Knicks Insider Provides OG Anunoby Injury Return Timetable
New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby has missed each of the last 13 games with an elbow injury and the team has suffered for it: combined with the loss of Julius Randle to a shoulder injury, the Knicks are 6-7 after winning 12 of their first 14 since Anunoby entered the lineup after a late December trade with the Toronto Raptors.
While Anunoby won't play in Thursday night's visit from the Golden State Warriors (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT), SNY's Ian Begley offered an optimistic update concerning his return.
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"I do think mid-March," Begley said. "I think that's kind of seen internally as a realistic possibility if he continues to go well here and clear the hurdles he's got to clear in his rehab from that elbow surgery."
"That would be huge, obviously, for New York because they were rolling with [a] healthy Anunoby."
It's important for Anunoby to return to the Knicks' lineup as soon as possible, especially considering the team's defensive lapses since his injury. While New York is still in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, an inconsistent February without him and Randle has the Knicks only two games up on seventh-place Indiana to avoid the Play-In Tournament.
With a dangerous schedule ahead, there's a chance that the Knicks could be caught and removed from the automatics. The March slate opens with a visit to Cleveland on Sunday and features a four-game Western Conference road trip before considerably softening toward the end.
While a top-four seed and homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs is an attainable goal, the Knicks would probably like to have some regular season games at full strength before embarking on what they hope is a lengthy playoff run. Only time will tell if they're able to pull off both.
