The Knicks will not have long to enjoy their championship before running into Mitchell Robinson in a Celtics uniform.
The NBA announced that New York will visit Boston on October 23 at 7 p.m. ET, just three days after banner night at Madison Square Garden. That game will open Prime Video’s Friday night schedule, and it puts Robinson right back in front of the team he just left.
Robinson landed in Boston on a three-year, $47.4 million deal in July after eight seasons with the Knicks. He left with a title, and his first meaningful game for the Celtics will come against the club that watched him grow up in New York.
Last season, Robinson posted 5.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks across 60 regular-season games. In the title run, he supplied 4.8 points and 5.5 rebounds in 13.9 minutes per game.
For New York, the matchup arrives fast and with very little room to hide. Andre Drummond can handle reserve center minutes, but he does not move or recover like Robinson. That means the Knicks will need to rebound as a team and keep Karl-Anthony Towns from absorbing every physical center matchup.
Boston has a clear target. Robinson does a lot of his damage without the ball, using screens, dives and constant rim pressure to stay involved. His offensive rebounding can stretch one good stop into another 20 seconds of defense, and that is exactly the kind of pressure New York has already been talking about since the move.
The second game of the season will make that concern real instead of hypothetical.
“I wanted the first rematch on a national stage, and the NBA put it in the right place. Boston gets the home crowd, Robinson gets his first game against New York, and the Knicks get a real test immediately after the ring ceremony.”
It also gives New York an early read on its new center rotation. If Drummond and Towns can deal with Robinson without constant help, the worry shrinks quickly. If they can’t, Boston will have found a clean way to go after the champions right away.
A title-winning center switched sides and joined the Knicks’ biggest rival. Three days into the season, both teams will learn what that move really changed.
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