Livescore
Josh Hart has played in 498 regular season games. In the first 419 games of his career, he had zero triple-doubles.
He’s recorded a dozen since then, and his latest was on Saturday in the Knicks’ blowout win over the Sacramento Kings. What’s behind Hart’s flurry of triple-doubles?
“That’s a lot of credit to Thomas Thibodeau putting me in a position to be successful,” Hart said after the game.
The Hart-Thibodeau partnership is a match made in heaven for those who appreciate early-to-mid 1990s basketball. Hart plays hurt, plays hard, and plays with emotion.
“I think it’s always a good combination when you have a coach and player who match eachother’s craziness,” Hart explained. “I gotta give [Thibodeau] all the credit for the success I’m having since I’ve been here.”
The Knicks’ head coach relies on Hart as a playmaker on the second side of the floor, and trusts him as a safety valve when Jalen Brunson is pressured.
“Whatever the game [needs],” Thibodeau said of Hart late Saturday. “The hustle, the heart, the toughness. And then getting into the gaps and then making plays… He reads the floor well. He reads the game. He doesn’t fight the game. So if someone’s open they get the ball. It’s real simple. When you play like that, good things come from it.”
Good things have happened with the ball in Hart’s hands — he has a career-high 2.89 assist-to-turnover ratio (7.4 assists, 2.6 turnovers). New York has a plus-5.9 net rating with Hart on the floor, and he’s on the floor often. Hart is also playing a career-high 38 minutes per game.
“He’s great for what we do,” Brunson said of his close friend and podcast co-host.
The trade for Hart at the 2023 deadline has been one of the best deals of the past two seasons. The Knicks essentially sent Cam Reddish and a protected first-round pick to the Portland Trail Blazer for Hart. They’re a combined 40 games over .500 since adding Hart.
WHAT ABOUT MITCH?
At the beginning of the month, Thibodeau said he thought Mitchell Robinson could be cleared for practice by the end of January. Thibodeau was asked earlier this week if he still thought Robinson would be practicing by Friday.
“It’s hard for me to say because I’m not in for his individual workouts. I’m not in when he’s doing his weight training and his conditioning,” Thibodeau said. “But I see what he’s doing on the court, and around the team and the film sessions and things like that – and that’s all positive.
“I have to trust the medical people to give him clearance. When that happens, there’s a number of hurdles for him to get through. But there haven’t been any setbacks, which is very positive. And we want to be patient. When the tijme is right, it’s right, so we’ll know.”
If healthy, Robinson is the perfect backup center for Karl-Anthony Towns. But health is a question mark for Robinson as he rehabs from offseason foot surgery.
At the beginning of the season, the Knicks felt that Robinson could be back in December or January. It was all dependent on his rehab. Whether it was the surgery or the rehab, it’s clear that something went awry with Robinson.
The Knicks have less than two weeks to decide if Robinson is their guy at backup center. If they don’t feel confident in Robinson’s health, they’ll probably have to trade for another center. If they decide they need to trade for a center, Washington Wizards veteran Jonas Valunciunas will be among the centers on the Knicks’ radar.
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