Tuesday could be the night the Knicks’ frontline starts to get whole again.
OG Anunoby has been upgraded from out to questionable for the rematch of Sunday’s ugly loss against the 76ers — and he could make his first appearance since Jan. 27 due to an elbow injury that required cleanup surgery.
The valuable two-way wing has been scrimmaging with the Knicks for several days, and Tom Thibodeau described Anunoby as “real close” to returning to the lineup.
“I think it’s a normal protocol. He’s had to meet markers along the way. And the final one is going back to the doctor to make sure he signs off on it, as well,” Thibodeau said after practice Monday in Tarrytown.
“Our medical people, the doctors, him. It’s a combination of everybody. He’s real close. We have to let it play itself out.
“But I feel good watching the way he’s progressed, just everything that he has been cleared to do. He’s taken contact. He’s gone through practice. His conditioning is good. We are hopeful.”
The Knicks had posted a 12-2 record with Anunoby in the lineup following his late-December arrival in a trade with the Raptors, but he and Julius Randle (dislocated shoulder) have missed the past 18 games.
Thibodeau’s undermanned team won its first three games without them, but the Knicks (37-27) have dropped 10 of 15 since Feb. 3, including the lowest offensive output in the league this season and 21 committed turnovers in Sunday’s 79-73 loss to the Sixers.
“I don’t think we can play as s—ty as we did [Sunday], so on to the next one, we got the same opponent [Tuesday], so it’s just move on,” Josh Hart said. “We know where we made mistakes, and we just gotta come out and be aggressive.”
Despite the recent 5-10 stretch, the Knicks somehow have clung to fourth place in the tight-in-the-middle Eastern Conference. They are a half-game ahead of the Magic, a full game ahead of No. 6 Philadelphia and 1 ¹/₂ clear of the seventh-seeded Pacers for the play-in cutoff.
“You definitely pay attention [to the standings],” Jalen Brunson said. “It’s not weird, because you have so many great players and so many great teams and so many great coaches in this league. It makes you prepare to be ready every single night. … You just have to be ready to go.
“In game, you can’t worry about what place you are in or if this happens or that team loses and we win. When we are in the game, we focus on the game.”
The All-Star point guard had called his performance “dogs–t” after shooting 1-for-9 from 3-point range against the Sixers, and Hart, who committed six turnovers, offered a similar assessment.
“I’m still stuck on [Sunday’s loss]. That one just didn’t sit well with me,” Hart added Monday. “But in the big picture, when guys went down, you had to have guys step up, and I feel like we’ve kind of kept it afloat a little bit.
“I feel like there was some games that we should have won, i.e. [Sunday] that we kind of let slip. … But I feel like we did as good of a job with injuries that we could have. I feel like we probably could have done a better job in terms of letting a couple of games slip away, but at the end of the day, definitely excited to hopefully get those guys back soon.”
With Randle and Robinson still not cleared to resume full contact, Anunoby figures to be the first to return, possibly as early as Tuesday night.
“I think at one point we were like, 2-8 or 3-7 in the last 10 or whatever it was. So to struggle like that, and still be a top-four seed in the conference, I think it speaks volumes to the character of guys that we have here and the culture that we have here,” Hart said. “So that’s something that we’re proud of.
“Obviously, we can’t get stuck on that and can’t expect to just fall right into place when everyone gets back. It’s gonna be a couple of little growing pains, but I think we’ll be good.”