The Knicks are on the brink of eliminating the 76ers in the first round of the playoffs, but as they prepare for Game 5 Tuesday night, they’ll be going the rest of the way without Bojan Bogdanovic. The veteran forward will undergo season-ending surgery on his left foot and be re-evaluated in three months, the team announced Tuesday. The Athletic also reported that Bogdanovic will undergo wrist surgery. Bogdanovic exited New York’s Game 4 win with a foot injury just a minute after checking into the third quarter. It’s a significant blow to the Knicks, who are already without Julius Randle for the playoffs, and were without Mitchell Robinson in Game 4 after spraining his ankle earlier in the series.
Bogdanovic sustained the foot injury just a minute into the second half Sunday. As he went to dive for a loose ball, his left foot got caught under Nicolas Batum who was also challenging for the ball, and as Bogdanovic lunged forward, his ankle rolled a bit. He immediately began grabbing at his foot in pain, and though he was able to get up and walk back to the locker room, he was ruled out for the rest of the game shortly after.
It’s unclear exactly when Bogdanovic injured his wrist, but given that his playing time diminished from 19.2 minutes in the regular season with the Knicks to just 12.8 minutes in the playoffs, it seems that he may have picked up a wrist injury in this series against Philadelphia.
While Bogdanovic’s production decreased after being traded to New York from the Pistons back in February, he still proved to be a key bench scorer for a Knicks offense that has dealt with injuries to top players since the trade deadline. He’s a reliable 3-point threat, and without him it will put more pressure on the dwindling depth that the Knicks are running with right now. We’ve seen Miles McBride step up so far, averaging 12.8 points on a blistering 52.6% from 3-point range, so perhaps he can be the scoring threat off the bench the Knicks will now need in Bogdanovic’s absence.
