The numbers, by this point, have become staggering.
Since joining the Knicks in December 2023, OG Anunoby has been the cornerstone of their defense. His presence has not only stopped the Celtics from scoring but also discouraged them from attempting shots when he’s guarding them.
Boston superstar Jayson Tatum went just 1-for-7 from the field across nearly 17 minutes with Anunoby as his primary defender during the first two games of the Eastern Conference semifinal series — and he attempted just one shot in all of Game 2 with that matchup, according to the NBA’s tracking data.
The rest of the Celtics are 6-for-27 with Anunoby as their primary defender. Jaylen Brown, Boston’s No. 2 scoring option, collected a percentage marginally better than Tatum’s at 2-for-7.
Anunoby’s defensive reputation followed him from the Raptors to the Knicks, from the place where he tasted a championship six years ago to the one where he served as a potential missing piece.
And one year after a hamstring injury limited him to parts of three games against the Pacers in the second round, Anunoby has anchored the Knicks’ defense to help them take a stunning 2-0 lead entering Saturday’s Game 3.
“It’s not easy,” Jalen Brunson said Friday after the Knicks practiced in Tarrytown. “Those are great players over there, and so we have to be able to help him out. He’s been doing a phenomenal job, and as teammates, we have to help him.”
Last month, in the final days of the regular season, Anunoby declared he should win Defensive Player of the Year.
He collected the best defensive rating among Knicks starters during the regular season (112.3), and once the playoffs arrived, when individual possessions increased in importance, Anunoby delivered again.
Tatum has shot just 28.6 percent and recorded just 36 points in the series, admitting Thursday he needed “to be better.”
Though Mikal Bridges generated plenty of attention for stealing the ball from Brown on the final possession of overtime in Game 1 and blocking Tatum’s shot to end Game 2, Anunoby’s sustained effort resulted in the Celtics looking elsewhere for shots — and he was also next to Bridges during that end-of-game sequence Wednesday.
Anunoby has been the primary defender in a matchup with Tatum for nearly seven more minutes than any other Knick, according to the NBA tracking stats.
The Knicks haven’t been surprised by Anunoby’s defense, Brunson said, because they’ve always known what he’s capable of.
And it has continued appearing on the biggest stage — most evident by the shots Tatum hasn’t made and especially the ones he hasn’t even attempted — of his Knicks career against the defending champions.
“I think when you put that with Mikal and Josh [Hart], that wing versatility is huge,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “To add in what [Mitchell Robinson] has brought to that and also Karl [Anthony-Towns]’s defense, I think it vastly improved.”
