Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
Mitchell Robinson didn\u2019t shy away or mince words. He knows exactly what\u2019s in store for the Knicks\u2019 first-round series against the Pistons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, importantly, his role in all of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a dirty series,\u201d Robinson said after practice Thursday. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get out there and fight. That\u2019s the biggest part about it. Physicality with Detroit and us. It\u2019s something we just have to bring.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Pistons, who enjoyed a dramatic turnaround this year after winning an NBA-worst 14 games last year, have developed a reputation as one of the league\u2019s more physical and tough teams. Much of that stems from big men Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart. <\/p>\n
Robinson is set to battle inside with both.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stewart in particular has emerged as a notorious instigator and rabble-rouser, never shying away from a fight and constantly toeing the line between playing hard and playing dirty. <\/p>\n
He was suspended two games earlier this year for his role in a brawl between the Pistons and Timberwolves. <\/p>\n
His four flagrant fouls were tied for second most in the league, and his 14 technical fouls were third most. He was ejected from three games, tied for the most in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not hard to envision Stewart throwing an elbow or shoulder into Robinson or Karl-Anthony Towns and trying to drag them into the mud or get under their skin. And the Knicks\u2019 lack of depth has been a talking point all season \u2014 they can ill afford to lose anyone to a silly ejection or suspension.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust be smart,\u201d Robinson said of combatting Stewart\u2019s antics. \u201cThat\u2019s really all it is. Be physical, be smart and play basketball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That goes both ways \u2014 Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff has cautioned his team, and especially Stewart, about not letting their style of play end up costing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for us to be physical but not emotional,\u201d Bickerstaff said Thursday on SiriusXM NBA radio with Frank Isola and Brian Scalabrine. \u201cI think that\u2019s the difference. We\u2019re going to be physical. There\u2019s gonna be some dust-ups, there\u2019s gonna be some interactions. That\u2019s just the way it is when we show up in the building. But we can\u2019t allow the emotion to get the best of us where for three minutes we\u2019re outside of ourselves, now we allow them to go on an 8-0 run. I think it\u2019s very important for us to not change who we are, but at the same time just make sure that we keep our emotions intact and go out and be able to play and execute through all the physicality.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year, Robinson notably got into a few altercations with Joel Embiid during the Knicks\u2019 first-round series against the 76ers, which included drawing Embiid into a Flagrant 1 foul in Game 3 \u2014 which many thought should have been a Flagrant 2 and ejection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Knicks lost much of their muscle and snarl from last year when Isaiah Hartenstein left in free agency. Now, Robinson is perhaps the best suited on the roster to impose his size and strength and combat the Pistons\u2019 nastiness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no track record of how Robinson will deal with this version of the Pistons, though, as he missed all four regular-season matchups \u2014 in which the Knicks went 1-3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is weird because they don\u2019t know me, I don\u2019t know them,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cAll I know is the film and the books that we get, stuff like that. Just going in there to fight and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson missed most of the season while recovering from offseason ankle surgery, returned in February and played 17 games. <\/p>\n
He averaged 5.1 points and 5.9 rebounds in 17.1 minutes per game \u2014 all of which would represent career lows. He did not play any back-to-backs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But despite his slow ramp-up, he\u2019s been happy with his conditioning. <\/p>\n
Robinson made it a point in his rehab to eat better and lose weight to be able to play for longer stretches of time. Previously weighing over 290 pounds, Robinson said Thursday he\u2019s around 269 pounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat s\u2013t was heavy as hell,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cI just played a full quarter in one of the games. Only been back for a month and two weeks maybe. To go in and all the work that I put in to be able to do that, that just showed a lot. How much time I put into the conditioning and all that. After games, before games and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Mitchell Robinson didn\u2019t shy away or mince words. He knows exactly what\u2019s in store for the Knicks\u2019 first-round series against the Pistons.\u00a0 And, importantly, his role in all of it.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a dirty series,\u201d Robinson said after practice Thursday. \u201cWe\u2019re going<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":280428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-280427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280429,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280427\/revisions\/280429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}