{"id":511250,"date":"2026-01-02T06:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511250\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T06:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T06:11:11","slug":"knicks-rebounding-strength-fell-apart-in-disappointing-loss-to-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511250\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ rebounding strength fell apart in disappointing loss to Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing without their two best rebounders meant a typical Knicks strength disappeared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Without Mitchell Robinson (load management) and Josh Hart (ankle), the Knicks have not dominated the glass \u2014 and during their 134-132 loss to the Spurs<\/a> on Wednesday in San Antonio they got beat up on the boards<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Spurs had 11 offensive rebounds and 23 second-chance points. The Knicks had just seven second-chance points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had 11 offensive rebounds,\u201d coach Mike Brown said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how you can convert 11 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points. So our multiple effort was not good. They got the rebound and then we didn\u2019t fly around after that. It\u2019s hard when you give up an offensive rebound, but our inability to fly around and get the bodies and all that stuff, again, gave them an advantage on the second-chance points.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robinson will return for one game of the upcoming back-to-back Friday and Saturday at the Garden, The Post\u2019s Stefan Bondy reported, and Hart should be back at least somewhat soon. But Robinson\u2019s load management will continue throughout the season. <\/p>\n

And when Hart is not on the court to make up for Robinson\u2019s rebounding prowess, the Knicks are actually vulnerable in that department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet (7) grabs the rebound against New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in San Antonio. AP<\/p>\n

Over the past two games, against the Hawks and Spurs when both Robinson and Hart were out, the Knicks gave up 41 total second-chance points \u2014 tied for second-most in the NBA in that small stretch. <\/p>\n

They only had 20 total second-chance points themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the season, the Knicks average 17.3 offensive rebounds per game \u2014 nearly the total of their past two games and fourth-most in the NBA. And they only give up 14.8 second-chance points per game \u2014 10th fewest in the NBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robinson and Hart are the driving forces behind that. Without them, the Knicks need better contributions from others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey killed us on the offensive glass,\u201d Miles McBride said after Wednesday\u2019s game. \u201cThat\u2019s an effort thing and we gotta fix that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Trae Young (right quad contusion) is questionable for the Hawks for Friday\u2019s game. He missed the past two games. He missed 22 games earlier in the year due to a sprained right MCL.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playing without their two best rebounders meant a typical Knicks strength disappeared.\u00a0 Without Mitchell Robinson (load management) and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,327,1247,6,191,969,474,4075,4074,66,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-511250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-josh-hart","10":"tag-mitchell-robinson","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-san-antonio","14":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","15":"tag-sanantonio","16":"tag-sanantoniospurs","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-spurs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115824026214510203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}