The New York Knicks were hit with more brutal injury news regarding center Mitchell Robinson during their Eastern Conference Semifinal series against the Indiana Pacers. After playing 12 minutes in Game 1, Robinson was announced out for Game 2 because of his left ankle.
That is the ankle he had surgery on in December, which led to him missing 52 games in the regular season. He was able to get back on the court near the end of the regular season, returning early to help his team.
Mitchell Robinson was out of sync and needed to get his rhythm back, but he was making an impact on the team. His availability meant head coach Tom Thibodeau had 48 minutes of elite defense and rebounding coming at the center spot between him and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Unfortunately, the dominance of that duo was short-lived. On a dirty play by Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid in Game 3 of the Knicks’ first-round series, Mitchell Robinson looked to re-injure his ankle. He would miss Game 4 before returning to the lineup in Game 5.
He made life difficult for Embiid once again but was laboring on the court. A noticeable limp was developing, but he wanted to gut it out for his team. Eventually, it became too much, as Robinson is going to be sidelined for 6-8 weeks because of the injury.
That is a major blow for the New York Knicks rotation, as Robinson is an integral part of their defensive game plan. But, in the opinion of former NBA star Tim Hardaway, the Knicks aren’t going to miss Robinson.
“He was a liability anyways on defense,” Hardaway said on The Carton Show.
Mitchell Robinson’s bread and butter when healthy is on the defensive end of the court. To Hardaway’s point, he is correct that his impact wasn’t what it normally would be, as the ankle injury was hampering him.
Against an Indiana Pacers team that wants to spread things out offensively, Robinson wasn’t an ideal fit. But his absence is one that will be felt greatly, as New York was already down two rotation players in Julius Randle and Bojan Bogdanovic.
Mitchell Robinson makes it three, with the status of OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson being unknown as well. Brunson missed a large chunk of the first half in Game 2 because of a foot injury, while Anunoby exited in the third quarter with a hamstring injury and did not return.
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