BOSTON — After three double-digit regular season losses, “Mitchell Robinson” was the name that many Knicks fans thought could change the Celtics matchup. It sounded far-fetched at the time. Robinson played 31 games and averaged 5.6 points per game last season in 24.8 minutes.
Sure, he could grab some offensive rebounds, provide a different pick-and-roll defense look and allow for a double-big look with Karl-Anthony Towns, but change a matchup where the Celtics won all four games?
Robinson didn’t exactly do that while posting 3.9 points and 6.1 rebounds through the first two games of the series. However, his presence proved impactful. He finished +13 in Game 1 despite him not shooting and missing seven free throws. That increased to +19 in Game 2, so Joe Mazzulla tried to take advantage of his struggles at the line by fouling him intentionally late in the fourth quarter.
Tom Thibodeau welcomed that move before the game.
“It’s two-fold,” Thibodeau said. “Obviously, he has great impact on the game when he’s on the floor with the extra possessions. Fouls can get us to the bonus, so we can take advantage of it that way, and it also allows us to set our defense. So there’s some advantages to that as well. When you look at points per possessions, that’s what your looking at, then you gotta make decisions based on what’s going on in the game, how well is he shooting them.”
Thibodeau brought OG Anunoby to the scorer’s table when he saw the fouling begin again late in Game 2. The officials signaled for Anunoby to enter, but Thibodeau held him back. He waited for the Celtics to foul Robinson one more time to put New York in the bonus, then inserted the best defensive player in the series. Anunoby subsequently stopped Tatum by blowing up a screening action on the following possession. And ultimately, Robinson only attempted one free throw in 22 minutes.
The Knicks never went to the line late due to the bonus either, but it had to impact Jrue Holiday’s ability to guard Jalen Brunson who beat Holiday for two of his three crunch time baskets. Later, Robinson returned for the closing defensive possessions and the Celtics attacked him. Prior to fouling Robinson out of the game, Boston did the same and produced several quality shots. The Celtics also still led by four points prior to Mazzulla’s decision, which came out of timeout after the referees put an extra point on the board for New York from a Mikal Bridges two that became a three.
The move felt desperate, and distracting in an already slow game.
Worse, Derrick White cross-matched onto Towns on the following possession, the Celtics botched a screen action and Towns scored a three-point play through Horford, who picked up a fourth foul.
“I mean, he’s a +21,” Mazzulla said. “He was really effective for them. It’s something that we need to do a better job in those minutes … +19, sorry … we have to do a better job of, offensively, attacking him … and obviously, he poses a threat on the offensive end with his offensive rebounding. So we gotta do a better job in those minutes. For him to be +19, he’s one of the reasons why they were able to win the game tonight.”
“He was a +19. All their starters were in the negative.”
Mazzulla stood by the decision the following day as well. The Celtics’ fixation on fouling him showed early in Game 1 when Luke Kornet grabbed him around a screen and twice grabbed him while he shot layups inside. That put Kornet in foul trouble in a game that Kristaps Porzingis didn’t play in the second half, already showing the drawbacks of the strategy, especially in a game where the Knicks built a massive free throw advantage, one of Mazzulla’s emphasized margin stats. The Celtics lost the free throw battle during the regular season, and can’t afford to give up even more if some by Robinson are sure misses.
Robinson fired another air ball miss on Wednesday, falling to 26.9% in the playoffs. There’s virtue in fouling him in a situation where he’s likely to score or the bonus is already in place. Focusing on that when the Celtics already succeeded in limiting the Knicks offense better than any opponent had all year while seeing pace and rhythm become issues over an eight-minute stretch in the fourth made the move all the more curious. It wasn’t close to the greatest concern at that moment, and it stood to empower the teammates around him.
The Celtic effectively needed one basket to end the game, and once that lead disappeared and Robinson returned the floor for defensive purposes — Boston chose to challenge Robinson with Tatum. Making the most puzzling moment in Game 2 all the more difficult to understand.
“They’re executing their game plan,” Towns said. “They’re doing what they feel’s best for them … obviously, we were the ones on the ropes, not them. Mitch was amazing tonight. He did everything we needed him to do to come out with a win … shoutout to Mitch trusting us that it was the right decision to make.”
