 minutes per game in January and 38.8 in February. Woodson would like to play him closer to 35 minutes, his per-game average in November.

After Saturday night, the Knicks will embark on a season-long five-game, seven-day road trip against Western Conference teams.

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“He’s a big piece to the puzzle,” coach Mike Woodson said. “It’s a major loss to what we’re trying to do but we’re going to have to wait on him and continue our climb.”

The team announced on Saturday evening that Stoudemire is expected to undergo a knee debridement sometime in the coming week. A debridement is a form of arthroscopic surgery that removes debris. And it’s just the latest in a long list of knee ailments for the 30-year-old veteran.

Stoudemire first felt soreness in both knees earlier Saturday and sat out of the morning shootaround. An MRI later Saturday revealed surgery was required. Per the six-week timetable, Stoudemire could miss the remainder of the regular season. If he is off the floor for the full six weeks, the earliest Stoudemire would return is April 20, three days after the final game of the regular season.

“We’ve just got to patiently wait and hope that everything goes well,” Woodson said.

Stoudemire missed the first two months of the season while recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. The procedure also was described as a debridement. The timetable for Stoudemire to return from the surgery earlier this season was six to eight weeks, and he needed the full eight to get back.

Stoudemire also underwent microfracture surgery in October 2005, but bounced back well from the procedure.

Still, the procedure can be a red flag for teams. Stoudemire’s contract with the Knicks — a five-year, $100 million pact — is uninsured because of his history of knee issues. Stoudemire is under contract through 2014-15. He is scheduled to make $19.9 million this season and a combined $45 million over the final two years of his deal.

Asked if he was concerned that Stoudemire would struggle to bounce back from this most recent ailment, Woodson expressed optimism.

“I hope not; Amar’e works hard,” the coach said. “I give him a lot of credit for that. He wants to play and be on the basketball floor so I can’t help but think that he’s going to put the time in … to get back out on the floor to help us.”

Stoudemire had been playing on a 30-minute restriction to preserve the health of his knees this season, per instructions from the Knicks’ medical staff. In 29 games this season, the 10-year veteran averaged 14.2 points and five rebounds in 23.5 minutes, shooting 57 percent from the field. In recent weeks, he’d established himself as a strong low-post threat off the bench for the Knicks (38-22).

“When you start playing playoff basketball you need some post up play … [and] that’s where Amar’e was so valuable for us,” Woodson said.

Stoudemire’s injury isn’t the only health concern for the Knicks. Carmelo Anthony missed his third straight game on Saturday with a lingering right knee injury.

“We have to just go out there and find ways to win,” small forward Steve Novak said before the Knicks’ 113-84 rout of the Utah Jazz. “Obviously, those are our main two throw-it-to-and-then-create-their-own-shot scorers for us, so I think our approach just has to be a little bit different.”

An extended stretch without Stoudemire means more playing time for the recently acquired Kenyon Martin, who showed some remorse for Stoudemire.

“It’s part of sports, we all know that, so we’ve got to come together as a team,” Martin said. “That’s why I’m here, so I’m looking forward to the opportunity to get some more playing time. It’s a very, very unfortunate situation.”

Ian Begley is a frequent contributor to ESPNNewYork.com. ESPNNewYork.com contributor Jared Zwerling contributed to this report.

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Howard has missed the past three games because of a torn labrum in his shoulder, aggravating an injury he initially suffered earlier this season.

Despite winning the three games Howard has missed, the Lakers (23-26) are 10th in the Western Conference playoff race. They also will be without star forward Pau Gasol, who has a tear in the plantar fascia of his right foot, an MRI revealed Wednesday. The Lakers fear Gasol could be sidelined four to six weeks, a source told ESPNLosAngeles.com.

“We don’t have time for (Howard’s shoulder) to heal,” Bryant said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with ESPNBoston.com’s Jackie MacMullan. “We need some urgency.”

The interview with MacMullan came one day after Bryant publicly challenged Howard, stating that playing through an injury is “something that you have to balance out and manage.”

