After missing the Knicks‘ final four games leading into the All-Star break with a toe injury, OG Anunoby says he is ready to play against the Detroit Pistons on Thursday.
Anunoby, who the team listed as out with a “toenail avulsion,” said he currently has no nail on the injured toe after painfully having it removed.
“I’m not for sure exactly how or what led up to it but I had it removed,” he said after practice at the team’s Tarrytown training facility on Thursday. “It’s getting better each day. It’s not even 2 weeks yet. But it’s healing and each day, it’s getting better and better.
“I have no toenail. I don’t know when it’ll grow back.”
The Knicks had won eight consecutive games before Anunoby left the rotation with his toe injury. They went 2-2 with him on the sidelines, including a 37-point loss to the Detroit Pistons and a three-point overtime loss to the Indiana Pacers.
“At that size and skill set, you always miss that when he’s out,” said head coach Mike Brown. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who’s in uniform. You’ve gotta go try and play the right way to win but it’s good to see him back on the floor for sure.”
Anunoby is averaging 16.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.7 blocks per game this season.
REVENGE GAME
The Knicks are 0-2 in their season series against the Pistons with an average margin of defeat of 34.5 points. The lopsided nature of their losses, Brown said, should trigger a pride factor for Thursday’s matchup against the East’s top seed.
“Yeah it should. They didn’t just win the game. They beat us pretty bad. So for us, I don’t want to say this game is more important than the next game. Every game is extremely important, but there comes a certain point when you’re in competition. If wins and losses are as lopsided as those two losses, that should shake you up a little bit,” he said. “At the end of the day, we win tomorrow or win the next two games or however many games we play them, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee come playoff time or vice-versa.
“I’m a firm believer that I’ve been around this thing too long enough to see some teams go 0-4 and still win the series and some teams go 3-4 and still win the series. So that part doesn’t matter, it’s just about how the first two games turned out for us.”
