Trouble in Cleveland
With Donovan Mitchell out for at least a week, are the Cavs within reach? Plus, a look back at dominant efforts from Deuce and I-Hart.
Good morning! I’ll say at the outset that I had way too much fun reliving Monday night’s Golden State game in preparation for this newsletter. Hope you enjoy just as much as I did.
But we start with a notable development out of Cleveland…
News & Notes
🏀 Good injury news for New York: according to Ian Begley, OG Anunoby’s elbow has shown improvement since Monday, while three people familiar with Julius Randle’s injury situation “expressed confidence that Randle would ultimately return to the court.”
🏀 Donovan Mitchell is down for the count.
According to Shams, Mitchell had a procedure for a nasal fracture and will be re-evaluated in one week. Over that time the Cavs, who are 10-9 without their star guard this season and just 8-9 in their last 17 games, will face Miami twice, Minnesota and Charlotte. After that, they get Charlotte again and then Philly at home, followed by a daunting West coast trip against the Nuggets, Jazz, Suns, Lakers and Clippers. Evan Mobley has also missed the last seven games with a sprained ankle, while Max Strus has missed the last eight with a knee issue.
At this point, the door is open for the Knicks to jump up and catch Cleveland, but they’re not the only ones in pursuit. Orlando is mostly through the angel food cake portion of their schedule and doesn’t own the tiebreaker against the Cavs, but they’re just a half game back of the Knicks and are tied for the most wins in the league since January 31 after destroying Charlotte last night. They’re every bit as much of a threat to Cleveland as New York.
On the other end of the bracket, Miami faces the beleaguered Cavs in Cleveland tonight, Indy heads to Detroit and Philly hits the road to face the Suns.
With 25 days to go in the regular season, everything is still very much up in the air.
Warriors Rewind: Deuce & I-Hart Shine
Let’s start here: for all the things Isaiah Hartenstein adds to the starting five that are unique to him, the Knicks have, first and foremost, needed him to do a passable impression of the man he’s replacing.⭐️
Mitchell Robinson has been gone for over three months now. At the time he went out, he was on track to challenge for the greatest offensive rebounding season in the history of the league, and New York’s offense largely depended on those second chance opportunities to make up for their middling efficiency. More than that, he was the backbone of a defense that started the year with its fair share of issues.
Since then, the Knicks’ defensive rating has remained virtually identical to what it was at the time of Robinson’s last game, and has actually risen from ninth to sixth in the league-wide rankings. There are countless factors that go into both of those numbers, but Hartenstein’s sturdy individual and team defense (when he’s healthy, which he certainly looks to be at the moment) is as big a reason as any.
That much has been obvious to anyone watching. Lost in the shuffle a bit has been I-Hart’s dominance on the offensive glass, but after five offensive rebounds Monday night, we were reminded about how similar he is to Mitch in that respect as well.
For the season, Hartenstein ranks seventh in the league in offensive rebounds per game, fifth in total offensive rebounds, and third in offensive boards per 36 minutes among players who have seen at least 1000 minutes of court time.
With that level of proficiency, it has kept New York at the top of the league in percentage of possessions that end with a second chance opportunity. Between that and the defense, any drop off from Mitch has been minimal, which is a big part of why they’ve been able to sustain his absence.
But the part that has every Knicks fan dreaming big dreams (pun intended) of a two-headed center monster that will give opponents hell in the playoffs is what Hartenstein does that Robinson can’t. Those segments of his game were on full display in the Bay Area, as they have been for much of this season.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Knicks Film School to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.