The New York Knicks arrived in Philadelphia on Friday night with a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series, but they had to go into Game 3 without one of their most productive postseason players. OG Anunoby, who was listed as questionable earlier in the day, was ruled out about an hour before tipoff after straining his right hamstring late in Wednesday night’s 108-102 win.
Mike Brown confirmed the decision before the game, and he said the Knicks would have to keep playing the same way regardless of who was missing. “No matter who's in our out – Mitch (Robinson) was out for us last game – we just have to go out and try to do our job, whatever our job is,” Brown said, adding that nobody needed to do anything extraordinary and that the response had to be collective on both ends. The game was set for 7 p.m. ET.
Anunoby’s injury came with three minutes left in the fourth quarter of Game 2, after he grabbed at his leg on a cut to the basket. The team said afterward that he had a right hamstring strain. It is a blow for New York because Anunoby had been one of its most efficient postseason scorers, averaging 21 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals while shooting 61% from the floor. He also averaged 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 67 regular-season games.
The Knicks had already handled the 76ers twice in the series, winning 137-98 in Game 1 on Monday and then holding on in Game 2 without Joel Embiid on the other side. With Game 3 now coming in Philadelphia and Anunoby unavailable, the pressure shifts to the rest of New York’s rotation to keep the series from tightening.
That is the part Philadelphia can still use. A 2-0 deficit leaves little room, but an injury to a top two-way forward changes the shape of the series in a way that statistics alone do not capture. The Knicks still control the matchup, but the first real test of their depth arrived on Friday night.
