NEW YORK -- Knicks star Jalen Brunson said Sunday that his goal is to return before the end of the regular season but that his top priority is to be fully healthy before the Knicks begin what he and the team hope will be a long playoff run.

"Realistically, I'm hoping to play before the playoffs," Brunson said in a pregame media session at his locker before New York hosted the Portland Trail Blazers at Madison Square Garden. "It's good for me to get some game reps before we go into that type of stretch run, but the most important thing is trying to be 100 percent healthy."

The All-NBA guard has been out since March 6, when he suffered an ankle sprain on an awkward landing late in a loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles. Brunson had 39 points and 10 assists in that game, his latest performance in a brilliant season that again has him in contention for MVP votes and another All-NBA selection.

With 61 games played, however, Brunson is short of the 65 required to be eligible for those awards. And though he said he'd like to get to that benchmark, Brunson reiterated that his priority is to be ready for the postseason.

"Individually, yeah," Brunson said, when asked if contending for awards matters to him, "but I just want to make sure I'm fully healthy before I go out there."

Though there is no definitive return date for the star guard over the final eight games of the regular season following Sunday's matchup, Brunson shed positive light on his recovery process.

He said he has been cleared for "basketball activities," though he declined to say whether that includes contact. He added that he has been sprinting, as well as cutting and stopping and starting on his injured ankle, and that he continues to feel better as he clears each benchmark.

Brunson has shown an ability to play through injuries during his tenure with the Knicks, but he said that in this situation it's a combination of managing pain, getting mentally ready to return to the court and working with the medical staff to decide when the best time to come back will be.

"Yeah, well, like I said, we're going to communicate," Brunson said of his discussions with the medical team. "I never want to say, I never want to put them in a position where I'm making the decisions because it's honestly a team thing, but when I know it's something minor and I know I can play through it, I can play through it. There's something like this and I just want to make sure we're on the same page, and now we've been on the same page for the past couple of weeks and so we're going to continue to progress that way."

New York had gone 6-5 since Brunson got hurt entering Sunday's game. That stretch also featured his backup, Deuce McBride, missing a chunk of time with a groin strain, which kept him out of Sunday's game, too.

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said McBride, who has now missed five straight games, is also doing some on-court work. Addressing how the team has responded to Brunson's absence, Thibodeau said it has provided an opportunity for other players to step up and shoulder a bigger load.

"We've said this all along from the standpoint of, you're not going to replace Jalen individually," Thibodeau said. "You have to do it collectively, and I think we've done that. And it's been good for our group from the standpoint of any time someone goes out, it's an opportunity for someone else to go in. But I think our defense and our rebounding, we know that everyone is capable of doing that. And if we lock into that and keep our turnovers down, we know we'll be in position to win.

"That's what we're striving for. Continue to improve. And when Jalen comes back, obviously that adds a lot to our team."

Brunson said he appreciates how his teammates have responded to his absence.

"There have been nights where obviously we didn't perform well as a team, but then the next day they respond, so that's all we can focus on," Brunson said. "There's going to be times and days and games where things don't go our way, but it's how do we respond from those moments and how do we get better? I feel like they've progressed that way and they've done a good job."

That hasn't, however, diminished his frustration as he is forced to watch his teammates play without him.

"It sucks," he said. "It's not fun. I really wish I was out there."