Knicks' Mitchell Robinson has a perfect night
The Portland Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard goes to the basket as New York Knicks forward Julius Randle, left, and center Mitchell Robinson (23) defend and Trail Blazers center Hassan Whiteside (21) watches in New York on Wednesday. Credit: AP/Kathy Willens
There are often tantalizing hints of what Mitchell Robinson can do on the court. And Wednesday he seemed to show nearly every bit of it.
Everything came together for Robinson, tying a franchise record for the most field goals made without a miss, finishing 11-for-11 to match his career-high of 22 points. The perfect 11 matched performances by Bernard King and Johnny Newman. While the longest shot may have been about a foot from the rim, his ability to roll to the basket, creating easy dunks, spurred the Knicks' 117-93 win over Portland.
Some of the dunks weren’t easy, too, like one he nearly brought the house down at Madison Square Garden with, reaching high above the rim to grab what appeared to be an errant lob from Julius Randle, and with one hand slamming it in.
“I don’t know,” Robinson said. “My arm just is really long, so it’s like, I can. Know what I mean? I didn’t even know I was there. I just tried something and it worked out. So I was like, you know, I’m gonna go with it. I’m gonna take that.”
In Mike Miller’s first six games as the Knicks interim head coach one positive had been the long-awaited improvement in staying on the floor by Robinson. In those games he averaged 26.9 minutes per game and just 2.8 fouls per game.
But in the last five games entering Wednesday’s game Robinson regressed, averaging just 22.9 minutes and committing 4.8 fouls per game. That included fouling out in two of the five games and lasting just 12 minutes and 57 seconds Saturday in Washington with four fouls. But Wednesday, he committed just one foul while dominating the paint.
“That’s what he does,” Carmelo Anthony said. “The way he protects the rim. The way he runs the court. I honestly think that he’s getting better and better and better. I don’t really think he understands how good he is, or how good he can be, his ceiling. The way he plays is perfect for what the Knicks do.”
Bullock is back
After missing the first 33 games of the season, Reggie Bullock was finally able to make his Knicks debut Wednesday. Bullock had been sidelined while rehabilitating from offseason surgery to repair a cervical disc herniation.
Bullock made his first appearance with 3:52 remaining in the first quarter and seemed to make an immediate impact, scoring 11 points in 15 minutes.
He came in and gave us a great boost,” Miller said. “He came in and made a couple
“of shots and made a defensive play as soon as he comes in the game. I think he was
guarding CJ [McCollum], he’s coming off and he runs through the screen and stays to
the body and makes it difficult for him to make a catch.
“Some of the things that we felt like he would be able to do I think we saw some of those things. To be fair, that is his first game back and we thought it would take a couple of weeks and this West Coast trip to give him a chance to really get his legs under him and really find a good rhythm, but I thought he was really good tonight.”
Carmelo on Stern
Carmelo Anthony spoke on the passing of former NBA commissioner David Stern.
“First of all rest in peace to him,” Anthony said. “Sad news to kind of get that and hear that. Him as a person, we all know what he did for the game, what he created for the game. I think he’s the reason why our game is so global right now. People all over the world are watching NBA basketball, people all over the world are fans of mine and other NBA players. It’s because of the foundation that David Stern laid, the hard work that he put in, too. The vision. I think his vision doesn’t get enough credit.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
