INDIANAPOLIS — Tom Thibodeau pulled the trigger.
The Knicks coach finally saw enough from his struggling starting lineup to make a move.
For Sunday night’s must-win Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, Thibodeau sent Josh Hart to the bench and replaced him with Mitchell Robinson in his first five.
The decision comes on the heels of the Knicks dropping the first two games of this series at home. Thibodeau had been resistant to making the move, saying multiple times in recent days that the coaching staff looks at everything.
“Every player has different strengths and weaknesses and so sometimes you look at the impact one may have on one particular unit. But there’s also a trickle down,” Thibodeau said during his pregame news conference. “There’s other things you have to factor in. How does it impact the second group? I don’t look at starting lineups, per se. I look at the groupings, and then you’re mixing and matching also to take advantage of what everyone’s strengths and weaknesses are to try to get the most out of the team.”
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Asked what factors he weighed before making the decision, Thibodeau said: “Everything.”
The starting five of Hart, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns has been outscored in the playoffs by 81 points, with a NET rating of minus-9.5 (meaning they have been outscored by 9.5 points per 100 possessions).
That is the worst mark of a starting group of any of the four remaining teams in the playoffs. The Pacers starters have a NET rating of plus-20.7. That Knicks group also has a defensive rating of 117.6, considerably higher than the team’s postseason mark of 113.0.
Robinson, the team’s top interior defender and best offensive rebounder, is second on the Knicks in NET rating at plus-8.6 behind Miles McBride’s plus-8.8. Oddly, the fivesome of Robinson, Brunson, Towns, Anunoby and Bridges have only shared the floor together for seven minutes this entire postseason.
“I’ve been the 15th man, I’ve been the third man, I’ve been the sixth man, I’ve been whatever,” Hart said after the morning shootaround at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. “I truly feel like I’m a starter in the league. I think I played amazing this year. So, if he does [it], cool. I can’t sit here and preach about sacrifice and getting out of our own personal agendas and then a decision like that is made and then be mad at it and not want to sacrifice and do that.
“That’s not the person I am. If Thibs does that, and I don’t know if he is or isn’t, I’m all for it. I’m going to play my game, my minutes, my style, no matter if I’m coming off the bench or starting.”
The starters have dug the Knicks holes throughout the postseason. They did not play well together in either of the first two games of the series, leading to the change. Towns struggled so much in Game 2 that Thibodeau benched him for much of the fourth quarter. Hart is coming off a poor game himself, producing just six points, six rebounds and an assist in 29 ineffective minutes.
“I mean it was one game,” Hart said. “The game before that I think I had a good game and then [we] went on that 14-0 run. If we won that game, we would be happy. Outcome wasn’t what we wanted. The last game I didn’t play well. I don’t hang my hat on scoring and those kinds of things. I think my energy wasn’t where it should have been. But, for me, there’s going to be highs and lows and that’s kind of how I go.
“I’m not too worried about it. Whenever I have a bad game, I usually come around and have a good game at some point. Hopefully that point is today.”
