If the New York Knicks are going to give the Boston Celtics a run for their money, they need to try, well, everything.
By "everything," we mean everything. They need to get creative with their use of Karl-Anthony Towns. They need to get inventive, weird, more variable, or whatever you want to call it with their defensive matchups to increase their odds of bogging down Boston's offense. They definitely need to do everything humanly possible to mitigate their enduring Josh Hart problem. And they sure as heck need to see if they can replicate the aggressive blueprint the Orlando Magic used to limit the Celtics' three-point volume.
One or two changes to schemes and the rotation isn't going to check all of these boxes. But there is a tweak that might come pretty darn close: playing Towns and Mitchell Robinson together even more.
Going big could prove necessary against Kristaps Porzingis
Turning to more Towns-Robinson minutes has a bunch of benefits. It is most valuable when matching up against Kristaps Porzingis, including when he's alongside Al Horford.
Granted, the 29-year-old Porzingis didn't set the world on fire against the Magic. He shot just 45.9 percent on twos (17-of-37), and a ghastly 11.8 percent from beyond the arc (2-of-17). The Knicks cannot necessarily bank on that happening again. Orlando's defensive personnel can uniquely goad him into certain shots, and convince him to attack purported mismatches in suboptimal ways. Porzingis has also missed time here and there, including in the first round, with an illness. If he's healthier and more available, he just as much as any other big other than Nikola Jokic is hardwired to stress test New York's defense.
Combating him with size is your best bet. Though Porzingis' armory down low isn't what you'd call exceptionally deep, his ability to get off shots and draw fouls on smaller defenders can be a pain in the butt. Just ask Cole Anthony.
New York knows this only too well. Boston averaged 1.25 points per possession during the regular season on plays in which Hart registered as a defender on Porzingis. (For reference, the Celtics averaged 1.20 points per possession, on average, during the regular season.)
Giving more minutes to the KAT-and-Robinson duo caps the number of mismatch situations. Towns can be the guy who goes after more aggressively on the perimeter. Robinson can handle any post touches, where KP is neither the best passer or tactician.
Size can help New York win the possession battle
Winning the possession battle will be critical to New York's upset chances. We already know the Knicks aren't going to outshoot the Celtics from distance.
Even if they make life difficult on the folks in green, Boston averaged more than five additional three-point makes than New York per game during the regular season. Across the two teams' four matchups, the Knicks were outscored from beyond the arc by 117 points. Not surprisingly, they also ranked 28th in points allowed per possession against Boston on the year.
In the absence of outshining the Celtics from long range, the Knicks must dominate the glass. And as Atticus O'Brien Pappalardo astutely unpacked for Daily Knicks, this needs to happen at both ends of the floor.
Boston was a sneaky-good defensive rebounding team during the regular season, grabbing 26.8 percent of opponent misses, which ranked seventh overall. New York needs to put more pressure on its division foe in those situations.
Grabbing your own misses not only ensures that you get another scoring opportunity. It also increases the chances that you're able to get your defense set off that scoring opportunity. That is a massive benefit when going up against these Celtics. Their offensive rating plummeted against the Magic when they were attacking after Orlando made a basket, dropping from 1.27 points per possession following a live rebound to 1.04 points per possession, according to Inpredictable.
Controlling the glass at the other end shouldn't be too much of a chore for the Knicks. Boston prioritizes five-out spacing without much emphasis on crashing the offensive boards. Still, even there, it can't hurt to have two behemoths making sure the Celtics' misfires end without an extra possession.
We need more information on the KAT-and-Mitch Duo
All of this is presented with the caveat that the Towns-Robinson frontcourt remains very much a dice roll. New York doesn't yet have enough information on how they work together.
Once Robinson rejoined the rotation following offseason surgery, head coach Tom Thibodeau played the two-big look for a total of 47 minutes, including just five minutes against the Celtics, specifically. The duo then logged 40 minutes against the Detroit Pistons. While the offense suffered statistically during those stretches, the Knicks rebounded a whopping 41.2 percent of their own misses, and held Detroit's offense to just 1.0 points per possession.
Nothing here is definitive enough to declare proof of concept. But the only way to get proof of concept is to explore it. And to this point, the Knicks have barely scratched the surface of the Towns-Robinson frontcourt.
Facing a daunting opponent in the Celtics, now is the time for Thibodeau to plumb the depths of this pairing. It may hurt the offense, it may even fail to shift the tenor of the series, but Thibs and the Knicks, along with the rest of us, cannot for sure until they try.
Dan Favale is a Senior NBA Contributor for FanSided and National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.