PHILADELPHIA — Coming into their first-round series against Joel Embiid and the 76ers, the Knicks foresaw the circumstances presenting themselves in Game 4.
Embiid is a foul-hunter, Isaiah Hartenstein has had spurts of being foul-prone, and Mitchell Robinson had recently recovered from ankle surgery.
Lo and behold: The Knicks ruled Robinson out with a left ankle sprain 30 minutes ahead of tipoff on Sunday, and Hartenstein picked up his fifth foul — three consecutive coming from Embiid — down the latter stretch of the third quarter.
For this test, the Knicks were prepared. OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa passed with flying colors.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said Anunoby “wanted” the Embiid assignment defensively, and he and Achiuwa put their chemistry dating back to their time as teammates on the Toronto Raptors on display.
They helped hold the league’s reigning MVP without a made field goal in the entire fourth quarter. Embiid shot 0-for-5 in the final period.
“Going into the series, we thought this could be a possibility. We probably were gonna use it more in a different situation,” Thibodeau said after the game. “But the situation we were in, with Mitch being out, Isaiah in foul trouble, and then I wanted to get a look at [Anunoby on Embiid] anyway.
“And he wanted to do it, so we got a look at it. And look, Embiid — he’s a load. You’re not guarding him individually. You gotta guard him with your team. So we understand that.”
Sunday wasn’t the first time the pair of ex-Raptors neutralized a star play in the fourth quarter.
Anunoby and Achiuwa did it to DeMar DeRozan in crunch time in the season finale, when they forced him to miss game-winning shots at the buzzer in both regulation and overtime.
Embiid is a different animal: He’s seven feet tall and weighs in at close to 300 pounds.
“Embiid, he’s a great player. So just trying to make the shots as difficult as possible,” Anunoby said. “Make him as uncomfortable as possible because he’s a great player and he’s going to score so find ways to make him less efficient.”
Achiuwa wasn’t surprised Anunoby was able to hold his own.
“I’m not surprised at all. He might be pound-for-pound the best defender in the NBA,” he said of his teammate. “And he was able to show that tonight with his versatility, strength, challenging shots at the basket, being able to guard somebody like Embiid, who has a lot of weight on him but he was able to hold his own and take the challenge.”
Achiuwa also had success guarding Embiid, both in the second half of Game 3 and all of his minutes in Game 4. Thibodeau could have gone back to Hartenstein, who had five fouls, in the fourth quarter, but stuck with Achiuwa to close the game.
“[Embiid]’s someone that I’ve guarded a lot. We played against them two years ago in the playoffs when I was with the Toronto Raptors, and I was pretty much the primary defender against them, and OG, as well,” he said after the game. “So I’ve spent a lot of time guarding him over the years.So it was just understanding the things he likes to do, and that also comes with being a smart defender, as well. You watch players and tendencies and things they like to do, and you try to counter that.”
Embiid finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds and six assists but turned the ball over four times and missed 12 shots. He played every minute of the second half, but his team came up short and the Knicks took a 3-1 series lead.
“It’s tough. Especially playing all these minutes, but yeah. It’s unfortunate,” he said. “Your competitive nature is always going to take over and I felt like — they always come back in the game in this series. So I was like, I got nothing to lose. I just got to push myself and obviously it didn’t walk out the way I wanted to. But like I said, it’s whatever, it takes me away.”