OG Anunoby clutched his left hamstring as he came off the court at the end of the first quarter in what had to feel like a dubious reminder of the painful injury that sidelined the Knicks’ defensive stopper in the playoffs last spring.
After spending a few minutes in the locker room at the start of the second, however, Anunoby reemerged and scored some of the biggest buckets of the second half — and likely the entire season.
His right-wing 3-pointer in the final minute of the third put the Knicks ahead as part of a 37-23 quarter in a massive 121-113 victory over the Celtics at the Garden to take a 3-1 series lead with a chance to close out the defending NBA champions in Game 5 Wednesday in Boston.
“I thought OG gave us a huge game,” Tom Thibodeau said. “Just the toughness, the timely plays, flying all over the place. … He’s so disruptive. And when you’re guarding a guy like [Jayson] Tatum, there’s a lot of stuff he has to navigate through.”
Tatum scored a game-high 42 points before suffering what appeared to be a serious injury to his right ankle or foot late in the fourth quarter.
Anunoby, who was held to just seven points on 3-for-15 shooting in the previous two games of the series after netting 29 in the opener, finished Monday’s win with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting with four made 3-pointers in 39 minutes.
“For sure, he’s a great offensive player and has the ability to impact the game in different ways,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “If you do a breakdown of his points, you try to take away the ones you can control the most, which is the transition, the stuff off the offensive rebounds and the catch-and-shoot.”
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In last year’s playoffs, Anunoby suffered a strained left hamstring in Game 2 of the second round against the Pacers and missed the next four games.
He attempted to return for Game 7 but left the floor after playing just five minutes in the first quarter and did not return to the team’s season-ending defeat.
Anunoby, who signed a team-record $212.5 million contract extension over the summer, also delivered several key plays in Monday’s fourth quarter to help the Knicks seal the victory.
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His drive to the basket extended a one-point lead to 102-99 with 6:32 to play, and he snapped another tie with his fourth 3-pointer of the night with 5:52 remaining.
Anunoby’s breakaway dunk off a Mikal Bridges steal also brought down the house and pushed the Knicks’ lead to nine with 3:03 left on the clock.
“It felt good,” said Anunoby, adding his hamstring “felt a little weird” in the first quarter but he’s OK. “It was amazing and an electric [atmosphere]. We played hard and got stops and got out in transition and scored.
“We didn’t lay down. It was tough, they were up a little bit. Things were going their way, they weren’t going our way, but we just kept fighting.”
