The Knicks Go Up 2-0 While Waiting On OG Anunoby’s Hamstring News

A 108-102 win can feel ordinary on paper, then you watch the fourth quarter and realize it was a statement. We react to the Knicks taking Game 2 at Madison Square Garden and zoom in on the moment the game flips: New York turns the screws, Philadelphia goes cold, and the Sixers manage only 12 points in the final frame. That’s not luck. That’s a defense-first identity showing up when the playoffs get tight. 

We also get into the biggest worry hanging over a 2-0 lead: OG Anunoby grabbing his leg late. We talk about what the play looks like, why hamstring history makes everyone nervous, and what the Knicks may have to change if OG misses time. “Next man up” sounds simple until you’re trying to replace elite wing defense, steals, and 37 hard minutes in a hostile road game. 

From there we break down the chess match: guarding an athletic guard like Tyrese Maxey, dealing with early shot-making from Paul George, and why talk of “fatigue” often starts with forced rotations and bruising possessions. We also shout out the steady stuff that travels, like Karl-Anthony Towns filling the box score and Josh Hart doing the dirty work, plus the lineup options that could matter in Philly like Deuce McBride and Mitchell Robinson. Subscribe, share the show with a Knicks fan, and leave a review, then tell us this: if OG sits, who should start in Game 3?

