Here's how Mitchell Robinson changed Game 1 for the Knicks vs. Joel Embiid, Sixers

NEW YORK – It was nearly six years ago when Mitchell Robinson sat in front of a crowd of reporters inside the Knicks’ practice facility as the team’s new second-round pick.

Robinson was a relative unknown out of Louisiana who looked timid in those early days, a seven-foot, scrawny center without college basketball experience but the Knicks front office at the time believed he could develop into a weapon who oozed potential with unbridled athleticism.

Fast forward to Saturday night inside a raucous Madison Square Garden.

Robinson, who’s bulked up considerably since that day back in June of 2018, needed to come off the bench and limit Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid, the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player.

Embiid had gotten off to a scorching hot start. The Knicks needed Robinson to help slow him down if they were going to have any chance of pulling out a victory.

Robinson responded in a big way.

“I mean, it was just one of them things,” Robinson said. “You go out there and play hard and just go at it.”

Robinson played hard as soon as he took the court and helped the Knicks ultimately pull out a 111-104 victory over the Sixers in Game 1 of their first-round series.

He finished with eight points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.

Robinson’s most important work came against Embiid, who still had 29 points and eight rebounds.

But after Embiid scored the Sixers’ first nine points, he still had a relatively quiet performance.

Embiid missed the final minutes of the second half after going back to the locker room after suffering an injury when he bounced the ball off the backboard, slammed it home and then landed awkwardly.

Embiid returned for the second half as Sixers fans breathed a sigh of relief.

But Robinson, who missed more than three months following ankle surgery, helped make sure Embiid didn’t catch fire again.

He stayed in front of Embiid, he made it tough for him to get to the basket. At one point he forced Embiid into a double-dribble out near the three-point line.

“Obviously he’s been coming back from injury so I think it’s been tough on him,” said Miles McBride, who had 21 points off the bench in a superb performance, “but I think he just wanted to step up and take on the challenge.”

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Robinson played 30 minutes, the most he’s played since Dec. 1, days before he suffered the injury that sidelined him for much of the season.

Even Robinson was surprised he played that much Saturday night.

“Really?,” Robinson said when told he played 30 minutes. “Yeah, this whole week, that's what we were preparing for. It showed tonight.”

The Knicks are going to need more of this.

The Sixers can only go as far as Embiid can take them. And this has been a difficult season for Embiid too after he missed two months with a knee injury. He still isn’t 100 percent.

But even a less-than-100-percent Embiid is a threat. If he gets going, it’s going to make things far more difficult for the Knicks.

It’s going to be up to Knicks starting center Isaiah Hartenstein and Robinson to keep that from happening.

Robinson did his part in Game 1.

He’s come a long way from the June day six years ago.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Knicks: Mitchell Robinson does the job vs. Sixers, Joel Embiid