What a difference a year makes for Knicks' OG Anunoby
Knicks forward OG Anunoby drives on Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard and Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam in the first quarter during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
It was tough to sit and watch.
The last time the Knicks and Pacers met in a playoff game at Madison Square Garden, everything was on the line and OG Anunoby was on the bench for all but the first five minutes.
Anunoby had wanted to be out there on the floor with his teammates for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Knicks and the Pacers last year. He wanted it so badly that — despite having missed four straight games with a pulled hamstring — he pulled a mini-Willis Reed and played the first five minutes of the winner-take-all game.
After firing up the crowd by hitting his first two jumpers, Anunoby clearly wasn’t moving like himself and headed to the bench where he spent the rest of the game just wishing he could be healthy and out there with his teammates.
Anunoby finally got that wish Wednesday night as the Knicks opened up their Eastern Conference finals series against the Pacers at Madison Square Garden with a 138-135 loss in overtime. This time, Anunoby — who scored 16 points in the defeat — is fairly healthy, which could make all the difference.
The Knicks suffered a plethora of injuries in last year’s playoffs, but their series against Indiana changed direction when he was injured in the third quarter of Game 2. Anunoby had scored 28 points and the Knicks were leading by nine when he came up limping after missing a layup on a fast break 4:02 left in the third quarter.
The Knicks won that game to take a 2-0 lead, but then then went 1-4 with Anunoby missing all but the beginning of Game 7.
“It was a tough series,” Anunoby recalled at Wednesday’s shootaround. “We lost in seven. We could have won. . . . But you can’t really think about that. Just move forward and it’s another opportunity.”
It’s the kind of opportunity that hasn’t been seen in New York in 25 years and the entire city seems to have gotten on board. The Knicks are not the same team that lost to the Pacers last season as they made big offseason trades to land starters Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges. Yet, it’s the trade they made in the middle of last season for Anunoby that might have had the biggest impact.
Since Anunoby joined the Knicks in that December 2023 deal with the Raptors, the Knicks' record is 65-32 in the regular season and 14-7 in the playoffs. Without him, the Knicks barely .500 (36-31) in the regular season and 1-3 in the playoffs.
Still, heading into the playoffs, some people were scratching their heads over the fact that this offseason the Knicks gave the largest free-agent contract in franchise history — five years for $212 million — to a guy who was their third and sometimes fourth offensive option.
But then came Game 1 the Eastern Conference semifinals that made believers out of Knicks fans and planted doubt in the heads of the Celtics.
It was Anunoby who came up huge in Game 1 to help the Knicks dig themselves out of a 20-point hole in the third quarter. Anunoby scored 29 points, shooting 6-for-11 from beyond the arc, while his defense helped hold the Celtics to 15-of-60 on three-pointers. The importance of that win can’t be overstated considering that the Knicks had gone 0-4 in the regular season against the Celtics.
Anunoby also came up big for the Knicks when they were missing Jalen Brunson for a month near the end of the regular season as he rehabbed his sprained ankle. Though Anunoby has always been known as one of the best defensive players in the league, this has been his best year both offensively and health-wise as he averaged a career-high 18 points and tied his career high by playing 70 games.
A big part of what OG Anunoby is going to have to do in this series against Indiana is help contain Pascal Siakam, the Pacers' leading scorer in both the regular and postseason. Anunoby and Siakam were teammates on the Toronto team that won an NBA title in 2019.
“His impact on both sides of the ball is huge,” Brunson said Wednesday. “Obviously, defensively, everyone knows what he can do, but offensively, it’s the same thing. When he’s able to have big games on both sides of the ball, we’re gonna hopefully win more times than we don’t. He’s obviously a big part of what we do.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