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Transcript

Game Two Result And First Impressions

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The New York Knicks take game two 108-102 against the Seventy Sixers. Of course, we're gonna have to worry about the status of game three for that venerable OG Ananobi. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about again this Knicks 108-102 win at MSG. You know what? You can't win every game by 50. You can't win every game by 48. Hell, you can't win every game by 25. But the Knicks defense did what they needed to do in that fourth, holding the Philadelphia 76ers, only 12 points. I mean, it was one of those, it was NBA playoffs. That's what this reminded me of. The other games reminded me of the Knicks were, yes, of course they were NBA playoff games, but it was almost like a like like a track event that the Knicks were so unstoppable. The Knicks had a good game. They had a good game defensively. The Sixers just had a good game as well. It was the early shooting of uh Paul Jordan, Tyrese, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxie, which kept this uh kept this game close and gave the uh Sixers a one-point lead going into halftime. But again, this is playoff basketball. They played even in the third 28-28. And then, like I said, what happened? Well, the Sixers went cold. And that's what's gonna happen when you have Joel Embiid out with his ovary injury. You know, it's I evidently he hurt his vagina. Oh, you know what? But that's all right. We're not even gonna talk about that. But like I said, the Sixers made this a tight one, but we need to talk about Oji Ananobi. He had suffered a uh hamstring earlier, a left hamstring injury earlier this season and missed about uh three weeks. And those that remember history, of course, and that's not that long ago, he suffered a hamstring injury in game two of the Eastern Conference semifinals back in 2024. Uh the Knicks were up 2-0 in that series against the Pacers, but ultimately lost in seven. He did try to come back in the final game, but clearly the injury kind of impacted the game. I mean, if if you take a look at the play, um, it definitely looks like a hamstring. There were some speculating that it was a thigh contusion. I'm I'm not I'm watching the play over and over again, but I'm just I'm kind of not I'm not I'm not seeing that. You you hope it's an upper thigh contusion because while that's painful, you can play through it. Um he appeared to suffer the injury with about, I'm gonna say, a little over three minutes left in the game. He kind of cut towards the basket and grabbed his right leg when he tried to dunk. Um he was subbed out moments later. It wasn't that long before he was out of the game. So we're gonna have to keep our fingers crossed. We're gonna have to see what we can do. I mean, if he's good, if he's out, you know, it's gotta be like we've always talked about this on all of our other channels, on the Knicks channels, on the Giants channels, it's gotta be next man up. You know, you're you're gonna have to rely on maybe starting Deuce McBride or um or even Mitchell Robinson. You gotta take a look at that. Now, Mitchell Robinson was out yesterday with the sniffles. Um was it he was not a factor. We didn't we didn't need we didn't need Mitchie the kid because of the loss of Joel Dambeat. Um so we we were good. But like I said, game three is gonna be Friday night at 7 p.m. Of course, over in Philadelphia. We got to keep our fingers crossed. Like I said, if OG can, you know, if he can come back in a game or two, maybe it's just a slight strain. Maybe maybe he was having cramps. I don't know. We we kind of have to wait and see. But like I said, if we take if we take a look at this game from yesterday, it again, it it was the Knicks' defense at that in that fourth quarter. And at the heart of the Knicks, in my opinion, yes, while they do have these offensive explosions, while they do have this free-flowing offensive time, but the heart of the Knicks, even going back to Tom Thibodeau, is the defense. You have to play defense, and you especially have to play defense in the playoffs. That's that's that's all that that's literally all there is to it. Now, when you have someone like OG Ananobi who's been on fire, who sarcastically had his worst performance yesterday, up to that injury. Then, of course, that is being sarcastic. It's just one of those things, like I said, it's gonna have to be next man up. You're gonna have to play defense, gonna have to be the heart of the defense. And like I said, the 76ers came in shooting hot. They came in shooting on fire, but uh the Knicks owned the paint for most of the game, and it was the Phillies three-pointers. When they stopped falling, that's when everything shifted. And that's what we're gonna have to do. We're gonna, you know, I'm I'm personally thinking, you know, I love it because you can listen to the Philadelphia, uh, you listen to the Philadelphia sports radio, you listen to their podcasters. There was fatigue that that downed the the mighty 76ers. It wasn't the fact that the Knicks just played stifling defense in that fourth quarter. It wasn't the fact that the Knicks are maybe a better team. It was fatigue. Listen, you gotta take what you got to take, but this is also a team that that that pushed Boston the seven and one. So after being down 3-1. So, you know, as the Knicks, I just want to close this series out. I just want to finish this shit. I just want to get it done and get it over with. Now, the health for Joel Dembi, again, is going to be um in question for going into game three. But right now, the most important game of the season is gonna be this game three for Philly because this this is this is life or death. This not really life or death. This this is do or die. Again, not really do or die either, but you have to win. If you're Philly, you can't go down 3-0. Because my opinion, if you go down 3-0, you're never gonna escape MSG for game five, even though I have tickets in Philly for game six. I'm just I'm just saying that. Um the thing is this with the Knicks, and I'm gonna say this before, when you when you have these athletic guards, they always worry me with the Knicks. And I don't even know why, because we have the wing defenders, but Tyrese and Maxi always worries me. It's one of those things, it's just when we find when you you look at these guys and you say, okay, there's these guys are young, they're athletic, they can do so many things. But at if you think about this, the Knicks should have no problem really guarding these guys and taking these guys out. And and that's what we that's kind of what we saw yesterday. And again, it was bridges and heart, that which is the strength. I mean, there they were really mixing it up. They were, you know, they were defending. And honestly, Maxie looked gassed going into that fourth quarter. He scored just five of his points in the second half after having 19 in the first 25 minutes. He didn't look, he didn't look the same. He didn't look as aggressive. He didn't, you know, at times he didn't look interested. He was it was fine because you know what's interesting? We've we talked about this with maybe it's something in the water in Philadelphia because you you talk about when Ben Simmons in Philly used to pass up shots, passed up a layup to kick it out to the outside, passed up a shore two because you know he didn't want to choke. Maxie at times yesterday looked like he was fine just making the pass instead of taking the shot. And honestly, his teammates, when you're making the pass, his teammates didn't really help him out that much. So, I mean, it's one of those things that we have to take a look at. We gotta, we gotta, we gotta just um, like I said, we just have to play the same rotational defense that we have been playing. We gotta keep bringing in our guys. We gotta make sure that when they when we see someone getting hot on the Sixers, you know, if if you know, whomever it is, if it's Paul George, I mean, Paul George was on fire in the first quarter. But if it's Paul George or Tyrese Maxie, we need to rotate, we need to shift. And we, like I said, we, you know, OG on an obi, 37 minutes, 24 points. This this is the these are some things, these are points that we're gonna have to replace. And I think we have the bench depth to do it. I wouldn't want to be without OG for an extended period of time, but you also have Carl Anthony Towns who played, he played his all Carl Anthony Towns does now is for all the shit that he's taken all season long, for all the backlash he gets, all he does is like I said, he's just a double-double guy. 27 minutes, 20 rebounds, excuse me, 20 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, only three turnovers. Again, you know, a plus six. Josh Hart, while his stat line may not look, you know, endearing to some with his only five points, but again, he played 44 minutes, seven rebounds, six assists. He was three steals. He was that defensive guy, he was at defensive stalk worth. And like I said, the the one thing we're gonna miss about OG Ananobi was his four steals as well. But you have guys on the bench that we can rotate in. You're probably gonna see more of Jose Alvarado coming in. Uh Jordan Clarkson, you know, we're gonna need a little bit more of an offensive pickup. Like I said, it's gonna be interesting, like I said, bringing back Mitchell Robinson on game three. So we're gonna we're gonna have to take a look at that as well. But the Knicks are in the Knicks right now are in a good situation. The Knicks right now are in a good direction. Um, we have game four on Sunday in Philadelphia, and that's gonna be a 3.30 start. Game five is back in New York on Tuesday. The time is to be determined. Then game six and game six, if needed, and I'm hoping we just take it in game. I've already said I hope we take it in four. I want the sweep because I need it, I need an OG rest. But if we take a look at uh game six would be on the let's see here, game six would be on May 14th. Uh and game seven will be back at MSG on Sunday the 17th. I don't know, guys. I'm fine. I'm I'm like I said, I'm leery with the OG. If I hit panic mode yet, no, because the Knicks are probably not going to give us any full details and information for you know, probably till later today, if not going into tomorrow. Could it be a thigh contusion? I don't think so. I think that's just wishful thinking by a lot of people on X. But like I said, with the 108-102 win going up 2-0, going into Philly, Knicks have played well at times and in very hostile environments. You know, they they've put up big numbers, and like I said, if they stay together as a team, and I think they will because I think you have a nice catalyst, I think you have a nice core, and we've we've been saying that for a while, but if they stay together as a team, if everyone plays their role, hell, Ariel Hakaporti came in for seven minutes. I love Ariel Hakaporti. I really do. I want to get an Ariel Hakaporti number 55. I'm an old Knicks fan. I've said this before millions of times. He reminds me of Ken the Animal Bannister. Ken the Animal Bannister's only job was to go in there and kind of be what his nickname was. You know, be that beast. Go in there and take the foul. Go in and foul somebody hard. Reminds me of early 80s, even Pat Riley, nick basketball. So we'll be fine. Don't panic. Don't hit the ejection seat. We're all good. We're 2-0. Let OG, let, let the OG non nobody hopefully just get a game rest. This is him. This is New York Knicks unleashed. And I'm out of here.