Bryant also asserted that Howard is preoccupied with how he is perceived by fans and media.

“Dwight worries too much about what people think,” Bryant told MacMullan. “I told him, ‘You can’t worry about that. It’s holding you back.’ He says, ‘OK, OK, OK,’ but it’s always hovering around him.

“He just wants people to like him. He doesn’t want to let anyone down, and that gets him away from what he should be doing.”

Bryant also speculated that Howard, in his first season with Los Angeles, may not be accustomed to the Lakers’ standards.

“(Howard) has never been in a position where someone is driving him as hard as I am, as hard as this organization is,” Bryant told MacMullan. “It’s win a championship or everything is a complete failure. That’s just how (the Lakers) do it. And that’s foreign to him.

“When you think about it, there aren’t many organizations that look at it that way. There are only two that can really honestly say that’s what they live by — Los Angeles and Boston.”

Howard preached patience in a recent interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, pointing to the fact that Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal needed three years before winning a championship with the Lakers.

But the 34-year-old Bryant, who is averaging 27.6 points per game in his 17th NBA season, is approaching this season with more desperation.

“We don’t have three years,” Kobe said. “We’ve got this year.”

Howard is listed as day to day, and his status is uncertain for Thursday’s game against the Boston Celtics.

The Lakers are hopeful Gasol’s injury will prompt Howard to return “sooner than later,” a team source told ESPNLosAngeles.com.

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The Lakers did not say how long Gasol will be out, but a league source told ESPNLosAngeles.com that an accurate time frame for his return is difficult to assess without further examination, which Gasol will receive when he returns to Los Angeles. The Lakers, though, are bracing for him to be out at least four to six weeks, the source said.

The Lakers are not sure whether Gasol will need surgery, sources told ESPNLosAngeles.com.

“The result of the MRI shows I have a torn fascia of my right foot,” Gasol tweeted. “Tomorrow I’ll fly back to LA to see our team doctors. #AlwaysPositive”

Gasol also tweeted that’s he’s “hoping to recover asap so I can be back with the team and keep fighting until the end of the season. #GoLakers #AlwaysPositive”

Gasol was injured in Tuesday night’s win over the Brooklyn Nets.

“I tweaked my fascia in the first half, so I was dealing with quite a bit of soreness in the second half,” Gasol said after the game. “So I couldn’t do certain things.

“I was dealing with it, but that play when I tried to jump off of it and try go block the shot (by Brooklyn’s Brook Lopez), just as I took off, I felt a pop in the bottom of my foot on my fascia and I couldn’t get up. I’m worried about it.”

The Lakers, in Boston to play the Celtics on Thursday, said Gasol will fly back to Los Angeles on Thursday to be examined by the team’s medical staff.

Gasol initially tried to play through the injury that occured with 3:50 left in Tuesday’s game. But after one trip up and down the floor, he asked coach Mike D’Antoni for a sub and went to the locker room with Lakers trainer Gary Vitti.

“It felt kind of OK a little bit putting my weight on it without walking or running, but once I started running, I was limping and it was really sore,” Gasol said Tuesday. “Even if I tried, I couldn’t go.”

Gasol finished with 15 points, four rebounds and two blocks in the Lakers’ 92-83 win.

The Lakers were granted a disabled player’s exception for Jordan Hill last week after the backup center went out with season-ending hip surgery. The exception will allow the Lakers to spend a little more than half of Hill’s salary, about $1.78 million, in order to sign a free agent or to absorb a player’s contract acquired in a trade.

Despite Gasol’s foot injury, the Lakers are not dead set on using the exception, a team source told ESPNLosAngeles.com, and they are hopeful the situation will prompt Dwight Howard to return and play through his sore right shoulder “sooner than later.”

The Lakers have won three straight after starting off their seven-game road trip with a loss to Phoenix, and six of seven overall. But they will face an uphill battle to finish off the trip without Gasol and potentially Howard. Gasol already has missed 13 games this season because of tendinitis in both knees and a concussion.

