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T
he New York Knicks have decided to rest starting center Mitchell Robinson, scuttling a homecoming party for the Louisiana native on Friday night.
Robinson will skip the Knicks final road game of the season against his hometown team, New Orleans Pelicans, joining fellow starters Jalen Brunson (right hand injury maintenance) and Julius Randle (left ankle sprain).
RJ Barrett could be the fourth starter skipping the meaningless game but the Knicks have not officially ruled him out yet. Barrett is still listed questionable with illness but has already missed the Knicks’ previous two games.
With Robinson out, third-string center Jericho Sims enters the rotation.
Robinson is coming off his best all-around game of the season. He punished the Myles Turner-less Indiana Pacers frontline with 14 points, 16 rebounds and a season-high 7 blocks in the Knicks’ 138-129 victory last Wednesday.
Sims averaged 4.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 22 games without Robinson this season.
Tom Thibodeau Praises Mitchell Robinson
Robinson’s all-around effort against Indiana did not go unnoticed.
In fact, it overshadowed the historic scoring effort of his more heralded teammates in Tom Thibodeau’s eyes.
“Mitchell [Robinson],” Thibodeau answered when asked what impressed him most. “Mitch had a monster game. So, it started with that. The rebounding and Mitchell were just unbelievable.”
Thibodeau implied Robinson’s multiple effort plays have inspired the team, leading to Immanuel Quickley (39 points, 7 3-pointers), Quentin Grimes (career-high 36 points, 5 3-pointers) and Obi Toppin(season-high 32 points, 5 3-pointers) becoming the Knicks’ third trio to have 30-point games and first since 1979. They also became the first NBA trio to have 30-point games and five 3-pointers in a single game.
Still, Robinson stood out.
“He’s just everywhere,” Thibodeau added. “Rebounding in traffic, impacting a lot of play to the rim, applying good ball pressure, just anchoring [our defense]. [Indiana] spread us out pretty good. They were small and quick. So [Robinson] did a great job in there.”
Robinson played relentlessly that he even dove for loose balls even when the game was already beyond reach. He even complained about a non-call on his dunk attempt in the closing seconds.
“They were all big-time effort plays, and in most cases, multiple-effort plays — whether it was someone blocking them out, to chip it up and go, pursue it, run through it. When you make effort plays like that, that gives your team a lot of confidence and inspires them.”
Quentin Grimes Prepare for Donovan Mitchell Matchup
The Knicks’ focus shifts to the Cleveland Cavaliers and how to slow down, if not stop, their star Donovan Mitchell.
“He can do a lot with the ball. He can shoot the ball from super deep out, so you kind of got to pressure him up,” Quentin Grimes said of Mitchell. “I just have to lock in. I’ll watch more films for sure, gotta just watch his latest games, but he’s been on terror really the past four or five games.”
Mitchell’s 42-point effort against the Knicks was part of a four-game streak of scoring at least 40.
“So [I] got to watch more films to see what I did wrong and just kind of make corrections and hopefully prepare better for it when we see them in the playoffs,” Grimes added.
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