Guarding Joel Embiid: How the Knicks did it, how they may do it in the playoffs

OG Anunoby shan’t ruin the mystery. If he had his way, no one would ever learn how he pulls off his defensive trademark.

Anunoby will guard his man away from the ball as an opponent runs an action on the opposite side of the court. Maybe it’s a pick-and-roll. Or maybe a burly center is posting up another New York Knicks player, trying to facilitate from the elbow. That’s when one of the league’s staunchest stoppers strikes.

The 26-year-old has become an expert at stepping toward the ballhandler and inspiring panic, then rushing back to his primary assignment on the perimeter.

Anunoby rips steals in those moments. He stalls drives. He swats passes away and sometimes prevents them from ever occurring.

He remembers first becoming a savant at this specific skill while at Indiana University. Ever since, “it’s been my thing,” he said. He carried it to the Toronto Raptors and now the Knicks.

It takes multitasking. Anunoby has to detect when he should stunt at a dribbler while also tracking the man he is leaving, who is his first responsibility.

“Maybe it’s preparation or film,” he mused.

So how does he do this so often?

“I can’t say,” he said. “I can’t tell a secret.”

But soon, Anunoby will need to show it.

The Philadelphia 76ers vanquished the Miami Heat 105-104 on Wednesday in the Play-In Tournament, handing Philly the No. 7 seed and a first-round playoff matchup with the Knicks. Game 1 is at 6 p.m. (ET) Saturday at Madison Square Garden. That means New York has two free days to outline how it will attempt to bother the league’s reigning MVP, Joel Embiid.

Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson, the group’s two hard-nosed 7-footers, will guard him. But as head coach Tom Thibodeau oft repeats: You don’t defend great players individually; you do it as a team.

That means the Knicks tossing all they can at Embiid, who returned from knee surgery on April 2. On Wednesday night, he had 23 points, 15 rebounds and five assists on 6-of-17 shooting against Miami, struggling for the first three quarters but taking over in crunchtime.

Embiid is not yet back to full form, but he remains the reigning MVP, a two-time scoring champ whose 34.7-point average during the regular season would have led the league once again had he played enough to qualify. He roasts in the midrange, drains open 3-pointers and slices defenses apart with post-ups, pick-and-rolls, dribble handoffs and pure one-on-one domination.

The Knicks can’t use only one coverage against a player so overwhelming. Eventually, Embiid will figure it out.

For the next four to seven games, here comes the tasting menu.

They could swarm him before he receives the basketball. They could wait until he catches it to send a second defender his way. They could flock with doubles from the nail or the baseline. Sometimes, they’ll need the instincts of Anunoby or another one of their perimeter pests to take over, surprising Embiid when he’s most vulnerable.

After all, this is…