Where Knicks’ OG Anunoby now stands in his rehab progress

OG Anunoby continues to make progress in his rehab. 

He is taking contact in practice, Knicks coach Mike Brown said on Wednesday.

That represents improvement from Brown’s update on Sunday, when he said Anunoby was doing 3-on-3 scrimmaging but had not yet been cleared for full contact. 

Wednesday marked two and a half weeks since Anunoby suffered a left hamstring strain.

The Knicks have gone 6-3 in nine games without him. 

They still do not have an exact timetable for his return, with Brown saying “he’s still progressing in the right direction. We’re not going to rush him.” 

Mitchell Robinson was out for the Knicks’ 119-104 win over the Hornets on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, part of their load management plan with his left ankle. Wednesday’s game was the second leg of a back-to-back. 

He has not yet played both games of a back-to-back this year. 

Ariel Hukporti saw an increased workload as a result, playing 12 minutes. Despite not scoring and fouling out, Brown was impressed with his impact. 

“I’ve done this for a while, but our defensive player of the game was Ariel,” Brown said. “He had zero defensive rebounds and he fouled out. Interesting, but having said that, his impact was huge. Had a couple of blocks, 50/50 balls, he went vertical a couple of times and changed shots in the paint. I’m happy for him. This is a guy that hadn’t played much in a while. He logged [good] minutes for us, in his case, 12 minutes, or a little over 12 minutes.” 

Wednesday was Garden of Dreams Night at MSG.

Brown asked questions of two kids as part of the Garden of Dreams foundation pregame.