At the moment, the New York Knicks are only a little bit ahead of the Indiana Pacers (2-0). All they have to do to guarantee their spot in the Eastern Conference final is win two more games. The good news is that while New York continues to battle with injuries, those triumphs have a significant increase in the amount yet to be attained.
The Athletic, OG Anunoby is the most recent casualty, having left the game late in the second quarter due to a hamstring ailment that will prevent him from playing in at least the third.
Jalen Brunson, who has emerged as a true New York icon, is classified as doubtful for Game 3 due to a foot issue that kept him out of the game for the majority of the first half of Game 2. On what was, even more astonishingly, the 54th anniversary of Willis Reed hobbling out of the locker room for Game 7 of the Finals, Brunson came back to put on an amazing performance in the second half.
While there are differences between Game 7 of the Finals and Game 2 of the conference semifinals, Brunson, unlike Reed, must attempt to continue playing. This is not a "jump-the-juice" moment. In addition to needing Brunson desperately to defeat the Pacers, the Knicks also need him to stand any hope of winning their anticipated conference finals game with Boston.
Recall that Bojan Bogdanovic, Mitchell Robinson, and Julius Randle are already out of the Knicks' postseason picture. Seven players, including Anunoby and Brunson, are in action. You're down to six if you take away Anunoby. Once Brunson is eliminated, the rest is math.
Just having enough warm folks will do the trick; forget about the output the Knicks are losing. A good 44 minutes of Deuce McBride with a healthy dose of Alec Burks are ahead of you. These unfortunate injuries are quite the opposite for a squad that has one of the most electrifying moods in the NBA right now.
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