The Knicks officially made OG Anunoby and Josh Hart active for Game 7 against the Pacers a half-hour before tipoff at Madison Square Garden.
Anunoby, who missed Games 3 through 6 of the second-round playoff series with a left hamstring strain, and Hart, who suffered an abdominal strain in Game 6, were back in the starting lineup Sunday after entering the afternoon listed as questionable.
Both were cleared to play after going through pregame warmups.
“Just going out there, getting your blood flowing and that competitiveness will help,” Hart said at his locker, shortly before taking the court to warm up. “You always see it with a lot of guys. They’ll play through stuff, and it looks like they got hit by a car once the clock hits zero. I think that’s definitely part of it, and obviously it’s a blessing that this game is at the Garden.”
Anunoby scored 28 points in 28 minutes in Game 2 before leaving late in the third quarter. The forward missed the next four games, creating another void in a Knicks frontcourt that struggled to defend All-Star Pacers forward Pascal Siakam without him.
Hart, meanwhile, tweaked his abdomen during the first quarter of Friday’s Game 6. He played through the injury for much of the 116-103 loss in Indiana, ultimately spending 31 minutes on the court before being ruled out late in the game.
The 6-4 Hart entered Sunday’s Game 7 averaging 42.6 minutes and 11.8 rebounds per game in the playoffs, leading the Knicks in both categories. The guard-forward played the entirety of four of the Knicks’ first eight playoff games.
Hart assumed much of the responsibility of guarding the 6-8 Siakam in Anunoby’s absence, particularly as the Knicks rolled with a smaller starting lineup that featured the 6-1 Miles McBride alongside fellow guards Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo in Games 5 and 6.
Anunoby and Hart’s ailments added to a long list of Knicks injuries. Three-time All-Star forward Julius Randle suffered a dislocated shoulder in January that proved to be season-ending.
Sharp-shooting reserve forward Bojan Bogdanović underwent season-ending foot and wrist surgeries during the Knicks’ first-round series against the 76ers. Center Mitchell Robinson remains more than a month away from being re-evaluated after undergoing his second left-ankle surgery of the year.
Brunson, meanwhile, missed more than a quarter of Game 2 with a foot injury, though he played at least 31 minutes in every game since then entering Sunday. He scored 44 points in a Game 5 win.
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