In his 42nd minute, and on his 17th shot attempt, Josh Hart turned a chaotic sequence into the game-sealing layup, fighting through contact from the Pistons’ Jalen Duren and converting the shot that turned into a three-point play opportunity.
Hart logged his fifth-most minutes of the season in the Knicks’ 113-111 win Monday against the Pistons. He attempted his second-most shots.
He tied his season-high with 23 points.
And the Knicks needed every fraction of those to escape with a win against a Detroit team that tied the NBA record with a 28-game losing streak earlier in the season.
“There’s a reason why they can handle those minutes,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Hart and Brunson, who played 40 minutes. “They prepare themselves to handle those minutes.”
On that final sequence, Hart originally planned to attempt a reverse layup around Duren.
He thought the forward was going to attempt a block, but that didn’t materialize.
“I didn’t have that, so I just tried to get the contact but still be able to put myself in a position to finish,” Hart said.
It marked the seventh time in the Knicks’ last nine games Hart topped 10 points, turning an ever-changing role into consistent production with the Knicks navigating a handful of injuries and newcomers via trade.
He has alternated between playing wing and guarding taller players as the backup power forward with Julius Randle out.
The Knicks haven’t needed him to score points in bunches or take more than a dozen shots consistently with other options on offense, too.
But, like Monday, Hart has also found ways to score when needed alongside Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo.
Like the layup that followed a first-quarter steal.
Like a second layup after an offensive rebound.
Earlier in the fourth quarter, he hit a jumper from the right corner while fading away from the basket — turning a disjointed transition scramble into two points — and then threaded a pass to Precious Achiuwa underneath to tie the game later in the quarter.
He hit 3s and dished out other assists, too, and in the final seconds, Hart found one final way to turn a scramble into points the Knicks desperately needed.
“Sometimes,” Thibodeau said of plays like the scramble in the final seconds, “that’s the difference between winning and losing right there.”