NEW YORK — If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere — according to the song.
Well, it’s early days and just 11 games into his time in Manhattan after his first encounter with the Toronto Raptors as a member of the New York Knicks on Saturday night — but safe to say OG Anunoby has it made in Madison Square Garden at the very least.
There’s plenty of evidence. The former Raptor has become indispensable for Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. In his last four games — played over six nights — he’s averaged 42 minutes per game. He was averaging 33.3 minutes with the Raptors and is already up to 37 minutes with New York.
Anunoby better get used to it. His coach isn’t going to be going away from him any time soon.
“You always have observations from coaching against someone, but there's a lot of subtleties to their game that maybe you don't actually see,” Thibodeau said. “… Just the way he interacts with his teammates, how he is as a person, you don't really know that part, but he's been great.
“I think, also his knowledge of the league and the people that he's guarding, and also what the teams are trying to do. So I think he when you combine all of those characteristics, his ability to think on his feet, his size, his, you know, his strength, his quickness, his ability to get around screens and that sort of thing. It's pretty unique.”
It’s not hard to discern why the broad-shouldered wing has been the perfect fit for a Knicks team that is trying to bring a title to the so-called ‘mecca of basketball’ for the first time since 1973. Heading into Saturday’s game against his old team, New York has been 42 points better per 100 possessions with Anunoby on the floor than when he sits. They’ve been the best defence in the NBA for the past three weeks. They’re 190 points better with him on the floor — the best individual plus-minus mark in the league.
So his coach loves him and, judging by the roar Anunoby received in pre-game introductions, Knicks fans do, too, and why not? The team has been rolling since he showed up, and looks like a strong bet to challenge for a top-four seed in the East.
But the definitive proof that Anunoby has made a smooth transition midway through his seventh season from Raptor to Knick?
None other than New York Knicks superfan, film director Spike Lee, who is very much down for the OG experience, let’s call it.
“I wasn’t that hip to OG before,” Lee told me, laughingly, when he invited me to join him beside his courtside seat as he watched the Knicks and Raptors warm up. “But I’m hip to him now.”
No wonder, as the Knicks' 126-100 win over the visiting Raptors saw New York improve to 9-2 since the Dec. 30 trade that saw Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn sent to the Knicks in exchange for Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett.
Meanwhile, the Raptors are now 4-7 since the trade and 16-27 overall after losing six of their past seven starts, which have overlapped with the injury absence (ankle) of Jakob Poeltl, the team's only centre.
Anunoby was front and centre in a dominant second half by the Knicks as the hosts split open what was a nip-and-tuck affair through the first two quarters with a 33-21 burst in the third quarter that put them up 14 to start the fourth. Anunoby’s three-point play on a breakaway dunk early in the fourth quarter helped spark a 16-4 run that put the Knicks up by 24 and the Raptors down for good.
Doing a lot of that work was Achiuwa, who came off the bench to score 14 of his 18 points in the final frame, snuffing any hope of a Raptors comeback. Just to rub it in, Flynn hit his only shot attempt of the night, a three, when the game was deep into garbage time.
Anunoby finished with 14 points and seven rebounds and was +20 on the night, second on the Knicks only to Jalen Brunson, who led all scorers with 38 points while adding nine assists.
But perhaps Anunoby’s impact is best measured by Scottie Barnes’ night: the hub of the Raptors offence finished just 4-of-14 from the floor and scored only nine points, less than half his season average. He added six rebounds and seven assists, but the ease with which he can often bulldoze smaller defenders under the basket was taken away with Anunoby as the focal point of an active, physical Knicks defence. Barnes didn’t have an answer.
“We all know he’s a really good defender,” said Barnes “Strong, physical, knows how to hold his ground, good size. It’s just not easy going at him. He’s a great defender, we’ve all known that since Day 1.”
It's only been three weeks, but the Knicks, who improved to 26-17 with the win, have gotten used to this.
Lee offered the highest praise a lifelong Knicks fan possibly could in assessing the impact of the trade, comparing to the Knicks' acquisition of hall-of-famer Dave DeBusschere in December of 1968. The Knicks won titles in 1970 and 1973 with DeBusschere anchoring one of the NBA’s best defences.
“That’s what the old heads are saying,” said Lee, 66. “OG, he can guard five positions. So we go up against Boston, we go against Philly, he’s on lock down.”
Like all the Knicks fans, Lee was pleased to see Barrett and Quickley back in the building where they had spent their entire careers. The players were taken by New York in consecutive drafts in 2019 and 2020 and were part of the Knicks' turnaround since.
“This is one of those trades that works for both teams,” Lee told me. “Quick and RJ, they can play.”
Quickley and Barrett were the last two Raptors introduced pre-game and got huge ovations from their old crowd. During the game’s first timeout they got a tribute video. It was all part of a day that was equally thrilling and emotional, if ultimately disappointing for the Raptors. Each of them got off to strong starts in the first half, but like the rest of their teammates, couldn’t sustain their effort in the second, another oddity in a day full of them.
“I’ve been tripping the whole day,” said Quickley, who finished with 12 points and 11 assists, but only scored four points after halftime. “Since we got the scouting report and I (have) seen ‘Knicks’ and I’m like wait, what? The whole day was just a little different for me. Good to see my friends, obviously wanted the win, but good luck to all of them.”
Said Barrett of his first game back against his old team: “It was amazing. It was amazing. Thank-you to the fans, for sure. We got a tribute video, I didn’t think we were going to get that, so I was very appreciative and I’m appreciative of my time here. Coming back, I had a lot of emotions for sure.”
The Raptors were a tight-knit team in their previous iteration, which is now all but unrecognizable with Chris Boucher the only holdover from the championship season and Gary Trent Jr. the next longest-serving Raptor. With two major trades in the space of a few weeks and likely more coming, it’s hardly a surprise that chemistry has taken a hit.
Bonds take time. “You’re not going to ask a girl to marry her first time you meet her,” said Quickley.
Coach Darko Rajakovic said that during the third-quarter swoon, which included the Knicks grabbing offensive rebounds (they had a 15-11 edge on the night), he was disappointed his team didn’t communicate better and pick each other up.
“Everybody’s kind of walking on eggshells,” said Rajakovic. “They don’t know how to communicate with each other. We got to lift each other … “
The Knicks have said goodbye to old faces and made room for new ones, but the chemistry has been instant, and the success has followed, or perhaps the success was instant and the chemistry followed. Either way, it’s working out perfectly.
It doesn’t mean it wasn’t odd to play against their old friends. “I saw Quick bring the ball up in another uniform and I tripped (out),” said Knicks veteran Julius Randle, who finished with 18 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.
And it was strange for Anunoby, too, to go about his old team. “It's still weird not being a Raptor,” he said. “Like (veteran Raptor Pascal Siakam, who was traded Wednesday) I never imagined playing for another team. I was in Toronto for seven years. I loved it there.”
But the fit in New York has been seamless, and he seems to love it here, too. “Oh [the fans] they've been great. I don't know. It's been amazing so far. Hopefully just continue to keep it going and keep winning games, continue it all.”
It didn’t take Anunoby long to get big in New York. He’s played great, been exactly what they needed and the team has racked up wins ever since he showed up. Spike Lee approves.
The Raptors, meanwhile? They remain very much a work in progress and their record reflects it.
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