New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Anunoby-Achiuwa combo is Knicks’ secret playoff weapon
— DeMar DeRozan got what he wanted — away from OG Anunoby.
It’s overtime of the regular-season finale at Madison Square Garden — a game with zero implications for a Play-In Tournament-bound Chicago Bulls team and direct consequences for the East’s No. 2-seeded Knicks — and DeRozan, the NBA’s reigning Mr. Clutch, has the ball in his hands.
Anunoby, the Knicks’ premier defensive stopper, is a nightmare matchup for the Bulls’ crafty clutch scorer, so Chicago’s center Nikola Vucevic sets a screen and drags DeRozan’s man out of the picture.
Over moves Anunoby. Up steps Precious Achiuwa.
With the Bulls down one with 8.5 seconds left in overtime, the game’s result — and the Knicks’ playoff standing — rests on Achiuwa’s shoulders.
DeRozan attacks from the left wing. He goes between the legs then brings the ball back out to the three-point line to re-establish an advantageous position against a bigger, less athletic defender. He uses an in-and-out dribble with his right hand in an attempt to shift the defender.
Achiuwa never moves. Then DeRozan goes for his signature: a right-toleft swipe-through driving to the rim. The move almost always draws a foul on a defender with happy hands.
On this day, Achiuwa’s hands are disciplined: He holds them both high into the air and keeps his body vertical while contesting DeRozan’s floater attempt. Donte DiVincenzo also leaves his man to help contest the Bulls star’s gamewinning attempt.
The would-be go-ahead shot bounces off front iron into Knicks possession.
New York wins in overtime, 120-119.
Only moments earlier in the final seconds of regulation, the Knicks shutdown the Bulls’ first attempt at a game-winner courtesy of Mr. Clutch.
It’s the reason Vucevic set the screen in the first place: because Anunoby is an eraser on the defensive end. He neutralizes even the most crafty, capable scorers, even more so when the pressure is on with a game on the line.
Anunoby forced the ball out of DeRozan’s hands twice on the Bulls’ final offensive possession of regulation with the game tied at 109 with under a minute left in the fourth quarter.
Chicago’s offense stifled. Their head coach Billy Donovan called a timeout to draw up a play to get DeRozan the ball once again.
And once again, Anunoby neutralized one of the most clutch performers in basketball history.
“It makes our lives a lot easier. There’s less different actions, more one on one,” DiVincenzo said of Anunoby’s defense. “At the end of the day, we’re living with — one on one — OG versus anyone in the league.”
“He’s a hell of a defender,” Achiuwa said of Anunoby. “I think he plays the same way from tipoff to the end of regulation. His intensity on the defensive end is always the same, and he’s a killer on that side.”
DeRozan started his attack at half court and drove to the right elbow, matched stride-for-stride by the Knicks’ defensive stopper. He tried to post up, but Anunoby was all over that, too. And ultimately, DeRozan settled on a turnaround fading shot which Anunoby’s defensive pressure forced well left of its target.
No luck against Anunoby. No luck after the switch onto Achiuwa. No luck in a hard-fought season finale at The Garden for a No. 9 Bulls team close to stealing a season-ending victory heading for a Play-In bout with the No. 10 Atlanta Hawks.
“He showed a lot of mental toughness. DeMar is a lot to deal with on every possession,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s a great shot maker. One of the best. And, OG, the thing I love, he’s going to make you work. Even if you score, he’s going (to) come back the next time and do it again and again and again. That’s what I love about him. His staying power.”
The Knicks are headed to the playoffs. They both secured the East’s No. 2 seed and recorded 50 wins in a season for the first time since Carmelo Anthony’s team won 54 games in the 2012-13 NBA season.
New York will own home-court advantage through at least the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Knicks are destined to face either the No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers or the No. 8 Miami Heat, who will face each other in the Play-In Tournament’s SevenEight Game to determine the seventh seed advancing into the playoffs.
And while the Knicks will live and die on Jalen Brunson’s All-Star sword, defensive versatility is the calling card for a team whose identity morphed with a mid-season trade struck just a few ticks before the calendar turned to the New Year.
It was the day the Knicks traded R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley — two capable scorers but net-negative defenders — for Anunoby and Achiuwa: two versatile defenders expanding their offensive roles in New York.
And while Anunoby — and his neutralizing abilities as an individual defender — was the highlight of the deal, Achiuwa has emerged as a rotation player on a playoff-bound team.
He’s proven to be a versatile defender who can come up with big stops in high-pressure situations like he did for the Knicks Sunday afternoon.
He’s proven to be part of a one-two defensive punch Thibodeau can deploy at any moment in the playoffs.
“They played great. They got key stops,” Brunson said of Anunoby and Achiuwa postgame. “It’s what they do. We’re not surprised. We’re just happy that they make plays like that.”