Last night’s win in Memphis has a very good case for being the best of the Knickerbockers’ 39 victories this season. While others were prettier (including the first win over the Grizzlies), this type of grind-out road win that featured clutch shots and a big defensive stop is something that can inspire a fanbase that hasn’t had much to be inspired about after the team’s struggles against the league’s elite.

Even if the Knicks couldn’t pull that one out, the real win came in the return of the team’s longest-tenured player.

For a few months, I began to doubt if I would ever see Mitchell Robinson wear orange and blue again. Although he’s never been my number-one favorite player, he’s been the only constant in the consistently shifting world of Knicks basketball. He’s the only Knick left who played under David Fizdale and the only one who was on the team for the magical 2020-21 season.

After surviving the trade deadline, he will officially be the first Knick to spend seven full seasons with the franchise since Allan Houston. That means something to me, so seeing him finally walk back onto the court five minutes into the game was one of the great moments of the season.

Of course, Robinson was playing his first NBA game in 298 days. No matter how good he played, he was going to be limited. He came in a few minutes earlier than management hoped, but two quick fouls for KAT (who struggled today) forced him in.

You immediately saw the impact that Robinson provides right away.

As we all know, nobody will ever be intimidated by Karl-Anthony Towns at the rim. Opponents are shooting 67.3% against Towns at the rim. Although Precious Achiuwa is better defensively, his numbers don’t help much. The Knicks surrender the fourth-most FGA/game at the rim because there’s no deterrent. Because of the slow pace, their rate of nearly 31% of opponent’s shots coming in the restricted area is at the top.

In comes Mitchell Robinson. His first defensive possession:

Robinson gets great positioning on Zach Edey, first off. Ja Morant gets inside in perfect floater territory and this is a shot he takes 99.9% of the time if Karl-Anthony Towns is the big in the way. KAT drops so far during these to prevent a dump-off or blow-by, and it always leads to an open floater.

Mitch stays up and Bridges smartly rotates towards Edey, which causes Morant to kick it out.

Fun fact: opponents went 0-for-3 from 3 when defended by Mitchell Robinson last night.

Desmond Bane has a mismatch, or so he thought. While Towns will play extremely passive to prevent getting blown by, Mitch never drops back enough to give Bane a clean look when he steps back for three. The extra step forward can really make a difference.

Did you miss this? I did.

If you’re a youth basketball coach, show this clip to your big men (and cut it off before the bricked putback layup). Robinson is one of the best in the NBA at boxing out and he totally bodies Brandon Clarke to get a patented offensive rebound, the only one in his season debut.

To take a brief break from our usual programming, here’s Mitch burning the Grizzlies’ scouting report and taking Clarke off the bounce for maybe the fourth time in his entire career.

And a few possessions later, we saw another rarity. Mitchell Robinson . . . in the post?

He’s been a pure layup and dunk guy his entire career. He has almost never sealed a guy in the post and just used his size to get to the rim. Santi Aldama got bullied.

This next play may be a key to the Knicks finally figuring it out against the league’s elite:

Mikal Bridges guarding an elite guard ballhandler.

A big comes and screens at the top of the key.

All season long, this has been a disaster for the Knicks. Drop coverage has been a nightmare for an already poor defender in Karl-Anthony Towns. KAT just starts backpedaling and the ballhandler licks his chops. Most of the time, these possessions end with an open floater, a layup against a non-existent rim deterrent, or a kickout to a wide open three after the defense is forced to collapse to prevent said open floater.

This switch here is perfect. Bridges takes Jackson Jr. and Robinson fronts Ja Morant. Robinson is not only a supremely talented and intelligent defender, but a confident one. Some players back away from these assignments. He doesn’t.

Ja doesn’t have an open floater, but also can’t just blow by for an open layup because of Robinson’s positioning. He’s forced to try and create space and goes left, which gives Bridges enough time to help and get the block with Morant likely committed to taking the shot as soon as he saw a 1-on-1 against a big. Excellent defense from both men.

Finally, I’ll admit this is a stretch. Robinson does surrender the offensive rebound to Aldama for a near-game-winning putback. However, this is more desperation out of Aldama.

Robinson got great positioning to make any putback attempt as tough as possible. While imperfect, this is still what makes Robinson so valuable. Achiuwa isn’t big enough to body a guy like Aldama and Towns isn’t a big boxout guy. Robinson is the boxout guy in the NBA.

Now, I’m not going to act like he played perfectly in this game. He looked gassed at several points in this game and wasn’t close to as dominant on the boards as he’s been in his career. He’s clearly not in game shape yet, which is fine. There are 23 games left for Robinson to not only get back to the game feel he’s had over the last few years, but to get to a point where Thibs is experimenting lineups with him and KAT.

All told. Robinson played 12:21. He was a team-high plus-11. The defensive rating with him on the court was 103.7.

The pieces are coming into place, folks.