INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks, regrettably, have been here before.
It only took 27 days after the OG Anunoby trade for the Knicks to get a foreshadowing of the circumstances currently presented in their second-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers.
Julius Randle dislocated his shoulder in the final minutes of a Jan. 27 victory over the Miami Heat, and two days later, Anunoby discovered inflammation in his right elbow, the root cause of which was a loose bone fragment requiring a procedure to remove.
The Knicks eventually ruled Randle out for the season, and Anunoby came back early, aggravated his injured elbow, left again, then returned for the final six regular-season games.
Now, he’s out one more, this time due to a strained left hamstring that’s sidelined him at least Game 3, if not also Game 4, and with Randle also absent, it’s Groundhog’s Day for a Knicks team that can’t shake the injury bug.
The Knicks, however, are using their past misfortunes as a current advantage. They leaned on Precious Achiuwa and Miles “Deuce” McBride when Anunoby and Randle missed time during the regular season.
Now, having taken a 2-0 series lead to Indianapolis, they will lean on them again until Anunoby can return.
“We’ve been through it before,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said ahead of tipoff on Friday. “Basically our starting frontline is out. Precious did a good job when he was in. Deuce did a good job when he was in. So we’ll see how it unfolds.”
The lack of bodies, of course, gave the Knicks fewer options.
The Knicks weren’t down just Randle and Anunoby — they also lost both backup big man Mitchell Robinson to a season-ending stress injury in his left ankle and sixth man Bojan Bogdanovic to a severe ankle injury in the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Thibodeau has been reluctant, if not outright refusing to go deeper into his rotation than seven players. With Anunoby as the latest scratch, Thibodeau only has six players available he’s trusted with minutes in the playoffs: Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Hart, Isaiah Hartenstein and the pair of reserves in Achiuwa and McBride.
Hart has been in the starting lineup since Randle’s injury, and Thibodeau chose to start Achiuwa over McBride in place of Anunoby for Game 3.
The versatile big man acquired alongside Anunoby in the Dec. 30 trade with the Toronto Raptors averaged 12.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game in the 18 starts he got when Anunoby and Randle exited the rotation in late January.
Thibodeau went with McBride when Anunoby went down a second time in March, and McBride averaged 17.9 points per game in 14 games as a starter until his return.
“That those guys played very well when we needed them to and they stepped up, ” Hart said after shootaround Friday morning. “Precious has had huge games. Deuce has had huge games and we are going to need them to play that way until someone comes back or until the end of the season. So, we have full faith in those guys and we want them to go out there and be as aggressive and play their game as best as possible.”
One thing’s for sure: Thibodeau is going to ride his trio of Villanova starters.
Brunson and Hart lead the NBA in total playoff minutes logged, and DiVincenzo isn’t far behind. Hart played all 48 minutes of both Games 1 and 2 against the Pacers.
“I can’t say [Anunoby being out] means Hart’s going to play more minutes because he’s already playing the most he can play,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said ahead of tipoff on Friday. “There’s a couple different ways that they’ve gone in this situation — they’ll either play smaller to start or they’ll play bigger with Achiuwa. Hart will move to the four and basically take OG’s spot at four.
“There are similarities to [Hart’s] game and OG’s game. The thing is none of it gets easier. It just doesn’t get easier.”
Carlisle knows it doesn’t matter who suits up for the Knicks. A Thibodeau-coached team is going to give you a dogfight, no matter who takes the court in orange and blue.
“The Knicks thrive on these kind of challenges,” the Pacers’ head coach said. “You’ve got to give them a lot of credit for the things they’ve overcome this year. And our guys are learning that the level of toughness you need to win at this stage of the playoffs is very high.”
