Mitchell Robinson is giving the Knicks their identity back, and it’s causing major problems for the Celtics

The 2023-24 New York Knicks were the stereotype of a Tom Thibodeau team. Strong defense driven by stellar rim-protection. Cartoonish offensive rebounding numbers. They played harder than everyone else. Their role players outperformed their perceived talent. The whole was unquestionably better than the sum of its parts. This is what we think of when we think of a Thibodeau team. It’s not really what the 2024-25 Knicks were allowed to be.

That’s not entirely their fault. The CBA deprived them of Isaiah Hartenstein. An injury cost them Mitchell Robinson for most of the year. They needed a center and they got one in Karl-Anthony Towns that fundamentally changed almost everything about them. On paper, at least, this was meant to be a five-out, offense-first team. The whole was weakened, so the Knicks responded in the best way that was reasonably available to them at the time: they increased the sum of the parts by adding raw talent.

The Knicks were better on paper with Towns and Mikal Bridges in the fold. Yet they won only one more game, and their net rating declined. The Knicks allowed the sixth-fewest points in the paint last year and fell to 20th this year. Their rebounding rate fell from No. 1 to No. 9. Pick a hustle stat tracked by NBA.com — loose balls recovered, charges drawn, screen assists, box outs — and there is a small but meaningful decline.

Mikal Bridges and the Knicks just stick with it, and now they’re sticking it to the Celtics

James Herbert

The offense worked, but more as a blunt instrument than a finely-tuned machine. How does a team with Towns at center rank 28th in 3-point attempt rate? The Jalen Brunson-Towns pick-and-roll never quite reached the heights we expected, and it was too easily disarmed by sticking a center on Josh Hart to provide extra help defense. Bridges didn’t quite find his footing, ironically enough, until his college teammate Brunson suffered an ankle injury in March. The hierarchy, the system, it all felt unsettled. This was a team out-talenting lesser opponents. When it ran into the big boys, well, that doesn’t exactly work. Their 0-10 regular-season record against the Celtics, Cavaliers and Thunder underlines that fact. This was no longer a typical Thibodeau team. It didn’t have an identity to fall back on.

That regular-season record no longer applies in the playoffs. Right now, the Knicks are 2-0 against Boston, but it’s not the shiny new starting five leading them to those wins. New York’s starters have played 46 minutes in this series and have lost those minutes by 13 points. But in two games decided by four total points, the Knicks have outscored the Celtics by a staggering 32 points in the roughly 43 minutes Mitchell Robinson has played. The Celtics are so desperate to get him off of the floor that they’re intentionally fouling even in the fourth quarter. “He was a +19,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla explained after Game 2, “all their starters were in the negative.”

Those starters were outscored by 26 points in 65 regular-season minutes against the Celtics, and it makes sense within this context. Even if it wasn’t the intent, the Knicks were constructed almost as a pale imitation of the Celtics—heavy investment in versatile wings, a shooting big man, lots of matchup-hunting—but Boston does those things way better than New York can. They’re the champions for a reason. They’re not going to be beaten at their own game. So Robinson is dragging them down into the mud and making them play Thibodeau’s kind of game.

A lot has been made in this series about Boston’s woeful 3-point shooting, and that’s obviously a big part of what’s going on here. When the Celtics are making 3s, they almost always win. But when Robinson is in, they’re also missing their 2s: during his minutes, they are just 14-of-36 inside of the arc (38.9%). When he’s off of the floor? They’re 29-of-55 on 2’s (52.7%). New York’s newfound willingness to switch has played a part in Boston’s shooting struggles, but it has also made them incredibly foul-prone because it frequently gives the Celtics mismatches to exploit. The Celtics have attempted 36 free throws in roughly 58 minutes they’ve played against the Knicks with Robinson on the bench. But when he’s on the floor? They’ve taken just five free throws in around 43 minutes. 

Robinson, still not 100% after the ankle injury he suffered in last year’s playoffs, isn’t holding up flawlessly on those switches onto the perimeter. But he’s protecting the basket so well that it’s allowing everyone else to play more disciplined defense. The Celtics are shooting 57.1% within six feet of the basket against him in this series, according to NBA.com tracking data. Elite regular-season rim-protectors usually hover around the low 50s, but remember, Robinson is doing this against the Celtics, not the entire field. Boston shot 70.6% in the restricted area this season, behind only the Suns and Lakers. They’re used to getting easy looks at the basket because of their spacing and Robinson is taking them away. Against Towns, by comparison, they’re shooting 71.4% within six feet of the basket.

Despite their reputation as a shooting team, Boston has quietly been among the better rebounding groups in the NBA for years now. When Robinson is off the floor, they’re pulling in 57.7% of available rebounds. The best teams in the regular season tend to get around 53% of available rebounds. With Robinson in the game, though, the Knicks are actually slightly out-rebounding Boston as a whole and have absolutely owned the glass in his brief stretches alongside Towns. Thibodeau himself has been vocal about Robinson’s role as a rebounder throughout the postseason. When he left him in to close the first half in Game 2 of the Detroit series, he explained it by saying, “Mitch was the one guy rebounding.” He’s tied for the series lead in box outs despite playing 23 fewer minutes than Towns.

These are traits that define a Thibodeau team, and they’re a big part of what has made these two comeback wins over Boston possible. The Knicks played 27 games this season in which they scored fewer than 110 points and won only six of them. The thought of the regular-season Knicks winning a game with 91 points seems almost impossible. This wasn’t a roster designed to win slugfests, but the playoffs are about adaptability. For the first time all season, it seems as though the Knicks have a curveball. 

They’re going to have to play Towns at center for most of the series. Robinson likely isn’t physically up for any more minutes than he is already playing, so what the Knicks developed over most of this regular season is still going to have to be the bread and butter. But for short stretches, Robinson has given the Knicks their identity back. When he’s on the floor, they look like a Thibodeau team again, and Boston hasn’t found any reliable way of countering that sort of opponent yet. Given the various health issues they’re dealing with, they might not even have one. It’s not pretty, but Thibodeau teams usually aren’t. They’re brutal and effective. That’s what they were a year ago, and it’s what they’re rediscovering with Robinson rounding back into form at the perfect time.