The New York Knicks have had brutal injury luck in the second half of the season, and that unfortunately continued in Game 7 on Sunday afternoon against the Pacers.
After announcing OG Anunoby would start after missing four games with a hamstring strain, the wing could only play five minutes, clearly struggling to move before being taken out for the rest of the game. The Pacers absolutely torched the New York defense for the first three quarters, racking up 101 points, and late in the third, disaster struck in full for the Knicks as Jalen Brunson left for the locker room after injuring his hand on a swipe down trying to stop Tyrese Haliburton on a fast break.
Haliburton gets in the passing lane and finishes on the other end 💪
He's got 21 points as Indiana leads in Game 7 on ABC pic.twitter.com/nVWhhAOkl7
— NBA (@NBA) May 19, 2024
Early in the fourth, the Knicks released a status update on Brunson that announced he had fractured his left hand and would be done for the game.
Jalen Brunson (fractured left hand) will miss the remainder of the game.
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) May 19, 2024
It was an all-too-fitting end to the Knicks season, as they finished their season with Brunson, Anunoby, Julius Randle, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Mitchell Robinson all out with injuries. Brunson had battled through a number of ailments late in the year and playoffs, putting forth some incredible individual efforts to help lead the Knicks to the 2-seed and the conference semifinals. However, he was finally dealt a year-ending injury in Game 7 and the Knicks faced too much of an uphill climb while shorthanded to extend their season one more series.
