Knicks 105, Pistons 91: “This is vintage Mitchell Robinson”
In bounce-back fashion, both Mitchell Robinson and the New York Knicks took care of business in their 101-95 win over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.
On the season, he’s averaging 7.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game.
But against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night, Mitchell Robinson posted 17 points, 14 rebounds, and three blocks in just 25 minutes of play.
The result? An unrelenting New York Knicks win, something fans have come to miss this year after last season’s breakout and Eastern Conference playoff appearance.
Could this performance from Robinson be the kickstart this team has been looking for?
Down so many bodies due to the NBA’s world’s latest COVID-19 outbreak, there are certainly worse times for the veterans to find their stride and right this ship as they close out 2021. But how much can be trusted from a game that most teams would dismiss as a given, against the worst team in the NBA?
“That’s his best game right there. That’s a monster game.”
“No match for Mitch at the rim.”
“This is vintage Mitchell Robinson.”
Each of those three lines, from Tom Thibodeau, Wally Szczerbiak, and Mike Breen, respectively, properly encapsulates what was a turning back the clock moment for the (only!) 23-year-old Robinson.
Against a Pistons team that entered Tuesday night’s matchup with a league-worst 5-24 record, the Knicks big man dominated the game from start to finish as New York hasn’t seen him do since he suffered that broken foot in March earlier this year.
From the jump, it was clear that this would be no prime showcase of basketball at its highest level. Neither the Knicks nor the Pistons have graced that tier at many (if any) intervals this year.
Nearly halfway through the first quarter (6:41 remaining), the score was nine all, with Thibodeau threatening an early surrender, rolling out Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson in the front court.
We did get a Taj 3-pointer, though! It was his first of the season and over Cade Cunningham:
He would follow that up with a midrange make just minutes later, forcing me to question if New York is basing their offense around the wrong power forward:
Thibodeau closed the first quarter with a five-man lineup featuring all of Alec Burks, Wayne Selden, Taj Gibson, Mitchell Robinson, and, oh, Damyean Dotson, who received a standing ovation in his return to the floor at Madison Square Garden!
After 12 minutes of sloppy play, it was the Knicks who came out on top, 24 to 17.
What became a career night for Mitch started somewhere in between the end of this frame and the beginning of the next. He seemingly caught an alley-oop from every available point guard on the roster, which isn’t an over-exaggeration considering there were literally only two.
This is the Robinson that New York has missed. The version of the big fella that left fans pondering “What if?” after the team’s first-round series loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
And on Tuesday night, the version that quite literally owned the Detroit Pistons as a franchise.
Behind the aforementioned (and poetically waxed about) effort from Robinson, and some much-welcomed shot-making from Evan Fournier, the Knicks walked into halftime with a 48-37 lead, and fewer questions about how to approach this one in the second half.
Thibodeau started Mitchell Robinson over Nerlens Noel in the second half, and the rest is largely just a blur made up of the big man’s highlights and some nice Kemba moments.
Oh, and Wayne Selden hit a step-back 3-pointer!
That was his first made field goal since April 10, 2019.
This one didn’t have everything, but what it did have, the New York Knicks should seemingly be able to build off of; the Kemba Walker-Mitchell Robinson chemistry, Evan Fournier’s defensive efforts, and oh yeah, that thing where they end the game with more points than the other team.
Notes
I miss Deuce McBride.
I also miss Quentin Grimes.
Nerlens Noel had arguably his worst game of the season, so bad that Tom Thibodeau subbed in Mitch to start the second half while acknowledging that despite being poked in the eye, the starting center was fine to play.
Going back to 2010, only two players have multiple performances of 17 or more points, 14 or more rebounds, and three or more blocks off the bench, per Stathead: Hassan Whiteside (3x), and Mitchell Robinson (2x).
It’s not lost on me that Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker have put together back-to-back strong performances once the kids went down. Whether this is their way of marking their territory for when the kids come back, or just a flat-out coincidence, it bears watching.
Damyean Dotson’s triumphant return to Madison Square Garden didn’t exactly live up to the hype, and there was plenty of sarcastic excitement throughout the hallows of Knicks Twitter on Tuesday. He finished with one rebound in four minutes of play.
Going back to Fournier, the Frenchman had Cade Cunningham in an absolute prison of the mind last night on defense. According to NBA.com’s matchup tracking, he held this year’s No. 1 overall pick to 1-9 shooting from the field. Cunningham finished having shot just 2-13 with a 56 offensive rating on the night.
Julius Randle has officially become the NBA’s equivalent of Jekyll and Hyde. Once the inarguable best player on this team, and debatable leader for years to come, he went through a number of personality changes last night; flashing both the bad hesitance and decision making from his first year in New York, to the straight-up elite floor vision that made him an All-Star and netted him Most Improved Player last season.
Tuesday night’s victory is the first New York Knicks win at Madison Square Garden since their Nov. 23 win over the LeBron James-less Los Angeles Lakers. It’d be nice to see them getting back to “protecting the Garden.” Marcus Morris, trade deadline target?
Shoutout to Kemba Walker, regardless of what his return to play means for his future on the Knicks. He’s stayed ready, and up until recently has stayed largely quiet, and was as responsible for Robinson’s performance last night as the big fella himself.
One of, if not both of Obi Toppin and RJ Barrett should be available for Thursday’s game against the Washington Wizards. So that’s fun. And chaotic, simultaneously.
That being said, it seems Noel will not be. Which, I hate to say, likely betters the odds of a New York Knicks victory. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that he’s headed for health and safety protocols after playing 23 minutes on Tuesday.
The obvious counter for Mitchell Robinson’s big night (and one that I opted for myself initially) is the quality of competition that he faced on either end of the floor. But with each rebound he grabbed, with each shot he blocked, and with each ball he firmly placed at the center of rim and net, it became clear that this was not the case.
As we’ve seen so many times with some of recent history’s best shooters, every positive action enabled and encouraged Robinson’s motor on the other end, similar to Steph Curry or Joe Harris seeing that first shot go through the bottom of the net.
And the result? Well, it speaks for itself.
From start to finish, his team won this game.
Now the question is whether or not they can build off of their strategic success and begin righting the ship (or the tank, shoutout Conrad) back towards a playoff berth this season.
In a season like this, one that for both the Knicks and the NBA holds so much uncertainty, sometimes the boring, we should win this one, games don’t have to be just that.
Tuesday night was the best kind of boring if you ask me.
Now let’s keep it rolling.
