Celtics Pry Response Out Of Knicks Center For Clever Game 3 Tactic
Since New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson is a liability at the free-throw line, the Boston Celtics exposed the 27-year-old with a wise strategy during their Game 3 win at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla showed no mercy and executed the “Hack-a-Mitch” tactic, aimed at getting Robinson — a career 52.2% free-throw shooter — at the charity stripe to disrupt New York’s offense. It’s a trick birthed in the 1990s as NBA coaches struggled to defend Shaquille O’Neal, and became known as “Hack-a-Shaq.” So although Mazzulla isn’t the mastermind behind the scheme, dusting off an old vintage maneuver proved beneficial in Boston’s 115-93 second-round win over the Knicks.
Robinson logged a game-high 12 attempts at the charity stripe, and only made four, before finishing a minus-three with nine points off the bench for New York. Fans at Madison Square Garden rallied time and time again for Robinson to make the Celtics pay for their intentional fouling, but it didn’t work. Robinson, in fact, took to social media to fire back at the “hack-a” move and those clowning him online.
“I know y’all are commenting and doing all the stupid stuff, thinking that I really care. I really don’t,” Robinson said Sunday during an Instagram live stream. “Y’all know what I care about. This (Robinson pointed toward his truck), playing basketball and my daughter. All that other stuff, I really don’t care for. But I did have one thing I wanted to say to someone else, too, after this video. … Y’all should know me by now. Been here seven years. Y’all know how this (expletive) goes, man.”
Robinson was a problem when the series began in Boston. He scored six points, grabbed eight rebounds and tallied three steals off the bench, all while battling through the same “hack-a” method that’s followed him to New York. So it’s not like the scheme is new. It just so happened that it worked wonders in Game 3 for the Celtics.
“He’s really effective for them,” Mazzulla told reporters after Game 2, per CLNS Media. “And that’s something that we need to do a better job in those minutes, is be more effective when he’s on the floor. … We have to do a better job of attacking him, attacking the team when he’s in and obviously he poses a threat on the offensive end with his offensive rebounding. So, we had to do a better job of winning those minutes. For him to be plus-19, he’s one of the reasons they were able to win the game tonight.”
It got so bad for Robinson that even Boston center Luke Kornet pleaded with the officials that his foul on the 7-footer should’ve been ruled a shooting foul, just so Robinson could get back to the line. Kornet’s case didn’t stick, but the mind game was enough to get Robinson to air-ball an attempt in the first quarter — before he and thousands in attendance clenched their heads in agony at the wasted opportunity to snag free points.
Everyone from Ben Stiller to Spike Lee to Timothée Chalamet watched as Robinson and the Knicks crumbled after taking the fanbase’s confidence to heights it hasn’t reached in decades. The same organization that’s given its fans nothing notable besides Carmelo Anthony and two months of “Linsanity” hasn’t reached the Eastern Conference finals since 2000, so the streets were buzzing with anticipation.
They all left, however, with disappointment.
Boston’s win provided Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown with new life. The duo secured its opportunity to even up the series at 2-2 in Game 4 on Monday night, and the team’s defense demonstrated a way to stump Robinson completely. Even Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau admitted that Boston forced his hand and there’s only one way for Robinson to counter the reigning champs moving forward.
“If he’s making (them), he stays,” Thibodeau told reporters after Game 3, per CLNS Media. “If he’s not, you have to get him out. Is he impacting the game — is that more beneficial to leave him in? So there’s a lot of factors that go into that.”