SAN FRANCISCO — OG Anunoby He will “most likely” miss the remainder of the New York Knicks’ road trip because of what the team calls “injury management,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said Monday. The team did not provide a timetable for the injury beyond this week.
THE Knicks said Anunoby, who returned from right elbow surgery on March 12, missing Monday morning, the day of his match against the Warriors of the Golden State. He went home to have an MRI later. Thibodeau said the results “came back with no errors.” Instead, he showed inflammation in the area where he had surgery, the Knicks said.
“We want to make sure he’s completely healthy,” Thibodeau said. “We knew it was a possibility when you bring a guy back from surgery. If there’s discomfort and all that and he can’t function the way we think he should function on the field, we’ll just give him the time he needs to let things calm down and we will go from there.
New York has one more game on its road trip – at Denver Nuggets Thursday – before returning to Madison Square Garden for a Saturday match with the Brooklyn nets.
Anunoby started showing obvious signs of pain during the Knicks’ win at Portland on Thursday, when he grimaced most of the time while sliding with his right arm or shooting the basketball. The Knicks insisted after that game that he was not injured. They expected “bumps and bruises” like that, Thibodeau said after the game.
The next day, the team listed Anunoby as questionable for Saturday’s game against the Kings of Sacramento. They classified the illness as “injury management.” He played but shot just 1 of 8 from the field. Most of his misses, which he released with the arm that had just undergone surgery, were exceptionally short.
Once again, New York listed him as questionable for the next game, this one against the Warriors. But Monday morning, they upgraded his status from questionable to out.
Thibodeau declined to answer whether Anunoby returned from surgery too soon.
“We can’t work backwards,” he said. “He had to go through a lot of steps. He met all the benchmarks. He was exonerated. It’s a possibility. Every time you come back from surgery, this is what you look at. And so, we feel good about where he is. And just give him the time he needs.
Anunoby underwent surgery to remove a bone fragment from his right elbow in early February. He returned to on-field activities about three weeks later and transitioned to contact drills just six days later. On March 12, he was participating in games again.
The Knicks immediately broke out upon his return, winning their first three games with him back in the lineup. They are now 15-2 in games he plays this season.
But now, once again, he is out indefinitely.
“Anytime you come back like he did, get through a game, you’re going to be fine,” Thibodeau said. “Then the next day, you want to see how you feel the next day. That’s why a lot of times when a guy comes back, we always say he’s had training, but we want to see how he feels tomorrow. Well, it’s the same thing. He just had surgery, so he played the game. There is discomfort. So we’ll just let things calm down and we’ll go from there.
Anunoby, 26, is averaging 14.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.1 blocks per game for the Knicks this season.
(Photo by OG Anunoby: Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
