Category: Basketball

The Knicks have played admirably without Jalen Brunson since the All-Star point guard went down with a sprained ankle in early March.

After Saturday's dominant win over the Atlanta Hawks, the Knicks are 9-6 without their captain, and some players have elevated their play on the offensive end in their stead. This is especially true for OG Anunoby.

The 6-foot-7 wing is scoring at a torrid pace. Just over his last five games, Anunoby is averaging 26.6 points and entering Saturday with 5.2 free throws per game since Brunson's injury, showing how willing he is to drive to the hoop. But with Brunson expected to return Sunday against the Phoenix Suns, questions on how the offense will flow with their floor general back have popped up.

Following Saturday's win, Tom Thibodeau was asked if Anunoby's style will "have to change" once Brunson returns. The longtime Knicks coach pushed back.

"The notion of all that stuff, it's white noise," he said. "The game tells you what to do, you know? So, whose shot is it in transition? The open man, right? And if there's two on somebody, who shot is it, right? You have the responsibility as a primary scorer to make the right play. So, the notion that it has to be this way, that way, no. There has to be a willingness to sacrifice by everybody.

"The team has to come first. What's best for our team? What gives the team the best chance to win? And that's all everyone should be thinking about. They shouldn't be thinking about who's doing this, who's doing that. That's not the way this game works. If you care about winning, that stuff shouldn't matter."

A follow-up question to Thibodeau asked who "ends up getting the shot" with Brunson on the floor, and pointed to how during this stretch, Anunoby is "spending less time in the corners." Thibodeau pushed back even harder and broke down how he sees the responsibilities of everyone on the floor, whether Brunson is on the floor or not.

"No, [Anunoby] never spent exclusively… that notion's a bunch of garbage. I'll tell you another thing: I value the corners a lot more than most people because I know that's the most valuable spot on the floor," Thibodeau said. "He's all over the floor. That's the way he's scoring. That's the way everybody's scoring. So if you have a drive pass, pass who's supposed to be in the corner? It's drive and kick and if you're cutting and you're moving without the ball, which is what you're supposed to do, right?

"If you push the ball up, your first responsibility is to create pace. Your second responsibility is to create movement and everyone's supposed to read the man in front of them. So, if you're reading the man in front of you and he cuts, then you replace in front, right? That's the way this game works. So that's a bunch of excuse-making. And that's the way I see it." 

Fiery exchanges aside, there's no denying how well-oiled the Knicks' offense has looked in stretches, especially on Saturday. Against the Hawks, the Knicks scored a season-high 78 points in the first half and had 32 assists, the 27th time this season they've hit the 30-assist mark. They accomplished that feat just 10 times a season ago.

Those extra passes were a key in Saturday's win, and Thibodeau is pleased with how the offense is humming just as Brunson is returning.

"I think it's huge, and to succeed in this league, you have to do it together," Thibodeau said. "You can't win at the highest level in this league individually, you have to do it collectively. So everyone had to be willing to sacrifice. I think offense is about execution. Everyone has a job to do. You have to go out there and do your job and you have to help each other.

"Everyone works together and hits the open man, pass up a good shot to get a great shot, but that willingness to be unselfish and play for each other is huge."

The Knicks hope to continue their winning ways Sunday against the Suns with Brunson on the court. The guard will have five games before the end of the regular season -- and the start of the playoffs -- to get reacclimated and prove that the Knicks' offense can continue to run like he'd never left.