Anunoby knows what is ahead of him.
The New York Knicks had a 12-point lead heading into the fourth quarter on Monday night. They should have been heading to Atlanta with a 2-0 series cushion.
Instead, the Hawks ripped off a 28-15 fourth quarter behind CJ McCollum's 32 points and stole Game 2, 107-106, tying the first-round series at one game apiece.
It was a tough collapse for a 53-29 Knicks team that earned the third seed in the East. But OG Anunoby was not rattled when asked about the mindset heading into Game 3 in Atlanta.
"Losing the game doesn't mean anything," Anunoby said. "It's the playoffs, they're a good team too. Just watch the film, learn from the mistakes, and move on to the next."
Anunoby Has Been Steady Through Two Games
Anunoby averaged 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game during the regular season in 67 appearances, and he has carried that production right into the postseason.
In Game 1, he went 6-for-9 from the field and finished with 18 points and eight rebounds while playing through a left ankle sprain that briefly forced him off the floor.
He came back in Game 2 and put up 14 points with eight rebounds and two steals, though his missed free throws with under two minutes left in a one-point game were a tough moment in the loss.
Anunoby has been one of the Knicks' most reliable two-way players in this series, doing his typical work defensively while keeping his offense simple.
The bigger problem in Game 2 was overall execution down the stretch, which head coach Mike Brown called out postgame.
What the Knicks Need to Fix for Game 3
The series shifts to State Farm Arena for Game 3 on Thursday, and the Knicks have plenty to clean up if they want to steal one on the road against a 46-36 Hawks team riding high after one of the best comebacks of these playoffs.
New York turned the ball over 14 times in Game 2, leading to 18 Hawks points, and the team went just 17-for-27 from the free throw line.
Those two areas alone tell the story of how a double-digit lead vanished in the span of a single quarter.
Jalen Brunson has averaged 28.5 points per game through the first two contests but shot just 3-for-11 in the fourth quarter across both games combined, so he will need to be sharper in the clutch with the series moving to a louder and more hostile environment.
The Knicks also need their defensive game plan to hold up late, because the Hawks got 11 of their 13 made field goals in the fourth quarter of Game 2 at the rim with almost no resistance from New York's help defense.
Anunoby's steady approach might be exactly what this team needs right now.
The series is far from over, and if the Knicks clean up their turnovers and take care of business at the free throw line, they have every reason to believe they can get a win in Atlanta on Thursday night.