Playing without their two best rebounders meant a typical Knicks strength disappeared.
Without Mitchell Robinson (load management) and Josh Hart (ankle), the Knicks have not dominated the glass — and during their 134-132 loss to the Spurs on Wednesday in San Antonio they got beat up on the boards.
The Spurs had 11 offensive rebounds and 23 second-chance points. The Knicks had just seven second-chance points.
“They had 11 offensive rebounds,” coach Mike Brown said. “I don’t know how you can convert 11 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points. So our multiple effort was not good. They got the rebound and then we didn’t fly around after that. It’s hard when you give up an offensive rebound, but our inability to fly around and get the bodies and all that stuff, again, gave them an advantage on the second-chance points.”
Robinson will return for one game of the upcoming back-to-back Friday and Saturday at the Garden, noti.group’s Stefan Bondy reported, and Hart should be back at least somewhat soon. But Robinson’s load management will continue throughout the season.
And when Hart is not on the court to make up for Robinson’s rebounding prowess, the Knicks are actually vulnerable in that department.
Over the past two games, against the Hawks and Spurs when both Robinson and Hart were out, the Knicks gave up 41 total second-chance points — tied for second-most in the NBA in that small stretch.
They only had 20 total second-chance points themselves.
For the season, the Knicks average 17.3 offensive rebounds per game — nearly the total of their past two games and fourth-most in the NBA. And they only give up 14.8 second-chance points per game — 10th fewest in the NBA.
Robinson and Hart are the driving forces behind that. Without them, the Knicks need better contributions from others.
“They killed us on the offensive glass,” Miles McBride said after Wednesday’s game. “That’s an effort thing and we gotta fix that.”
Trae Young (right quad contusion) is questionable for the Hawks for Friday’s game. He missed the past two games. He missed 22 games earlier in the year due to a sprained right MCL.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
