Knicks' Josh Hart turns on offense when it counts
New York Knicks guard Josh Hart controls the ball against the Indiana Pacers in the first half of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It was a week ago, in the moments after the Knicks’ final preseason game, when Josh Hart talked about his odd run through the exhibition schedule — scoring only two points in four games, taking six shots and not converting one until the last preseason game.
“I’m lost. I have no idea,” Hart said. “There’s a couple days before we have Boston. So whether that’s trying to get a rhythm with that starting unit or we give somebody else a look and my role changes and comes off the bench and go with that unit . . . Right now I pretty much have no idea.”
So how do you explain that the regular season began and Hart has put up 16 points per game in the first two games? While it is a small sample size, it is a number that would be the highest of his career if he kept it up. Hart had 20 points and 10 rebounds in Friday night’s win over Indiana and has been the same supercharged player he has been since joining the Knicks.
“He just talks to talk,” Jalen Brunson said. “He’s one person I don’t worry about at all. He just doesn’t know when to stop talking.”
Fair enough. Hart went through something similar early last season when he griped about an inability to feel a rhythm offensively, rarely touching the ball and then being called upon to connect on a three-pointer. A day later, he made sure reporters wrote that he was not disgruntled, and he would go on to be a huge part of the Knicks’ success.
“I was just having fun with y’all, man,” Hart said of his preseason talk. “I knew I was going to be solid. It was preseason. I have a good feel for everybody and I think we’re all getting into a rhythm offensively and, more importantly, defensively. Playing with each other, seeing where everybody likes the ball and those kind of things. I’m good.”
More than the numbers, though, what the Knicks really need from Hart is the constant movement on both ends of the floor. He had three offensive rebounds and three assists, and as the Knicks’ assortment of talented players did their work, Hart did his. He repeatedly flew in to challenge for rebounds and scrambled around on defense, and after surrendering 29 three-point field goals in the season opener, the Knicks limited the Pacers to 3-for-29 shooting from beyond the arc.
Hart, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby also held Tyrese Haliburton scoreless.
”I think it’s just we laid a big egg that first game,” Hart said of the one-sided loss in Boston on Tuesday. “I feel like I didn’t bring it defensively or with energy or stuff like that. So OK, one thing I do, whether I make or miss shots, is having that intensity, that energy. Obviously, home opener, the place was electric. That helped a little bit. That was my mindset.”
Notes & quotes: In the first round of the G League Draft, the Westchester Knicks selected a pair of veterans whom the Knicks are seeking to add to the NBA roster, Matt Ryan and Landry Shamet. While being selected does not prevent another team from signing either player, the Knicks have been in talks with both players about the timing to sign them to the roster.
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.
