Mitchell Robinson Could Be Knicks' Last Resort

A Pitch For Mitch

A common metropolitan refrain in the somber aftermath of Game 2 was the lamentation of slow starts.

“Sometimes you’re so in that you have to go back and watch the game, but we just have to talk to each other off the jump," Mikal Bridges said, per James Edwards III of The Athletic. "We have to be physical off the jump. I think, maybe, we’re playing a little too soft in the beginning of the halves."

"We find ourselves in a deficit. I told you how we can't keep doing that," Karl-Anthony Towns said in video from SNY. "We've just got to execute, be more disciplined."

While the Knicks, partly fueled by back-to-back comebacks from 20 down against the defending champion Boston Celtics, have no doubt played with a penchant for the dramatics (just the ninth team in NBA postseason history to play in the seven games where the final score has been a one-possession margin), that's clearly not sustainable at this stage.

The Knicks actually led after the first period on Friday by a 26-24 tally, but that was only after they fell behind by 10 before Robinson and Miles McBride stepped in for the first time.

Once the Knicks had that Robinson taste they couldn't get enough. At 29:20, a workload that beat the beleaguered Karl-Anthony Towns, Friday proved to be Robinson's second-busiest night of the season, behind only April 11's output that came on a night where

We have to figure out ways, I think he played [29] minutes, figure out ways if he can play more,” Josh Hart said of the NBA playoffs' leader in offfensive rebounds per 48 minutes (min. 10 games, 50 mins. played), per Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “We’re great with him on [the floor]. We all got to be willing to sacrifice for the betterment of the team.”

Robinson's work as a valuable weapon from a bygone era has been well-lauded: his absence in the beginning of the season perhaps make the Knicks' earlier wins so shocking. Without the longest-tenured Manhattanite in the lineup, New York fell out of contention for one of the East's top seeds and never came back despite maintaining the third seed.

If the Knicks want a laugher capable of keeping their season alive, Robinson might pave the path to such a blowout: if these are the methods the Knicks want to take, those of extra possessions, those of physicality, those where they can have their fun shooting the ball while still prevailing in scoreboards reminiscent of the great 1990s clashes with the Pacers, Robinson is that man.

They better hurry, though: at 0-2, cancellation is looming and this is hardly the time of year to tick off the network.