OG Anunoby won’t play in Game 5 of the Knicks’ series against the Pacers on Tuesday due to a strained left hamstring, but the injury report isn’t all bad news, Steve Popper of Newsday tweets. Jalen Brunson, who is battling a right foot injury, and Isaiah Hartenstein, who banged his left shoulder in Game 4, are not on it. Anunoby hasn’t played since Game 2.
We have more on the Knicks:
- They were embarrassed by their performance in Game 4, when they lost by 32 points. Ironman Josh Hart took his share of the blame, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post writes. “It’s the playoffs. You gotta find it. That’s something that we didn’t do (Sunday),” Hart said. “I put that on my shoulders, someone who brings energy, brings hustle, the kinda things I didn’t do (Sunday). It’s time to get better. It’s rest and recovery. But mentally, we gotta make sure we’re prepared to do everything we need to do to get a win on Tuesday.”
- The Knicks return home for Game 5 and Donte DiVincenzo is confident the Game 4 stinker won’t carry over, according to Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post. “We’ll be fine,” he said. “We’re not worried about it. I know this group and Tuesday is a different game. It has nothing to do with (Sunday). It’s always good to go home. It’s also better to go home after a loss like this where mentally everybody is locked in and ready for the next game and then we will have that energy from the Garden to feed off as well. It’s super big for us. Like I said, this group is going to respond.”
- What kind of adjustments can the Knicks make? Fred Katz of The Athletic speculates they might use Brunson more off the ball, running him around screens and having Hart or DiVincenzo initiate the offense. They could also tweak the starting lineup, going with Miles McBride in place of Precious Achiuwa to create better spacing on offense.
We are out of options. I don’t like starting Deuce over Precious because someone has to guard Siakam. But I don’t like starting Precious either because the spacing would stink; Brunson would have too little room to operate.
I’ve heard the suggestion that assigning Hart to guard Siakam could bait Indiana into a half-court game that negates Indiana’s strength in transition and lets the short-handed Knicks preserve a little energy. Maybe that’s the way to go. If Burks stays hot, we could stay small the whole game, with Precious as strictly the backup center and Burks backing up 1-4.
It’s not the desperate situation that the media is making it out to be. The NYK are without 4 of their top 8 guys, but 2 (Randle and Mitch) have missed most of the year, and a third (BB), while coming on when hurt, wasn’t really consequential in the 50 win season. We still have 8 players who have seen rotation minutes during the year at some point. 4 of the 8 are core players, and have been in the starting unit for pretty much the entire second half of the year and the playoffs. We also have McBride, who’s been a full rotation player during all of that period. PA has his limitations but has played very well (even impactfully) for us at times this year. The last two (Burks and Sims) might be wildcards right now, and that’s the soft spot. But each knows the system and has played very well in it before. Burks, in particular, appears ready to contribute, and Sims might not be needed that much, and is more than up to the kind of short first half rotation he’s seen in games since Anunoby went down.
As the season, right now, is a 3 game series, and the teams have 2 off days before game 6. We have very little margin for error on the perimeter. We’ll need 3 of the 4 distance shooters we have shoot well (that includes Burks). But if they do, I think they’ll win.
Sims is a zero on offense and has low BBIQ. Burks is a streaky shooter who brings nothing else to the table and is unplayable if his shot doesn’t fall. Precious and Deuce always contribute on D but are unreliable on O. Our rotation consists of one hobbled superstar, three guys who profile as 5th starters/6th men, two fringe rotation guys, and two benchwarmers.
To put it another way: Indy is without Mathurin, maybe their 4th best player. Take away, say, Siakam, Turner, and Toppin. They start Jackson, Smith, Nesmith, Nembhard, and Haliburton, and bring Sheppard, McConnell, and McDermott off the bench. How would they do?
Yeah no team can sustain this level of injuries. If they run it back next year they could be really good though. Add at least the 3 obvious guys back into the rotation and it has serious impact. With everyone back?
Robinson/Hartenstein
Randle/Achiuwa
Anunoby/Bogdanovic
DiVicenzo/Hart
Brunson/McBride
Plus they have two firsts this year. They are in a great position. They have salaries to match in trades both now and in the future. Obviously even running it back means being a tax team but I don’t think it would be outrageously so right away.
I am not a Knicks fan but I will acknowledge they have done a tremendous job building this team. It will be interesting to see what happens this off season.
Sure they were missing Randle and Mitch for awhile already but losing OG and Bojan makes them miss those two even way more. The media is right to say the knicks are nowhere near full strength right now; it’s near impossible for anyone to win with 4 of your top 8 guys out
Let’s go Knicks !!!!
Must win tonight. Let’s go Knicks!!!