NEW YORK — Knicks forward OG Anunoby appeared to suffer a right leg injury late in the fourth quarter of the team’s 108-102 Game 2 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Anunoby appeared to pull up and reach for the back of his right leg as he cut to the basket with just over three minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Right after the cut, Anunoby received a pass from Josh Hart and elevated for a two-handed dunk, only to be blocked at the rim by Paul George:
After Mikal Bridges bailed out the possession with a midrange jumper to give the Knicks a 105-99 lead, Anunoby was clearly hobbling as he headed back down the court on defense and appeared to be calling to the Knicks bench to check out of the game. After Tyrese Maxey committed his sixth turnover of the game, losing the ball on a Josh Hart steal, Knicks head coach Mike Brown called timeout and sent Miles “Deuce” McBride in for Anunoby.
McBride would play the final two minutes and 31 seconds of the contest. Anunoby would head back to the New York locker room and would not return.
Advertisement
Brown told reporters he did not have an update on Anunoby’s status immediately after the game.
“You know, I haven’t talked to anybody,” Brown said. “They didn’t say anything. He looked like he was hopping.”
Brown looked off the podium, where a Knicks public-relations official informed him there was no update.
“I have not talked to medical yet,” Brown said.
Later, Brown fielded a follow-up question as to what transpired on the bench after Anunoby asked out — what, if anything, the training staff told him about the availability of a player that you’d presume the head coach would want on the floor down the stretch of a two-possession playoff game.
Advertisement
“Yeah, I haven’t — like I said, they haven’t told me,” Brown said. “I just know that he left the game, so I was like, ‘Deuce!’ And I turned and looked, and [Anunoby] wasn’t back. Nobody said he was back. So I have not talked to anybody yet, but he wasn’t — did he even come back on the bench? No.”
Asked if he knew if Anunoby would be undergoing any sort of testing, Brown replied, “I don’t know anything.”
The late exit brought a premature end to a night that saw Anunoby score 24 points on 9-for-17 shooting, five rebounds, four blocks, two assists, one steal and no turnovers. In a six-point win, the Knicks outscored the Sixers by 12 points in his 37 minutes of work, continuing what’s been a stellar start to the 2026 NBA playoffs for the nine-year veteran.
Entering Wednesday, Anunoby was averaging 21 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.6 steals, 1.1 assists and 1.1 blocks in 34.9 minutes per game, shooting a scorching 63.8% from the field, 59.4% from 3-point land on 4.6 attempts per game, and 78.8% from the foul line on 4.8 trips a night. He was integral in the Knicks’ dominant close to the first round against the Atlanta Hawks, and ruthlessly efficient in their blowout Game 1 over the 76ers. In Wednesday’s Game 2, with backup center Mitchell Robinson sidelined by an illness, and both Karl-Anthony Towns and third-string big Ariel Hukporti plagued by foul trouble, Brown tapped Anunoby to serve as a small-ball center — a role in which he served admirably, keying some strong stretches that helped New York stay connected late in the second and third quarters.
Advertisement
Those stretches — including one sequence in which Anunoby got a deflection that led to a Knicks steal, grabbed two offensive rebounds off teammates’ misses, and drilled a third-chance catch-and-shoot 3 off a feed by Brunson — showcased just how special and versatile a player the Knicks have in Anunoby, and just how significant a loss he’d be if he were to miss any time.
“At that size and athleticism and IQ, feel, two-way player — you want a guy like OG on your team,” Brown said before Game 2. “As we continue to move along, you really get a better sense or better feel of his feel for the game […] He’s — like a few other guys on our team — the ultimate definition of sacrifice, where you just go and do your job as best you can to try to help the team win.”
