For a good portion of the first half, Mitchell Robinson had his way with one of the best players in basketball, and perhaps the most imposing.
Joel Embiid could not find space against the Knicks center. Robinson, no longer the slim, young big man he was in his first few seasons, was strong enough to keep the dominant force away from the hoop and agile enough to follow him out to the 3-point line.
The 76ers superstar was 2 of 6 for five points and a minus-14 during the first quarter Sunday, which the Knicks ended with a 12-point lead — a lead that would evaporate in the second half, when foul trouble caught up to Mitchell and the Knicks.
“Overall, I thought Mitch played a terrific game,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the 119-112 loss at the Garden.
The game shifted at 4:04 of the second quarter, when Robinson — with his team up 10 points — picked up his third foul on Embiid. Listed at 7-feet, 280 pounds, Embiid is both a beast to handle and exceptionally adept at forcing defenders to foul him.
With Robinson on the bench, Embiid scored eight of his 35 points to close the second quarter.
“You can’t reach against them,” Thibodeau said, also referring to James Harden (29 points). “They’re both very good. They extend their arms. Harden has all the tricks. He’s good at it. And if you fall into it, you can’t foul or appear to foul. You have to be disciplined.
“It’s not easy, but we’re capable of doing a lot better than we did.”
Without Robinson, Jericho Sims entered in the second quarter and also got into foul trouble. In the second half, the Knicks had no answers for Embiid, who went 8 for 12 in the final two quarters, as Philadelphia caught and surpassed the Knicks.
“He’s a great player,” the 24-year-old Robinson said of Embiid. “He gets a lot of free throws, stuff like that. You’ve got to do the best you can, just play hard.”
Robinson finished with 10 points, 16 rebounds, three blocks and was a Knicks-best plus-12 while he was on the floor. His defense may have been too aggressive, but it was effective while he could stay in the game.
He takes a lot of pride in his defense.
“I’m a man from New Orleans — [guards are] all we got down there,” Robinson said. “I got to [play defense] if I want to play five-on-five with my friends, stuff like that.”
Ex-Knick Carmelo Anthony, a free agent after playing with the Lakers last season, received a standing ovation from the crowd when he was shown on the jumbotron in the first quarter. Anthony sat by the 76ers bench.
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