Knicks hope Isaiah Hartenstein won't join the list of sidelined starters
Pacers center Myles Turner blocks a shot by Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein during the first half in Game 4 of an NBA second-round playoff series Sunday in Indianapolis. Credit: AP/Michael Conroy
INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks already have lost Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, Bojan Bogdanovic and OG Anunoby to injuries, and they hope they survived another scare Sunday as Isaiah Hartenstein suffered a left shoulder injury in the second quarter.
Hartenstein fell hard to the floor midway through the quarter as he scored in the paint, landing on his shoulder. He played 5:06 in the third quarter and didn’t score or shoot, grabbing one rebound, as he seemed to struggle to lift his arm above his head.
“X-ray came back cool, so probably just like a nerve thing,” he said. "But the hand kind of gets numb sometimes, but I'll be good.”
The Knicks certainly need him to be. They can ill afford to lose another piece.
Anunoby is the only one of the missing pieces who has even a possibility of returning. He's been sidelined for the last two games after suffering a left hamstring strain in the third quarter of Game 2, and the effect of his loss has been clear. The Knicks are 26-5 with him in the lineup and 13-16 without him since he arrived in a midseason trade.
With Robinson out, the Knicks need Hartenstein, and he seemed optimistic that with a day off, he will be ready Tuesday for Game 5.
“It was the fall,” he said. “The X-ray came back fine, so it's probably like a pinched nerve, where it kind of fell asleep at times, but it's fine. It's just like small. I guess it's something that we can fix easy. Everyone's playing through a lot of stuff, so I'll be fine.”
“Everybody is getting banged,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Everyone has got something. It’s the playoffs. Got to get through that.”
Defense on DiVincenzo
Donte DiVincenzo scored a postseason career-high 35 points in Game 3, so the Pacers were intent on treating him not just as a complementary piece to Jalen Brunson but a player whom they needed to focus on. And it seemed to work as he was held to seven points, shooting 3-for-13 overall and 1-for-6 from beyond the arc.
“I think you got to say that DiVincenzo is a great player,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “I mean, he's had monster games throughout the playoffs, throughout the season. In the first game, we didn't treat him like he was a great player. The urgency to take away, forget about shots but touches. The guy is the guy makes a lot of things happen. And so we did better there tonight.”
"Appreciate the comments,” DiVincenzo said. “ But you know, that's the whole point of a playoff series. You make adjustments and, you know, there was an adjustment they made tonight. We'll go in tomorrow and we'll make adjustments. It’s a seven-game series for a reason.”
Makeup game
Hartenstein felt that returning home will help the Knicks, but they have to show something better for the home crowd. “I mean, it’s the Garden,” he said. “Nothing is like the Garden. We have to really get back to playing our basketball, coming back to playing for the fans like that. Because the way we played, especially today, was not respectful to the fans and how they support us.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.