There was no Hack-A-Mitch or sarcastic jeers for center Mitchell Robinson in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau kept Robinson off the floor while the Celtics were in the bonus, ensuring they could not foul him, send him to the line, and take advantage of his poor free-throw shooting. Robinson had gone 7-for-23 from the charity stripe through the first three games of the series.
“They weren’t in the bonus as much as they were,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “They did a good job of taking him out right before. The opportunities didn’t present themselves as much as they did in the other games.”
It allowed Robinson to leave his mark on New York’s comeback victory, which moves it to within one win of its first Eastern Conference Final in 25 years. He played a personal-postseason-high 25 minutes — 10:16 of which came in the fourth quarter — recording four points with eight rebounds, five of which came on the offensive glass. It was a key performance that allowed the Knicks to score 15 second-chance points compared to Boston’s nine.
“It’s the pressure he’s putting on the rim, and then the threat of the offensive rebounds and the extra possessions and what that means to the team and the value that it brings to the team,” Thibodeau said. “I think that having that pressure there is huge for our team, and there’s not really a stat for that, but what it does is it creates advantages for us.”
This is exactly what the Knicks had envisioned when they acquired Karl-Anthony Towns to join forces with Robinson in the frontcourt. The ever-versatile Towns scored 23 points on 11-of-15 shooting with 11 rebounds while Robinson provided the muscle down low and the defensive acumen that was lacking when he was out for most of the regular season.
“He’s special, man,” Towns said of Robinson. “When you’re playing against him, you understand what he brings to the team. And when you’re playing as one of his teammates, you see even more of the magnitude, the impact he has on the game. He was just special tonight, doing everything we needed him to do. Whether it was guarding guards, guarding their big men, or getting big rebounds, alley-oops, and timely baskets. He was able to do it all.”
