The Knicks received a historic Big 3 performance with their three leading scorers — Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett — sidelined Wednesday night at Indiana.
Yet, asked for the biggest key to the 30-for-30-for-30 output of Immanuel Quickey, Quentin Grimes and Obi Toppin — the first trio of Knicks since 1979 to each score at least 30 points in one game — Tom Thibodeau immediately pointed to another teammate as the reason for the others’ offensive outbursts.
“Mitchell [Robinson]. Mitch had a monster game, so I’d say it started with that,” Thibodeau said after the Knicks’ fifth straight win ahead of Friday’s visit to New Orleans. “The rebounding by Mitchell was just unbelievable. Quick, Quentin, that was probably Quentin’s best game. Obi, terrific, as well.
“[But Robinson was] just everywhere.”
Indeed, the 7-foot Robinson finished the game with 14 points, 16 rebounds (seven offensive) and a season-high seven blocked shots.
His 4.4 offensive rebounds per game over 58 appearances — the minimum amount of games required to qualify as a league leader — top the NBA.
Want to catch a game? The Knicks schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
Grizzlies center Steven Adams is averaging 5.1 offensive boards per game, but he has been limited to 42 appearances.
“Rebounding in traffic, impacting a lot of plays at the rim, applying good ball pressure, just anchoring,” Thibodeau said of Robinson. “[The Pacers] spread us out pretty good. They were small, quick. Mitch did a great job in there and they were all big-time effort plays and in most cases, multiple-effort plays.
Read Related Also: I got abs tattooed on my stomach to be ‘summer ready’
“Whether it was someone blocking him out, tipping it out, go pursue it, run through it. You make effort plays like that it gives your team a lot of confidence and inspires your team.”
The Louisiana product had openly questioned his role within the Knicks’ offensive sets last month via social media, and backup center Isaiah Hartenstein has been on the court for the entire fourth quarter twice during the current winning streak.
Still, Robinson’s grunt work down low and his inside presence certainly should be important in the upcoming playoff series against the Cavaliers, who go with a starting alignment featuring two 6-11 big men: ex-Nets center Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
Robinson has registered 6.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game in three appearances against Cleveland this season, with three blocked shots and six steals in the season series. His 1.8 rejections per game ranked sixth in the league this season through Wednesday’ action.
“Mitch is always great on defense. He blocks shots all the time, and we need that, especially going into these next couple of games,” said Toppin, who nailed five 3-pointers and scored a season-best 32 Wednesday. “We’ve got two more games before the playoffs. We need all his defense, and we have to continue getting better at defense, too.”
Indeed, while Brunson (right hand maintenance) and Barrett (illness) were held out of Wednesday’s contest, Thibodeau also has preached for his team to remain focused on its final two regular-season contests Friday against the Pelicans and Sunday at home against the Pacers.
“You go game by game, get yourself ready to play,” Thibodeau added Wednesday. “When we get to New Orleans, this game will have nothing to do with New Orleans. Just understand [Thursday] it’s all about getting ready for [Friday’s game]. Don’t look ahead.
“People will be talking about everything but New Orleans. And for us, that’s what we have to think about. … We want to be playing our best going into the postseason. So you go step by step. You can’t get there until you go through all the games, so just get ready for each game.”
