The NBA playoffs are when competition peaks and tempers flare. But in a change of pace, Josh Hart received a random shoutout from Dallas Mavericks‘ point guard Kyrie Irving.
It helps that they’re not currently playing each other. But that adds an element of courtesy, that Irving went out of his way.
Following a Game 3 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the eight-time All-Star paid him a compliment when asked what he has left to prove in basketball.
“I think Josh Hart had a tremendous quote,” Irving told reporters on May 11. “Where he talked about people having 12-hour shifts and we get to go out there and play the game that we love. We have ascended here because a lot of hard work.”
Irving is referencing a March 7 quote from Hart that came after a loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the New York Knicks.
“Our job is to play basketball,” Hart told SNY after the loss to the Charlotte Hornets. “You got people getting up at 6AM doing 12-hour shifts. Those guys are tired. For us, we’re playing a game…We gotta go out and compete, and play the game that we love at the highest level. We gotta make sure we’re full of energy and lively every time we step on the court…I don’t think we can blame this on fatigue.”
Irving has played 40 or more minutes in five of nine Mavericks’ playoff games in 2024.
Hart himself has done so in every Knicks’ game thus far this postseason, and played a full 48 minutes (or more) four times.
New York will need him to do it again in Game 4 against the Indiana Pacers.
Josh Hart’s Historic Playoff Run
Jalen Brunson has been shaken up. Mitchell Robinson was lost with a season-ending injury after the first-round. And now OG Anunoby is sidelined for an indefinite period.
Josh Hart’s displayed the best ability in the postseason, availability. And he’s exercised it at the maximum capacity.
Hart is averaging 17.1 points, 13.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.1 steals in 46.4 minutes per game in the playoffs.
He leads the NBA in minutes played, and according to Cleaning the Glass, the Knicks have played only 38 of 826 postseason possessions with him off the floor.
Per Stathead, the only other player in NBA history to total at least 415 minutes in any playoff run of nine or less games is Wilt Chamberlain, who did so in 1960.
That’s not the kind of player fans anticipate seeing Hart in conversations with.
He joins three-time MVP Nikola Jokic as the only players in the 2024 playoffs with 115 or more rebounds in nine games played.
Knicks’ Series Odds Up 2-1
According to Land of Basketball, of all 164 Conference Semifinals series to get out to a 2-1 start, the team with the lead won 79.9-percent of the time.
The Phoenix Suns are the last team to blow a 2-0 lead in the second round, when they lost to the Dallas Mavericks in 2022.
So it would seem the Pacers odds are still low.
But with so many players injured and sidelined for the Knicks, there’s an unquantifiable element to the series.
The same can be said for New York’s proven ability to win time and time again despite everyone they’re missing.
Josh Hart plays arguably the biggest part in that, and he will continue to, at a breakneck, historic pace.
