Joe Mazzulla, Tom Thibodeau weigh in on Celtics’ strategy to hack Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson
Robinson missed his first five free throws in Saturday's Game 3 before the Madison Square Garden crowd gave him an ovation when he made his first free throw.
Joe Mazzulla’s strategy to send Mitchell Robinson to the free-throw line in the first two games of the Celtics-Knicks series didn’t help Boston secure a win, but he stuck with the strategy in Game 3.
The decision to keep hacking the Knicks center wound up playing a role in the Celtics’ 115-93 win on Saturday. Robinson struggled from the free-throw line again, making just 4 of 12 free throws. He also missed his first five, looking visibly frustrated after he airballed another free-throw attempt late in the first quarter.
Robinson’s struggles from the charity stripe got so bad on Saturday that the Madison Square Garden crowd gave the career 52.2 percent free-throw shooter a loud standing ovation when he finally sank his first free throw of the game. That came after fans encouraged him when Robinson was sent to the free-throw line for his first attempts of the game.
While Mazzulla’s strategy to hack Robinson helped the Celtics take a 25-point lead into halftime, he continued to deploy the strategy late in Saturday’s game. He called his team to intentionally foul Robinson to send him to the free-throw line on a pair of occasions when the Celtics were up 29 late in the third quarter.
“Just process over results,” the Celtics coach told reporters about why he instructed his team to intentionally foul Robinson throughout Saturday’s game. “You just always stick to the process of what you think gives you the best chance to win on that possession and to win in that game.”
Obviously, the results show that Mazzulla’s decision to continue to hack Robinson worked in Game 3. Robinson’s stats in the first two games might show that the process of continuing to send him to the free-throw line is a smart idea, too. He led the Knicks in plus/minus in Games 1 and 2, with New York outscoring Boston by 32 total points when Robinson was on the court in the first two games.
Robinson was one of the Knicks’ top players from a plus/minus perspective again on Saturday, too. His plus/minus of minus-3 in 19 minutes was better than any Knicks starter by at least 13 points, with Knicks reserve guard Miles McBride’s plus/minus of minus-1 being the only better mark among New York players who played at least 10 minutes.
Even though Robinson’s only averaging five points per game in the series, it’s clear that he’s making a major impact through the first three games. That’s why the Celtics’ decision to keep hacking Robinson has forced Tom Thibodeau to make tough calls with him, playing the Knicks center just seven minutes in the first half of Game 3.
“If he’s making them, he stays,” the Knicks coach told reporters on playing Robinson through the Celtics’ strategy to hack him. “If he’s not, you have to get him out. Is his impact on the game more beneficial to leave him in? There are a lot of factors that go into that.”
With Robinson spending 75 percent of the first half on the bench, the Celtics’ offense was able to open up. Their spacing looked to be the best that it’s been in the series, allowing them to make 12 of 19 3-pointers in the first 24 minutes of the game before finishing the day with 20 3-point makes on 40 attempts.
As the Celtics were able to fully exploit Robinson’s free-throw struggles on Saturday, it’s now on the Knicks to make sure his head’s in the right spot moving forward.
“You encourage,” Jalen Brunson said of Robinson’s free-throw woes. “It’s a tough position to be in, especially mentally. But you gotta encourage. We’re going to have each other’s backs regardless. So no matter what happens, we’re going to win together, we’re going to lose together. We’re going to go through that together.”
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