Mitchell Robinson achieved another statistical anomaly.
After accumulating a ridiculous nine offensive rebounds in just 16 minutes of the previous game, the starting center finished plus-40 over just 17 minutes in Sunday’s 134-98 breeze over the Nets.
Even Robinson was impressed.
“You said plus-40 in [17] minutes?” Robinson said. “Damn.”
Robinson’s stat line also included two blocks, two steals, eight rebounds (three offensive) and eight points on 4-of-4 shooting.
He’s been a one-man wrecking crew in the past two games.
“Just going out there and doing what I’m supposed to do. Going out there and playing hard,” Robinson said. “It feels great. I didn’t even know that. I’m embracing it and continuing to get better.”
Robinson also was honored as the Knicks defensive player of the game by the coaching staff.
He helped hold the Nets to 40 percent shooting.
“I don’t really fall into the plus-minus stuff a ton, but it’s another amazing stat,” coach Mike Brown said. “He keeps throwing up these stats that are amazing. I think he played 16.5 minutes, and he was plus-40. To impact the game that way — again, not a huge believer in it — but to see a number like that in the short amount of time he was playing, was just amazing.”
Approaching three weeks into the regular season, Brown still hasn’t installed a lot of plays.
And that’s by design.
“Not a ton. We still like to play out of concepts, read and react,” the coach said. “I think our guys are getting a little more comfortable with that.”
In preseason, Brown said he wanted to build the foundation of his style — pace, ball movement, instinctual offense — before introducing a playbook.
A combination of time, injuries and preference have kept Brown from taking that step.
“It’s mainly by design because I think at the end of the day, it would be great if they can just play without play calls because then it’s harder for the defense,” Brown said.
Opening Night starter Ariel Hukporti remains out of the rotation, and Brown said he wasn’t sure if he’ll be back.
“I don’t know. I can probably play 10 guys, and right now, he’s not in the top 10, so he’s just gotta keep himself ready,” Brown said, “and when his number’s called, he’s just gotta go out there and he’s gotta play hard on both ends of the floor for his minutes.”
Hukporti, a second-year center from Germany, started twice this season in place of Robinson, who was managing an injury.
However, Hukporti struggled and has since collected only garbage time.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
