SACRAMENTO, Calif. — OG Anunoby didn’t miss this game after all.
According to him, he never thought of that.
“I didn’t even know I was a suspect,” he said.
Listed as 50-50 due to “injury management,” the defensive-minded forward played in Saturday night’s 98-91 win against the Kings, two days after experiencing discomfort with his surgically repaired elbow. He was a starter.
He struggled offensively, missing seven of eight shot attempts, but added to his excellent performance in New York.
With him in the lineup, the Knicks are now 15-2.
“OG is a basketball player,” Tom Thibodeau said. “He does a little bit of everything.”
Before the game, Thibodeau indicated that Anunoby would be under a minutes restriction, or in the coach’s words, “guidelines.” Anunoby then logged 33 minutes, his lowest since joining the team.
“Every game, he goes through this right after he comes back, so it’s going to be painful, but we’ll just see where it is,” Thibodeau said. “He got through shootaround (Saturday morning), so that was good. So, it’s just day-to-day.”
“There will be some days where it hurts,” the coach added.
Still, the Knicks didn’t put Anunoby on the “injury management” list until after Thursday’s win over the Blazers, when Anunoby winced in pain and clutched his elbow after going for a steal.
“It just hurts,” Anunoby said Saturday.
Rookies Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks had perhaps their best games since joining the Knicks, scoring a combined 21 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, while holding the offense in check while Brunson was rested.
It was important to give Brunson fresh legs until the end.
“We were just buying time. The group that was there (Bogdanovic and Burks) was doing pretty well, so we thought about giving (Brunson) an extra minute, an extra minute and a half here. ,” Thibodeau said. “We knew they were putting a lot of stress on him, so we wanted to make sure he had the energy to finish.”
Josh Hart became a Peloton session instructor last week and participated in a 20-minute studio session the night before, recording 20 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists in a win over the Sixers.
“I had a good game, so I might have to go to the Peloton before the home game,” Hart said.
His appearance was part of a partnership between Peloton and the NBA. Mikal Bridges, Seth Curry and Karl-Anthony Towns were also announced as guest speakers, but it’s unclear what will happen as Towns recently underwent knee surgery.
Isaiah Hartenstein said he stopped stretching his Achilles tendon in the locker room during games because the media thought he was injured.
“Everyone kept saying I was hurt, so now I’m letting everyone see me,” he said.
Hartenstein instead warms it with a basket post. He was on a one-minute restriction and heading into Saturday had not played more than 24 minutes since Feb. 26.
“The good thing was I felt good,” Hartenstein said.
