WASHINGTON – The President of the Knicks, Leon Rose, paid a surprise visit to Washington on Friday night, where he only took his second game on the road, a few feet away from senior VP William Wesley.
Rose saw his Knicks win the battle for the Wizards in a 109-91 defeat, in an empty Capital One Arena, but lose the war.
Knicks center Mitchell Robinson, after a first half of 10 points, 14 rebound, left the game in the third quarter for X-rays showing he had broken his right hand.
The Knicks, as they say, cannot get a break and lose their defense center for weeks. This is a team with no margin of error.
“It was probably his best first half of the year for him,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau.
Robinson tried to block a shot but collided with Julius Randle as he came down, his hand touching Randle’s elbow. Robinson started to shake his hand, but stayed in the game. He looked distressed as he seriously missed two free throws – one that missed the edge altogether.
“It’s very difficult, it will certainly be difficult without him,” said Randle.
The training staff showed a video of the play to Randle in the locker room after the game and he spoke to Robinson.
“He’s cheerful,” Randle said. “Very positive. He will still be with us every step of the way. “
Part of the Knicks’ relative success is continuity and staying injury-free for key players. Now that is shattered. They added Derrick Rose, and he’s easily acclimated to back-to-back 14-point games. Rose has formed an electric tandem with rookie Immanuel Quickley as the backcourt and has already helped rookie Obi Toppin’s play.
Now they will try to move on with another Thibodeau favorite, Taj Gibson, who was signed as insurance last month, picking up the backlash for Robinson. And that insurance may or may not pay.
The Post learned that the Knicks were considering adding former 76ers shot blocking center Norvel Pelle (a poor Robinson) to the frontcourt, but Thibodeau wanted Gibson. Pelle is now at the nets.
Gibson played 12 minutes in the fourth quarter on Friday when the Knicks suffered a blowout over the Wizards, who played without Bradley Beal. While Rose remained in his seat, he might have figured out what other centers there would be, with Nerlens Noel now the Knicks starter. Noel has been a solid rim protector, but also missed five games with a sore knee.
Thibodeau said he is in no rush to add a big man. He hinted that the Knicks could also “ get small, ” with the clear possibility that Randle will move downtown and Toppin will get more minutes as he develops.
In his rookie fight with Israel’s Deni Avdija, Toppin was more efficient, with eight points on 4-for-5 shooting. Avdija also scored eight runs, but went 1-for-5 on 3-pointers despite his smooth shot. The Knicks have passed on Avdija, who looks like he is going to be the next Danilo Gallinari, when they drafted Toppin.
With Toppin’s role ready to be scaled up, Thibodeau was careful not to give a best-case scenario when the Knicks went back to New York to have Robinson evaluated.
“I don’t want to speculate about it,” said Thibodeau. “Once he gets back to New York, we’ll have our documents look at him and we’ll know exactly what the time frame looks like. It will be an estimate. ”
The Knicks will face the Rockets at the Garden on Saturday without Robinson, who had played in all 27 games. In 11 days, The Garden will have some fans back – nearly 2,000 per game from Feb. 23 against the Warriors.
Earlier in the day, Randle talked about rocking the yard again.
“To have fans back in the Garden – even for that amount – is great,” said Randle. “We are extremely excited to have our fan base come to the game and experience the energy we have been feeling. ”
Rockets point guard John Wall, with his new team and new health, will visit a fanless Garden on Saturday. The Rockets have hosted a limited number of fans – and even that’s weird for Wall.
“The whole season is weird,” Wall said on Thursday evening. “It’s weird with COVID, testing every day, sometimes twice a day. Even the arenas with fans are different. You only see a few. Looks like you’re with a bad team that only has 2000 fans and the rest isn’t there. “
The Knicks had remained relatively clear of all COVID-19 issues, except for Frank Ntilikina, who was out of rotation and left the team on this road trip due to contact tracking. Now they have been hit by a fluke, sidelining Robinson.
As Wall said, it’s a new world. When I arrived at Amtrak at Union Station in Washington on Friday for the first game of my season, I stepped out and the pandemic hit hard again. Usually the queue for a taxi is no less than 20 minutes, but on Friday there was no one outside Union Station – just a stream of depressingly empty taxis waiting in a ghost town.
No fans were allowed in Washington on Friday night and nothing is planned to change that. After Saturday’s game against the Rockets, there are three more Garden games before the doors of the world’s most famous Arena really reopen.
In 11 days, the sound of ticket scalpers will be music to your ears, but the Knicks will have to fight without their starting center.