How Knicks’ Jordan Clarkson healed OG Anunoby’s ailments: ‘Sprinkled a little spice’

“It’s just making sure my guy is right,” Clarkson told the Daily News. “We need OG out there so whatever’s whatever, and we’re gonna make it happen. ” Anunoby tweaked his ankle in the second quarter of the Knicks’ 113-102 Game 1 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.

After checking himself out of the game and limping to the bench, he took a seat next to Clarkson, who immediately got to work. Weeks earlier, with 1:04 left in the second quarter of an April 1 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, Anunoby hurt his wrist on a defensive possession and checked out of the game shortly after. After Knicks head athletic trainer Anthony Goenaga took a look at his hand, Clarkson sprinkled an imaginary substance onto his wrist.

Shortly after, Anunoby rose to his feet, re-entered the game, and finished with 25 points and 13 rebounds, 18 points coming after Clarkson’s healing. “Jordan healed my wrist,” Anunoby said with a smile in the locker room after the game. And then came Saturday — and you could hear a pin drop at Madison Square Garden when Anunoby, the Knicks’ most important defensive player, turned his ankle, a moment met with deafening silence from a Knicks fan base fully understanding the gravity of the moment.

Anunoby grabbed at his ankle then limped off the court to the bench and sat next to Clarkson. “He came over to the bench and asked me to do it for his ankle. I sat over there,” Clarkson told The News.