Isaiah Hartenstein back in lineup as Knicks restart season
Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein looks on against the Bulls in the second half of an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 3. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
PHILADELPHIA — Isaiah Hartenstein was back in the lineup Thursday as the Knicks restarted the season — but with a minutes guideline limiting just how much he could provide for the team.
Hartenstein was sidelined for the last three games before the All-Star break after sitting out the second half on Feb. 8 against Dallas when he tweaked his left Achilles late in the first half. The injury had also sidelined him for two games in January as he has tried to manage the discomfort while playing big minutes in Mitchell Robinson’s absence.
“It’s good, feel a lot better,” Hartenstein said before playing 11 minutes against the 76ers. “Feel like I’m in a good spot. Going to slowly ramp it up and get ready for the playoffs push. The break helped a lot. Feeling good, got to keep going with that, keep increasing the minutes at that point.
“It was like a mixture . . . that was the main thing, it just got really irritated. The mixture between landing and Dwight Powell landing on it at the same time. Nothing crazy . . . It’s something like it gets irritated. We’re not scared of it popping. So the Knicks do a good job, we test a lot. The strength is there.”
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau was happy to get Hartenstein, Donte DiVincenzo and Bojan Bogdanovic back.
“Yeah, well, whoever we have, we gotta get the job done,” Thibodeau said. “That’s the nature of the game. People have injuries, but we’re missing our starting frontcourt, so we have to understand how hard we have to play and if you can play, you should be out there, so I think that’s a big part of this.”
Donte happy for Jalen
While he spent his All-Star break rehabbing, DiVincenzo was happy to watch his friend and college roommate, Jalen Brunson, go through all of the All-Star festivities.
“It was really cool,” DiVincenzo said. “I’m proud of him. Take all the basketball stuff away, just his family and then he has everybody around him, it’s a credit to all of them. To see that is awesome.”
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.