“We’ll see what happens,” D’Antoni told the “Mason & Ireland Show” on ESPNLA 710 radio on Wednesday. “Hopefully, Dwight will be back fairly soon, but you approach it like any other game. Guys got to step up.

“We’ll play with Robert Sacre. We’ll play smaller most of the time. We’ll have Metta (World Peace) back [from a one-game suspension]. So, we still have enough pieces to win games. That’s what we have to do.

“We just got to keep winning and give us a chance to get into the playoffs, then hopefully, we’ll have everybody healthy at that point. But all these games are going to be attacked like they’re playoff games and whoever is available is going to have to play well.”

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An MRI on Wednesday revealed that Callahan has a partially dislocated left shoulder.

“Definitely could have been a lot worse than it was,” Callahan said Thursday in a video posted on the Rangers’ website. “After the MRI, we got news there was no structural damage, so it’s just a matter of a little bit of rehab, get some treatment and get back at it.”

Callahan suffered the injury during a fight with Maxime Talbot in the third period of Tuesday’s 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Callahan said he doesn’t know how the injury happened as he got caught in a wrong position while the two were pushing and pulling.

Callahan knew immediately that something was wrong and quickly left the ice, favoring that shoulder as he skated off. He applauded Talbot for recognizing he was injured and letting up during their tussle, and doesn’t believe that the surprise nature of the fight contributed to the dislocated shoulder.

“Any time you miss time, especially in a shortened season like this, it’s hard,” Callahan said. “I wish I was out there, but at the same time, injuries happen during the year and these things are going to happen and it’s just a matter of trying to get back as quick as I can.”

While he injured the shoulder fighting, Callahan has no hesitation about dropping the gloves again.

“It happens. It’s a freak thing,” Callahan said. “I got caught in exactly the right spot to have this happen, and fighting, or whatever it may be, is part of the game and if it presents itself again, you have to do it.”

After Callahan pulled Talbot out of a pile in front of the net, the Flyers forward dropped his gloves and went right at Callahan.

“Just unlucky, I guess,” Callahan said Thursday.

Callahan, 27, said the next few days will focus on allowing the inflammation to settle down, and then he and the Rangers’ training staff will focus on getting his shoulder stronger through treatment.

Callahan said he currently isn’t in too much pain, although the shoulder flares up if he moves it too much.

The recovery timetable means he could miss between four to seven games. If he only needs 10 days, he could return against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 10. If he misses the full two weeks, that could mean a return in a home game against the New York Islanders on Feb. 14.

Callahan last missed an extended amount of games in 2010-11, when he played just 60 after breaking his hand and fracturing his ankle right before the end of the season.

He has two goals this season, both on the power play, and will be sorely missed over the next two weeks. He’s on the Rangers’ second line, is great on the penalty kill and has proved to be the team’s top scorer this season on the power play.

“He’s a huge part of our team,” Rangers forward Derek Stepan said. “But everyone is going to have to step up, take a little bit of his pie and try to do some of the things he does. It’s going to take six, seven, eight guys to fill the role that Cally does.”

Added center Brad Richards: “Hopefully it’s short and he gets back quick. Obviously the mood around here is we want him back as soon as possible. Big part of every part of the game. Power play, penalty kill, 5-on-5s. That being said, we’ve got to push on. It’s part of the game we play.”

One player the Rangers hope will step up in Callahan’s absence will be Stepan. While he’s fifth on the team with four points, he has yet to score a goal. One of the Rangers’ problems this year has been a lack of production outside their top line of Richards, Rick Nash and Marian Gaborik.

“You lose a top guy like that, it shuffles the lineup. Gives other guys chances they probably wouldn’t get if he was playing,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said Wednesday. “I feel comfortable in us joining together as a team and trying to get it solved until we get him back.”

“Individually I’m still working on my game; I still got a lot to sharpen up,” Stepan said. “I think now with Cally out it’s going to be most important to really get it straightened out now.”

The Rangers also will be without forward Chris Kreider for Thursday’s game against the Penguins as he recovers from a bone chip in his ankle. He had a light skate Wednesday and also skated Thursday morning, according to reports.

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