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Josh Hart’s season debut was worth the wait.
One wouldn’t have been able to tell Hart had been dealing with back stiffness and soreness Friday night given his “monster” showing in the Knicks’ 105-95 win against the Celtics that had Mike Brown singing his praises.
Hart grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
Jordan Clarkson may have gotten Brown’s defensive player of the game award, but Hart was a worthy runner-up, considering the way he was hounding any man in green.
“Josh, man, monster, monster, monster. … He guarded everybody,” Brown said. “Not only did he guard everybody, he had six offensive rebounds, eight defensive. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this before — 14 rebounds in 19 minutes — just a phenomenal, phenomenal game doing the dirty stuff by Josh.”
Hart wore a splint on his surgically repaired ring finger on his right shooting hand that he aggravated and will likely need another surgery after the season. He shot a shaky 1-for-8 from the field for two points.
But Hart made up for it with the effort plays he produced, his commitment to defense and by being, as Brown put it, “an absolute monster on the glass.”
“I knew the offense was gonna be a little shaky [in the] first game back, so I had to do something to help the game,” said Hart, who dished out three assists with no turnovers. “But felt good to get out there, get up and down. Happy we got the win and [we gotta] keep building off of it.”
Hart is still working on his conditioning after not playing for most of the preseason following the injury in one of the exhibition games in Abu Dhabi. He even poked fun at himself for his final 3-point attempt hitting nothing but air.
Hart, who said Brown is his seventh head coach in nine NBA seasons, also expects there to be a learning curve with Brown’s new system since he didn’t have many game reps.
Overall, though, Hart graded Friday a “solid first day here at the office.”
“It was great,” Brown said. “For him to have the game that he had in that short amount of time was phenomenal to watch. And again, it adds to our team … I was excited to see Josh out there.”
