Zach Edey couldn’t have shown more help on Jalen Brunson.
It was the first quarter of the Knicks’ matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, a game between two teams with identical records and aspirations.
On this possession, with just over seven minutes left in the first quarter, Brunson had already gotten into the teeth of the Grizzly defense. That left Edey, the 7-4 center, as the last line of defense between the Knicks’ captain and the rim.
Yet Edey wasn’t just showing help on Brunson. He wasn’t focused on Karl-Anthony Towns — who is traditionally camped by the three-point line but was on the bench after picking up two early fouls — or Precious Achiuwa, who could have been the first big man off the bench with Ariel Hukporti suffering a torn meniscus.
On this night, Edey’s eyes were on Mitchell Robinson, who made his long-awaited return after missing 10 months with a second stress fracture in his left ankle.
And after checking in for Towns early in the first quarter, Robinson wasted no time reminding the Knicks why they aren’t the same team without him.
He set two screens for Brunson — one near midcourt and another just beyond the three-point line — before rolling hard to the basket.
His hard roll pulled Edey into a dilemma: If he closed out on Brunson, the Knicks’ captain would simply drop the ball off to Robinson for an uncontested dunk. If Edey stayed home on Robinson, Brunson, who had already gotten two steps on Memphis’ Vince Williams Jr., had a free mid-range jumper.
Edey chose the latter. Brunson calmly banked in the open shot and nearly drew the foul on Williams.
Robinson didn’t record a point, rebound, block, steal, or assist on the play. But his impact was apparent. In his 12 minutes of action, the Knicks outscored the Grizzlies by a team-high 11 points.
Robinson finished with six points, five rebounds, and an assist. But in a one-point game that came down to the final possession, Big Mitch made a big impact in a small amount of time.
“For the first game back, with the amount of time he’s been out, I thought it was really, really good,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the victory. “Just having the pick-and-roll defense, the rim protection, the rebounding, and he made a lot of good plays just moving on penetration, pressure on the rim offensively, those things are huge.
“It opens up space for us, so the more you can open up space, the better our offense is gonna be.”
***
Moments after Brunson’s bank shot, Robinson is getting back on defense — where the Knicks have needed him the most. New York has been abysmal defending both the paint and the three-point line this season, a weakness that changed instantly with Robinson’s presence.
The Grizzlies wasted no time testing him. Edey set a screen for Desmond Bane, forcing Josh Hart to fight over the top. Without Robinson, this action often resulted in an easy drive to the rim. Not this time.
Robinson plays it perfectly, stepping up just enough to take away Bane’s driving lane, then dropping back to guard Edey as Hart recovers back to his man.
Bane hesitates. Then he swings a cross-court pass to Ja Morant, who is checked by Mikal Bridges.
Edey sets another screen, this time on Morant. He uses a crossover to shift Bridges into the screen while attacking the middle of the paint.
Robinson shifts with him.
With nowhere to go, Morant rifles a pass to Bane, who has shifted to the corner. But now that Robinson is in the paint, OG Anunoby has free reign on defense. He darts out to the corner and blocks Bane’s attempt at a three.
This was what the Knicks had been missing all season: a legitimate back-line anchor capable of dictating defensive rotations with his presence alone.
The Grizzlies recover Bane’s blocked shot and swing the ball over to Williams, wide-open on the right wing.
Until Robinson closed out from the paint to contest his shot.
Three defensive plays in one possession. Zero box score stats to show for it.
“Mitch getting in there: 12 minutes, five rebounds. [It was] great, great,” said Thibodeau. “It gives us a different element to our team. It makes us a lot bigger.”
***
Now Robinson finds himself on an island guarding Bane on the perimeter — but this isn’t a mismatch. Far from it.
Bane can’t blow by Robinson because he’ll recover in time to block the layup. So instead, he tries the step-back three. Robinson’s contest alters that shot, too.
Moments later, Robinson picked up his only foul of the night. He had already rotated three times in a span of seconds, cutting off Morant, then Santi Aldama, then Williams. But Williams dumped the ball off to Brandon Clarke under the rim, and Robinson, recovering once again, arrived a split-second late.
Clarke’s layup goes in, and a whistle blows. The foul is secondary to what really mattered: The Knicks have their defensive anchor back.
“First game back, so it’s hard to say. Obviously, games are a lot different than practices, but he’s a vet, so I think he understands exactly who he is,” Thibodeau said before tipoff. “Just play to your strengths, go as hard as you can, and it’ll be a short stint, so his timing will come around. But his defense — I anticipate that being there right from the start.”
Robinson’s impact extends beyond defense. His elite offensive rebounding creates second-chance opportunities, like when he sealed Clarke for an offensive board off a missed Hart three. He missed the putback, but those are the plays the Knicks have been missing all season.
And then comes a surprise, though it’s not the least bit shocking for a team that’s run this play countless times in practice.
Bridges gives Robinson the ball at the top of the key, fakes left and cuts right as if he were going to receive a hand-off from his starting center.
Robinson fakes the hand-off. Both Williams and Clarke bite and follow Bridges.
Clear runway. Two dribbles, two steps, and a two-handed dunk.
“Yeah, you saw that, huh? It was smooth, huh?” Robinson said after the game. “That’s something we’ve been working on through the whole rehab process. I felt comfortable doing it. So I did it.”
It was a moment of offensive flair from a player who has built his reputation on defense.
But by now, it was clear Robinson was gassed. He concedes a basket to Clarke who is wide-open under the rim. These limitations, too, will pass.
No amount of practice could simulate the intensity of NBA game speed, especially against a team like Memphis. Plus the Knicks are going to have to ease Robinson into heavy minutes. This is his first time back on the floor with an ankle that’s been surgically-repaired twice.
Yet with the game on the line, Thibodeau called on him one last time.
Anunoby had just drilled a three-pointer to put the Knicks ahead by one. The Grizzlies had the ball with time for a final shot. Everyone in the building knew it was going to Morant.
Robinson checked back in.
“He trusts me,” Robinson said of Thibodeau. “Missing 10 months and to put me in a big position like that to get a stop, it shows he trusts me and still rocks with me.”
Morant never made it to the rim. Bridges beat him to the spot and forced a tough attempt, securing the Knicks’ one-point victory.
Robinson didn’t block the shot, but Morant knew he was New York’s last line of defense.
For the first time in nearly a year, the Knicks had their defensive anchor back on the floor. In a one-point game, Robinson finished a team-high plus-11.
“Yeah, and look, the thing is, you need everybody, and Mitch has been out all year. He was projected to be our starting center, so navigating that,” Thibodeau said. “So now the focus has to be: we have a lot of work to do to get to the end of the season, where we want to be playing our best.”
Robinson is back, and the Knicks look different because of it. They don’t just defend better — they compete better.
And if he stays healthy, the Knicks might finally be ready to touch the teams they haven’t been able to reach all season.
The Knicks won’t think that far down the road. They are happy they have their big man back, and hoping to keep it that way the rest of the season.