Mitchell Robinson Injury: Knicks Lose Center For 3 Weeks

The New York Knicks' interior situation suffered a bit of a blow this week, as it'll have to make do without Mitchell Robinson.

The New York Knicks announced that center Mitchell Robinson underwent a successful procedure to repair a fractured right thumb. He is out for at least three weeks, at which point he will be re-evaluated. 

Robinson, 24, sustained the injury during Wednesday's wire-to-wire loss to the Washington Wizards. He played only nine minutes and was ruled out for the rest of the game before the end of the first half. 

Mitchell Robinson appears to sustain his initial thumb injury about 3 1/2 minutes into the game. He played about 5 1/2 more minutes; the injury may have been aggravated on one or more plays. He was eventually subbed out & diagnosed with a thumb sprain. Extent of injury TBD pic.twitter.com/iAW72bXBob

— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) January 19, 2023

This, alas, isn't the first time-consuming injury that Robinson has endured this season: a knee ailment kept him out for eight games in November. 

Julius Randle mostly handled Robinson's rebounding duties once he left but backup depth options Isaiah Hartenstein and Jericho Sims combined for only six points and eight rebounds. Sims, who played for the first time in 12 days on Wednesday, earned a majority of interior minutes with Robinson out, and that trend continued against Washington when he played 21 minutes compared to 13 for Hartenstein. An injury in the post will likely lead to calls for Obi Toppin to get more minutes, especially as he continues to work his way back from a knee injury of his own. 

Robinson has averaged a career-best 8.9 rebounds thus far this season, his fifth in New York and first on a new four-year deal worth $60 million. Entering last night's game, Robinson was averaging 10.8 rebounds over the last dozen games (since Dec. 25), 11th-best in the NBA among those who played at least 10 contests in that span. 

New York's first game in this stretch without Robinson will come on Friday night when it faces the Atlanta Hawks on the road (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG). 

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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