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When the iconic New Year’s ball dropped at Times Square, New York Knicks‘ newly-acquired player OG Anunoby was holed up in a nearby hotel.
Oblivious to the celebration and revelry outside his hotel, the 26-year-old Anunoby dozed off for some much-needed rest after cramming like a college student preparing for his exam.
“I didn’t leave my room yesterday,” Anunoby told reporters after helping the Knicks take down Western Conference’s best team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, 112-106 to usher in the new year.
“I had to do like physical [exam] and stuff. Meet with medical [staff] and all bunch of people. So I got in last night — phone calls and stuff — and then had to go to bed.”
Save for fouling out with still four minutes left, Anunoby would have scored a perfect 10/10 in his first test as a Knickerbocker.
Worth the Price
It did not take long for Anunoby to prove Knicks president Leon Rose made the right move.
The Knicks gave up their sparkplug off the bench and one of their top perimeter defenders in Immanuel Quickley, and their no. 3 guy, former no. 3 pick, RJ Barrett and an early second-round pick in the next draft.
The early returns suggest it’s all worth the hefty price.
Anunoby produced 17 points on 7-of-12 shots, including 3-of-6 from 3, six rebounds, two steals and one assist in 35 minutes. The most important stat was his game-high plus-19, showing how huge he impacted the game despite zero practice.
“New terminology, new everything,” Anunoby said. “[I was] just trying to figure everything out as fast as I can. So a lot of read and react.”
Anunoby’s defense and 3-point shooting spelled the difference for the Knicks as they snapped a three-game skid.
His corner 3 gravity created more space for Julius Randle to operate inside. Randle’s rampage made sure Anunoby’s solid debut did not go to waste.
“Julius [Randle] had an and1 at the end. Great play. Sealed the win,” Anunoby said of which play he remembers most in his Knicks debut.
Randle scored eight of the last Knicks’ nine points after Anunoby fouled out. The Knicks’ two-time All-Star finished with 39 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter, in an efficient 14-of-24 shooting.
Perfect Piece
Randle’s monster finish started with Anunoby’s sticky defense on Minnesota’s go-to-guy Anthony Edwards, whose miss led to a Randle transition layup off Jalen Brunson’s career-high 14th assist.
That play showed in full display how the Knicks’ new “Big 3” can complement each other.
“He seems like a perfect piece that complements our team very well,” Randle said of Anunoby.
Anunoby is the perfect 3-and-D player to slot in between Randle and Brunson — a role that Barrett struggled to fulfill. He can toggle between wings and bigs with ease.
Anunoby forced Edwards to 3 turnovers while holding Karl-Anthony Towns to a 2-of-5 shooting when he was their primary defender, per NBA tracking data.
“I thought [for his] first game, [Anunoby was] impressive really just to be ready and to kind of figure it out like on the fly,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters after the win. “He played smart, played off people well, played great defense, hustled, moved without the ball, shot good shots, made good plays. So [it’s a] very good start.”
Indeed.
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