Knicks' Josh Hart tries to balance taking care of knees and staying sharp
Knicks guard Josh Hart puts up a basket between Golden State guard Moses Moody and forward Jimmy Butler III in the first half of an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
LOS ANGELES — Josh Hart was not on the injury report for the Knicks on Thursday as they prepared to face the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, but he still came down the stairs from the morning shootaround at UCLA with his knees packed in ice.
It might be a concession to the realities of age, experience and playing time, as he celebrated his 30th birthday Thursday and entered the night third in the NBA in minutes played. But whatever the cause, the knee issues have gotten harder to deal with as the season has worn on, forcing him to sit out the first two games after the All-Star break, affecting his play on the court and raising the issue of whether he might need to take time off as the Knicks head toward the playoffs.
Hart began to struggle with the knee problems as the season went on, suffering what the team called patellofemoral pain syndrome. Recently he was on the injured list with what the team called knee effusion.
That has raised the question of how to resolve it. He had knee problems earlier in his career and tried platelet-rich plasma injections before eventually undergoing a surgical procedure. He has tried taking time off, but it hasn’t helped.
“It all depends,” Hart said. “I will take a couple of days off, feel good, go out and shoot for 10 minutes and then it swells up again. It’s just a constant process of playing, resting, getting that inflammation out, and then just cut and paste and keep doing it.”
Hart has managed to play beyond the numbers, his value often far exceeding the statistical measurements. But nights like Tuesday against Golden State, when he shot 1-for-7 and missed all four of his attempts from beyond the arc, have accentuated what has been a troubling stretch.
In his first 32 games of the season, Hart shot 39.3% from three-point range, but in his last 26 games, he’s shot 22.5%.
“If I’m out there, I’m healthy enough,” he said. “I think I’ve had to sacrifice some of the other work putting in to try to focus on the recovery aspect and those kind of things. Me, I value availability over everything else. I’ve got to think about, I’m at that point where I ramp up the court work to make sure I’m sharp and maybe I have to sit some stuff out. Right now it’s that constant battle. I’m trying to figure out the balance between giving myself rest and getting that rest, but also trying to stay sharp.
“After a game sometimes, depending on how it’s feeling, with the swelling and all, it’s hard to go out there and get reps and shoot 100, 200, 300 threes. So sometimes I have to sacrifice that. A little bit of confidence, but also it has a negative effect, you’re not that sharp.”
Hart didn’t attempt a three in the first two games back after sitting out and is 1-for-8 from outside the arc since, but he has insisted that if he can play, he will, and will contribute what he can. What will fix it?
“Me yelling at him to shoot the ball,” Jalen Brunson said last week. “No, all joking aside, we’ve talked about it. I don’t want to say it’s a confidence thing because I’ve seen him work. We’ve all seen him make shots. We’ve all seen him make big shots. I think sometimes the mix of that and unselfishness. It’s him being too unselfish at times.”
“Sometimes I have to sacrifice stuff to make sure other guys are involved,” Hart said. “People don’t see that. They just see numbers and try to piece together stuff, but they don’t realize that everything is not just a cut-and-paste kind of thing. For me, l always say, you have the human aspect of stuff that goes on that affects, and you have other roles where you have to make sure everyone around you is good.”
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.
