Amar’e Stoudemire was limited to just 18 minutes and didn’t play in the second half of New York's 96-93 Game 2 loss to the Celtics in Boston on Monday night.

Stoudemire had four points on 2-for-9 shooting and grabbed five rebounds before leaving with back spasms that were clearly limiting his effectiveness.

Mike D’Antoni, who spoke to the media before Stoudemire, was optimistic about his availability for Game 3 on Friday in New York.

“He should be OK for Friday,” he said. “I think he did it in warm-ups, but he’ll tell you.”

Stoudemire conducted his press conference standing because sitting was too painful.

“I believe it happened in warmups. I tapped the glass with my left hand, dunked with my right. That's when I felt it,” he said.

He went on to say that he hopes he’ll be ready for Game 3, but that he isn’t ready to give a definitive answer.

The Knicks, who are now down 0-2 to the Celtics in their first round series, were already without starting point guard Chauncey Billups because of a knee injury suffered in Game 1.