INDIANAPOLIS — Deep in a 2-0 hole against the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 Eastern Conference finals, with their season on the brink, the New York Knicks made a change to their struggling starting lineup ahead of Game 3 on Sunday night.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau elevated center Mitchell Robinson into the starting lineup for the first time this postseason and just the fourth time since he returned to the lineup in late February after offseason ankle surgery. Robinson’s insertion bumped Josh Hart to the bench, ending a string of 140 straight appearances in which the do-it-all forward has been part of the starting five.
“I’ve been the 15th man, I’ve been the third man, I’ve been the sixth man, I’ve been whatever,” Hart said at the Knicks’ shootaround session before Game 3 on Sunday. “I truly feel like I’m a starter in the league. I think I played amazing this year. So, if he does [make a change] … cool.
Starting-lineup talk doesn’t change Josh Hart’s game. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
(Dustin Satloff via Getty Images)
“I can’t sit here and preach about sacrifice and getting out of our own personal agendas and all that, and then, if a decision like that is made, then be mad at it, and not want to sacrifice, and not want to do that?” he added. “That’s not the kind of person that I am. So, if Thibs does that — which, I don’t know if he is or isn’t — I’m all for it. I’m gonna play my game, my minutes, my style, no matter if I’m coming off the bench or starting.”
The move is a dramatic shift for Thibodeau, who has ridden his preferred starting five — Hart, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges — more often than any coach has played any other lineup in the NBA and has kept it intact whenever all five players are available to play. It comes after the starters once again labored against the Pacers in Game 2, getting outscored by 13 points in 17 minutes of shared court time in a game the Pacers won by five.
That continued an extended stretch of underperformance that has seen the quintet outscored by 59 points in 687 combined regular- and postseason minutes since Jan. 1. That includes a minus-29 mark in 43 minutes through two games against Indiana — a span during which they’ve allowed the Pacers to score a staggering 155.1 points per 100 possessions.
“Yeah, we just gotta keep looking at it,” Thibodeau said when asked about the starting lineup’s persistent issues after the loss. “Gotta do better.”
Asked a follow-up question about whether, down 2-0, the time had come to more strongly consider a change, Thibodeau brusquely replied, “We always look at everything.”
That self-assessment apparently led Thibodeau to open Game 3 with the double-big lineup of Towns and Robinson, who’s averaging 4.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, 0.9 steals and 0.6 blocks in 19.5 minutes per game during the playoffs.
The Knicks have fared well in their shared postseason floor time, outscoring opponents by 27 points in 106 minutes, limiting them to 41.9% shooting from the field and overwhelming them on the offensive glass. New York has recovered an eye-popping 41.5% of its missed shots in these playoffs when Robinson and Towns are together to battle on the boards.
“Robinson’s been very impactful for them since he’s been back,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said before Game 1 in New York. “He was plus-40-something in the Boston series. He creates possessions. He made free throws towards the latter parts of that series. And defensively, he gives them a lot of versatility. His ability to switch onto smaller players is special for a guy his size. And so he’s a major factor — a guy we’ve been talking a lot about.”
Carlisle now will have his Pacers prepared for a different look. No matter what Indiana does, though, Hart thinks bringing a ratcheted-up, tone-setting level of spirit and physicality from the opening tip will be vital if New York hopes to get back in this best-of-seven series.
“I think we need something drastic in terms of our energy and effort and our competitiveness,” he said. “… Every game of a playoff series, the intensity has to pick up, and you can’t have any lapses, especially to start the game, and you allow a team like this who’s extremely talented offensively to get comfortable. I think that’s the biggest drastic thing we can do, is have that energy change.”
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