Mitchell Robinson’s specific injury is identified.
The backup center suffered a fracture of his fifth metacarpal, league sources told The Post, which is the bone connecting the wrist to the pinky finger.
It’s still unclear how or when Robinson suffered the injury to his right hand, but coach Mike Brown said it didn’t occur during Monday’s conference-clinching victory in Cleveland or a subsequent practice. The Knicks said they’d provide no further details on the fracture, including its cause.
Robinson underwent surgery recently, sources said, and there’s hope he’ll play Wednesday in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Robinson did not participate in practice Friday, and the Knicks are scheduled for another session Sunday.
“Mitch is very important to us,” teammate OG Anunoby said. “Amazing player. It’s unfortunate what happened, but I’m sure — just take it day by day now.”
Metacarpal fractures are not uncommon in the NBA, with Manu Ginobili (2012), Anthony Davis (2013) and Gordon Hayward (2020), among many others, suffering the injury to varying degrees and with wide-ranging recovery times.
In 2021, Robinson suffered a fracture of his fourth metacarpal in his right hand, underwent surgery, and was out several weeks — including the first-round playoff series against the Hawks.
If he plays in the Finals, Robinson will likely wear some sort of protection on the surgically repaired area. And since it’s on his shooting hand, the impact on his game will be something to monitor.
Before Robinson’s most recent fracture, the 28-year-old was projected as a prominent figure in the Finals, regardless of whether the Knicks faced the Spurs or the Thunder.
He’s the top offensive rebounder and rim protector on the roster, the best equipped to deal with either San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama or OKC’s frontcourt duo of Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren.
Perhaps more importantly, Robinson is insurance for Karl-Anthony Towns, who is susceptible to foul trouble.
After Towns and Robinson, Ariel Hukporti — a second-year player from Germany — and Jeremy Sochan — a little-used midseason free-agent signing — are the other centers.
“For me, I’m always going with whoever is available today,” Brown said Friday. “And [Robinson] didn’t practice today. So we’re getting whoever we need ready to go. … I don’t want to know, just let me know if he can play and when he can play. Just like we normally would, we’re getting everyone else ready to go.”
The irony of Robinson’s predicament is that he was load-managed all season to protect from another ankle injury (he had multiple surgeries to his left ankle). The idea was to maintain his health for the playoffs, only to have Robinson suffer a mysterious hand fracture just before the Finals.
Still, the Knicks are fortunate. They will have benefited from nine days off before Game 1 of the Finals, which is their reward for sweeping the Cavaliers in the conference finals while waiting for the Spurs and Thunder to finish their grueling series in the West.
Other than Robinson, they’re healthy and available.
“We have to prepare,” Towns said. “And we’re preparing every single day for whatever the situation may be, and we’re ready. We have a lot of days off — we’ve been fortunate, it’s a fortunate thing that it happens when we have a lot of time or we can figure out a lot of the puzzle.
“But, you know, we don’t know what the picture is yet [with Robinson] until we get to Game 1.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
