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At one point this season, the New York Knicks were the hottest team in the entire NBA.
Jalen Brunson was playing at an MVP-caliber level and recently acquired OG Anunoby appeared to fit like a glove. But like any good Tom Thibodeau-coached team, eventually, it comes time to pay the piper.
Well, that time is now, and if Knicks guard Josh Hart is to be believed, it will continue throughout the rest of the season.
A trio of Knicks starters — Anunobdy, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson — sat out of New York’s 113-112 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
Both Anunoby and Randle have been out of action since January 2. Anunoby dealt with right elbow discomfort that eventually required a procedure to be done. Randle, meanwhile, separated his shoulder after Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. took a charge against him.
Now it appears that both are likely to miss the rest of the season, including the postseason.
“I’m looking at it like this is the team we’re going to have,” Hart said when asked if there was anything to take away from New York’s performance with three starters out. “I think that’s how we have to approach it, that those guys aren’t coming back and obviously we’ll be pleasantly surprised if they come back.”
Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau Doesn’t Sound Optimistic About Injuries
Thibodeau then offered the following answer when asked about the possibility that Anunoby might not return:
“We just deal with reality,” he said. “You deal with it day-to-day. When he’s strong enough, he gets out there.”
Things didn’t sound much better when he spoke about Randle.
“Just keep doing what he’s doing, day-to-day,” Thibodeau said of Randle’s rehab process. “You never know when it turns. That’s basically the approach we take.
“Rehab is really your game, so put everything you have into that. And eventually, you’ll get there; you can’t get discouraged; just keep working at it. The other guys, they have a job to do.”