Mitchell Robinson Broke His Pinky. The Finals Start in Five Days.
No timetable. Hukporti on deck. The Knicks' rim protection just got thinner.
The Kid flagged this one and it matters more than the box score suggests.
Mitchell Robinson broke his right pinky finger earlier this week. No timetable for return per Shams Charania and The Athletic. The Finals start June 3 — five days from now. Robinson averaged 5.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in 13.3 minutes off the bench in the ECF sweep of Cleveland. Those aren't star numbers. But rim protection in the Finals is a different conversation.
Ariel Hukporti is the backup option if Robinson can't go. That's a downgrade the Knicks didn't plan for.
The Western Conference Finals opponent is still TBD — Thunder-Spurs Game 7 is Saturday night. But whoever comes out of that series, they're going to attack the paint. OKC with Shai driving. San Antonio with Wembanyama doing whatever Wembanyama wants. If Robinson's pinky keeps him out of Game 1, the Knicks' interior defense gets thinner exactly when it needs to be thickest.
Adjusting the championship position from 0.62 to 0.60. Not a collapse. A complication.