Amar'e Stoudemire
Stoudemire's injury hurts, but doesn't doom the Knicks. Reuters

Amare Stoudemire reportedly cut his left hand in a locker room punching incident that led to an injury severe enough an ambulance was called after the Knicks lost 104-94 to the Miami Heat Monday night.

Details about the incident were not immediately available after the game Monday night, but a TNT Sports reporter said on live TV during Monday's Dallas Mavericks-Oklahoma City Thunder game that it appeared that Stoudamire suffered a lacerated hand after punching something in the locker room.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Monday night that the object he punched was a glass case holding a fire extinguisher in the locker room, and that doctors and paramedics at AmericanAirlines Arena tended to his injuries.

And apparently the injury is pretty severe:

Cut to the point where he may have had some stitches, in fact we believe he did have some stitches, the TNT reporter said. Stoudamire left the arena with his arm in a sling, he did not have his hand in a cast.

The reporter added that Knicks center Tyson Chandler said Stoudemire will likely be out for at least one game as a result of the hand injury.

It is not yet known what the impact of the injury will be on Stoudemire's ability to play in the rest of the 2012 NBA Playoffs.

The Knicks have gone through a rough patch of injuries lately, as rookie sensation Iman Shumpert tore his ACL and lateral meniscus during Game 1 of their playoffs series vs. the Miami Heat on Saturday, which the Knicks lost 100-67. And star point guard Jeremy Lin is still out with injuries of his own for the time being.

Stoudemire had a pretty good game Monday night, scoring 18 points, but he had several patches of on-court silence and continued to be mostly off-radar defensively.

But with a lacerated hand, it is likely that Stoudemire may miss one or more playoffs games, and that he may even face punishment from the NBA in the form of a suspension or fines for unsportsmanlike conduct.

So as the Knicks face an 0-2 record in the first round of the playoffs, they've taken yet another big hit, this time reportedly due entirely to one man's bad temper.