OG Anunoby scored 11 points in his return to the starting lineup Friday night, helping the New York Knicks to roll to a 146-112 win over the Utah Jazz at Madison Square Garden.
Anunoby, who played 23 minutes against the Jazz, missed nine games after straining his left hamstring Nov. 14 against the Miami Heat. The Knicks went 6-3 in his absence.
“You always worry when you get a big lead, you don’t want anybody to get hurt, but we needed to get OG Anunoby some game minutes just to work on his conditioning,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “And I thought he looked good for the timings out there. I would have loved to get him to 25, 26 minutes. But, you know, 22, 23 worked good enough, especially with the way we had the lead tonight.”
Anunoby was upgraded to questionable early Friday and went through warmups before a final decision was made.
He is shooting 39% from 3-point range and averaging 15.5 points and 5.2 rebounds in 31 minutes.