Mitchell Robinson trotted to the bench with a grin so wide, you could see it from the other side of the bridge.
Only Latrell Sprewell got louder applause than the Knicks’ starting center Wednesday night.
It took a Knicks legend sitting courtside during an elimination Game 5 to one-up the standing ovation Robinson received when he spoiled the Miami Heat’s late-game plans.
Trailing eight with under 5:30 left in the fourth quarter of the Heat’s futile attempt to close-out their second-round playoff series against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, the Heat resorted to intentionally fouling Robinson, a historically poor free throw shooter who has shot worse than 50% from the line in each of his last three seasons.
The lanky, athletic big man stepped to the foul line and said four words to himself: “I’m knocking these down.”
Robinson made the first with his funky — some would say, broken — free-throw shooting form, then signaled to the crowd to cheer louder.
“The crowd, they helped me out,” he said postgame. “They basically showed me they believed in me, and I knocked them down.”
It became clear this was Miami’s game plan the next time down the floor — the infamous strategy to hack an opposing team’s worst free throw shooter, popularized by Shaquille O’Neal’s struggles that quickly became coined as the “Hack-a-Shaq” method.
The Heat hacked-a-Mitch twice in the waning minutes of the final period, the following attempt away from the ball the very next possession.
“We didn’t expect it,” starting point guard Jalen Brunson said of Miami’s late-game fouling method after playing all 48 minutes in Game 5. “They’re a great coaching staff over there. But I think we have confidence in Mitch, no matter what the situation is.”
This time, the embattled shooter made both free throws and exited the game to a longer, louder ovation when head coach Tom Thibodeau pulled him from the game seconds later.
And when the seven-foot center stepped to the line with 21.3 seconds in regulation with the Knicks up six, Robinson calmly netted the first free throw to effectively end the game. He missed the second, but Julius Randle came up with the rebound, disposed of the nearest Heat defender and dunked home the final basket of the night — courtesy of a well-placed missed free throw by his starting center.
“That was big-time of Mitch to be ready,” said his teammate, RJ Barrett. “He works on those free throws every day, so to come out, especially in a game like this, where it’s do or die. To be able to step up and make those free throws was huge.”
Robinson finished the night shooting four-of-eight from the foul line, about on par with his career average of one made free throw for every two attempts. It’s a step forward for the big man, however, considering he had shot just 3-of-12 from the line through the first four games of this series and just 4-of-11 from the line in the first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“If he goes up there and misses them, he misses them,” Brunson said. “We’re gonna go out there and have his back on the other side of the ball. We have great confidence in him. He made a couple, felt good, and made a couple more.”
Made free throws are something the Knicks will need more of if they hope to turn a once 3-1 playoff series deficit into a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. Offense for the Knicks has already been difficult to come by. Robinson will need to knock down every free throw he gets his hands on.
After Wednesday night, he should know a sold-out crowd is ready to sing his praises for every shot he knocks down. His head coach, however, sung praises for reasons other than his timely shot-making at the line.
“That was huge,” Thibodeau said of Robinson’s free throws. “And obviously those were huge free throws, but his rebounding in the fourth, but not just the ones that were in his area, but the ones that were out of his area. To go get them said a lot. The rebounding is big in this game, and I think — obviously, we’ve gotta get our turnovers down — but I think that the rebounding, that’s a big part of our defense, and we’ve gotta continue to make sure that we prioritize it.”
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