Knicks forward OG Anunoby won’t play Friday night in Philadelphia in Game 3 of New York’s Eastern Conference semifinals series against the 76ers, head coach Mike Brown told reporters pregame.
Anunoby was diagnosed with a hamstring strain after injuring his right leg late in the fourth quarter of the team’s 108-102 Game 2 win. He was listed as “questionable” coming into Friday. Anunoby is still considered “day-to-day.”
A bizarre sequence unfolded during Brown’s media availability a bit more than an hour before tip-off in Xfinity Mobile Arena. He was asked what Anunoby is able to do on the court right now. Brown deferred the question to a Knicks public-relations official asking, “What’s he able to do?”
Brown was given the vague answer that Anunoby is day-to-day. A reporter followed up by inquiring if Anunoby can run at the moment. Brown once again panned over to Knicks PR and echoed the question, “Can he run?”
The response Brown got that time? “Next question.”
Brown did reveal that wing Josh Hart and center Mitchell Robinson will both be available on Friday. Hart sustained a sprained left thumb in Game 2, and Robinson missed the contest because of illness.
When Anunoby’s hamstring strain occurred
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 on Wednesday. Right after the cut, Anunoby received a pass from 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, losing the ball on a Hart steal, 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.
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 you’d presume the head coach would want on the floor down the stretch of a two-possession playoff game.
“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.”
Anunoby’s impact in the postseason so far
The late exit brought a premature end to a night that saw Anunoby score 24 points on 9-for-17 shooting, with 5 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists, 1 block 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 — one that has showcased the depth and breadth of his contributions and skill-set on both ends of the floor.
“As we continue to move along, you really get a better sense or better feel of his feel for the game,” Brown said before Game 2. “He’s more than a willing passer. At his size, he causes matchup problems because you can’t always switch a smaller guy on him, because he’s pretty big and strong and athletic around the basket, especially if the spacing is right. He can play pick-and-roll. He can come off a pindown and make plays.”
That increased offensive menu stands out to 76ers head coach Nick Nurse, who coached Anunoby for the first six years of his career in Toronto.
“He’s kind of always been great at D, and then the shooting came,” Nurse said before Game 2. “And now he’s kind of — he’ll rebound heavily when they need him. He’ll cut. His cutting game has gotten a lot better. I think his starting and ending drives have gotten better, as well. He just kind of keeps getting better, year after year, and he’s just a hard-working guy.”
That work has paid major dividends in the Knicks’ start to the 2026 playoffs. 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 in the postseason, 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.
New York has outscored opponents by 118 points in Anunoby’s 282 minutes in these playoffs — tied with teammate Jalen Brunson for the highest plus-minus of any player in the 2026 postseason. The last player to average more than 20 points per game with a true shooting percentage (which factors in 2-point, 3-point and free-throw accuracy) of at least 60% over multiple postseason rounds, while also posting block and steal rates as high as Anunoby’s have been? Hakeem Olajuwon, all the way back in 1996.
The prospect of entering the next stage of their playoff journey without such a two-way difference-maker wasn’t one his fellow Knicks were eager to consider on Wednesday night.
“We’ll regroup tomorrow, see what the whole situation is,” Karl-Anthony Towns said.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Brunson said. “I don’t know too much.”
In Game 2, with Robinson sidelined by an illness, and both 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.
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. “… 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.”
Sources told Stefan Bondy of the New York Post that Anunoby’s strain is considered “very, very minor,” and that “this will not be a long recovery.”
With Anunoby unavailable as the series has shifted to Philadelphia for Game 3, the Knicks will need all hands on deck to pick up the considerable slack.
“He’s one of the best two-way players in the league, so it’s tough to replace that,” McBride told reporters in the Knicks’ locker room after Game 2. “But you don’t replace him with one guy. Everyone is going to have to step up.”
