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Hart Time Job: Knicks' Playoff Rookie Rocks Cleveland
Josh Hart looked like anything but an NBA playoff virgin when he took to professional postseason hardwood for the first time on Saturday night.
The newest New York Knick played a major role in the fifth seed's narrow but crucial 101-97 victory over the hosting Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortage FieldHouse, ending Hart's NBA playoff debut after 372 regular season appearances between Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York on a high note.
Hart's efforts were perhaps the most valuable in a showcase of newcomers on both sides: in 33 minutes off the bench, Hart put in a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double, which paired with a team-best 27 points from old and new teammate Jalen Brunson to counter a 38-point tally from Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell.
“It felt great,” Hart said of the win, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. “Obviously when you’re in adverse situations, you can either crumble or band together and come out on top. I feel like the latter is what we did. We didn’t get frustrated, didn’t get rattled. We know they’re a good team, and Donovan’s a heck of an offensive player."
"We weren’t surprised. We kept the demeanor of, ‘Let’s go about our business. Let’s handle our business, let’s control what we can control.’ That’s our attitude and we were able to pull it out.”
In perhaps a poetic performance with teammate Julius Randle returning from injury and bearing the number of the late Willis Reed on his jersey, Hart overcame late medical woes to become one of the Knicks franchise's latest postseason heroes.
The incident in question was a perfect personification of how much late momentum slipped from the Knicks' grasp: an alarmingly quick 9-0 Cleveland run was capped off by a Hart injury. Desperate to grab a miss from his close friend Mitchell, Hart instead landed awkwardly on his ankle and was forced to watch Jarrett Allen put the ball back in to create a 93-92 lead that put Cleveland in hysterics.
As if the pressure of a potential blown lead wasn't suffocating enough, Knicks fans had a hobbled Hart trying to shake off the aftermath of the Allen encounter in their peripheral vision. Burdened by a nagging limp, Hart took to the floor with four teammates with a newly-installed one-point deficit to deal with.
With the shot clock winding down, Hart caused Mike Breen to detonate one of his first emphatic "BANG!" calls of the fledgling postseason, sinking a triple that gave the Knicks a permanent lead. After mixing a smile with a wince as he made it back to the other end of the floor, Hart finished what he start on the prior defensive possession, hauling in a clutch defensive rebound off another Mitchell miss to set up a Brunson tally that re-established the two-possession lead.
Hart broken? Anything but.
"Big time. That's what he does," Brunson said in his postgame interview with ESPN's Cassidy Hubbarth. "It doesn't matter (if) it's a playoff game, preseason game, or pickup. That's how he plays, he's unreal."
Perhaps the basketball world should've been prepared for united heroics from Brunson and Hart: the duo is well-versed in the art of the spring basketball tournament, having previously earned championship hardware at Villanova University together.
Hart, much to Brunson's faux embarrassment ("We've been through worse!" a near-blushing Brunson declared), was more than happy to remind the basketball public of their prior endeavors by wearing a shirt bearing his teammate's cover of Slam magazine during his postgame comments.
Armed with a 1-0 series lead, Hart, Brunson, and the Knicks return to action on Tuesday night in Cleveland (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG/TNT). Hart was well pleased to
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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