Knicks start Precious Achiuwa in Game 3 with OG Anunoby out
Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam blocks a shot by Knicks forward Precious Achiuwa in Game 3 on Friday. Credit: AP/Michael Conroy
INDIANAPOLIS — Before the question was complete, a smile already was forming on the face of Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo.
With the growing number of injuries and absences for the Knicks, who owned a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Pacers, what would he think of the suggestion that the Knicks could punt Friday night's Game 3, allow Jalen Brunson time to get fully healthy and turn to the outer reaches of the bench?
“Hell, no, you can stop there,” DiVincenzo said. “We ain't punting nothing. We're coming in here to win the game.”
There is little surprise there, not with Tom Thibodeau coaching the Knicks. Thibodeau has taken an approach that is far different from many of his peers, and it has worked for the Knicks, who are in the conference semifinals for the second straight season.
The best-laid plans at the start of the season have been detoured, with four opening day starters gone — two traded away (RJ Barrett and Quentin Grimes) and two lost to season-ending injuries (Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson). Even the plans from the start of the postseason have been altered with OG Anunoby unavailable for Game 3 — and likely beyond — with a left hamstring strain.
Anunoby traveled with the Knicks, but there is no timetable for a return. Thibodeau said, “He’s just doing treatment and we'll see where he is each day.”
The Knicks have soldiered on, and even with Brunson questionable until shortly before game time with what the team called a sore right foot, that continued Friday night.
“We’re going to do the same things,” DiVincenzo said. “Run the same play, play the same way. So, same old.”
As little doubt as there was that the Knicks would play to win, there was just as little doubt that Brunson would be on the court when the game began. Even after he was injured in the first quarter Wednesday and was forced to sit out the final 15:28 of the first half of Game 2, he played the entire second half and scored 24 of his 29 points.
But that doesn't mean Thibodeau didn't have decisions to make. With Anunoby gone, the Knicks had to decide whether to go with traditional size as a replacement, inserting Precious Achiuwa into the starting lineup — the move that was made when Anunoby was injured in the third quarter Wednesday — or to resort to the smaller lineup that they utilized at times in the regular season, adding Deuce McBride to the starting lineup and shifting DiVincenzo to small forward and Josh Hart to power forward.
The issues with that were twofold, though, particularly with Brunson possibly limited. If McBride joined the starting lineup, the next backup at the guard spots would be Alec Burks, who played 44 seconds Wednesday and not at all in the postseason before that. If Achiuwa started, the Knicks would have McBride as the backup guard and Jericho Sims as the backup at power forward and center, so that was the way that Thibodeau opted to go.
“That those guys played very well when we needed them to and they stepped up,” Hart said. “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.”
The Pacers weren’t focusing on the absence of Anunoby.
“I can’t say it means Hart’s going to play more minutes because he’s already playing the most he can play,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “There’s a couple different ways that they’ve gone in this situation . . . The thing is none of it gets easier. It just doesn’t get easier. The Knicks thrive on these kind of challenges. 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.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.