Hart & Soul

To say Josh Hart has been phenomenal as of late would be an understatement. Amidst a series of injuries hitting the Knicks, with starters dropping one by one, Hart has emerged as the team’s savior, seamlessly filling the voids across various areas on the court where the Knicks have been shorthanded. With the absences of key players like Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, Mitchell Robinson, and most recently, Jalen Brunson, the team has been faced with the challenge of compensating for the scoring, rebounding, and defensive contributions regularly provided by these four players combined. In the past month, Hart has remarkably taken on those combined responsibilities single-handedly, stepping up to alleviate the team’s struggles arising from the absence of all four players.

Since the end of January, Hart has been playing more like an All-Star than a role player. Consistently, night after night, he has significantly surpassed his season averages of 8.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 0.9 steals per game. Over the past month, Hart has been averaging 14.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, 5.8 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. On January 30th, he recorded his first triple-double of the season, doing it the “easy” way by scoring 10 points, grabbing 10 boards, and dishing out 10 assists. His second triple-double of the season came just nine days later, but this time his stat line read 23 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists.

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Despite the occasional off night, Josh Hart’s unwavering presence and passion remain constants. Over the past two weeks, Hart’s numbers have continued to climb even higher with averages of 16.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, and seven assists per game. While not an exact science, it’s easy to see in the numbers how Hart has been doing it all during a period in which it seems like the Knicks have more players wearing casts than uniforms on the bench. Hart has boosted his scoring to make up for Randle, upped his assists to fill the void left by Brunson, met the rebounding expectations for both Robinson and Hartenstein (who has faced challenges following an Achilles injury), and has contributed significantly on the defensive end with two steals per game over the past week, providing crucial support while Anunoby remains sidelined in street clothes.

If Brunson and Randle have been the Batman and Robin to this year’s Knicks squad, Hart has been the Krayzie Glue, managing to keep it all together from completely falling apart while Knicks fans are keeping their fingers crossed at an Eastern Conference Finals birth.

During last night’s 107-98 win on the road in Cleveland, Hart delivered one of the best games of his career. Securing yet another triple-double, Hart posted a remarkable stat-line, recording 13 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Notably, the 19 rebounds marked a new career high for Hart. His dynamic play on both ends of the court gave the impression that Hart was a 6’9” sharpshooting point forward with the rebounding prowess of Dennis Rodman. “Some guys get going by knocking down a shot. Honestly, I really get going by getting a defensive rebound, getting rebounds,” Hart said. “Now I feel like I’m kinda getting myself into the game. So that’s part of it. And I feel pretty confident right now. I’ve been working my butt off the last two, three, four weeks, just getting back to the basics, getting back to rotation. I felt like I shot the ball well today. Had a couple — had the shot clock ones I just had to throw up, but for me, I get going more so by just kinda like toughness plays.”

Remarkably, despite his undersized stature at 6’4”, the versatile guard showcased his skills by playing four out of the five positions during the game undersized at most yet outperformed by none.

With 21 games left in the regular season and a lot of uncertainty surrounding the health of the Knicks roster, if “Krayzie Glue” can maintain this level of performance then the Knicks may not have to worry about losing that “contenders” label any time soon.

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