Josh Hart drew plenty of attention during the New York Knicks' recent playoff run. Crashing the boards relentlessly while getting minimal rest, Hart tallied head-turning stats in the rebounding and minutes columns. He cemented himself as the Knicks' energy guy and was one of the biggest reasons why New York made it to the second round. However, the forward recently opened up on a story where he was gassed out in a game, and it involved Kyrie Irving.
On an episode of the Roommates Show, Hart spoke about the time when Tom Thibodeau ran consecutive plays that resulted in him getting the ball in the post against Irving.
Matt Hillman — one of the show's hosts — brought up the topic with a question.
“Josh, do you remember on the last episode, you told the story about when Kyrie was guarding you in the third (quarter) and they went to you like eight straight times and you were dead tired?” Hillman asked.
“Yeah this was like we didn’t have Jalen, we didn’t have Julius (Randle), we didn’t have OG (Anunoby), we didn’t have any of our guys,” Hart replied. “It was like me and Donte. There’s been several moments where I know like, alright, doing this offense and defense, hustle and all that, like bro you got to be in crazy shape. He (Thibodeau) called like ‘3 down,’ which is like a post up for me eight straight times in a row.
“I’m running back Kyrie’s like ‘bro, they’re doing this the whole quarter?' I’m like, ‘I don’t know bro, I don’t want this anymore.' That’s when I was like you know what, I’ll do a couple play calls but like, max me out at like, four, maybe five play calls a game.”
Thibodeau — who was also present as a guest on that episode of the podcast — had a lighthearted retort for his forward.
“Matt, you know Josh well. If we didn’t do it, he’d be complaining about that,” Thibodeau said. “Then we do it, he’s scoring, and so you keep doing it, and then he's gonna complain about that. No matter what you do, so do what you just think is right.”
Josh Hart's energetic playoff run
Hart may have gotten tired during this instance, but going back to the Knicks' recent postseason, he looked like a man with unlimited stamina. The forward had a total of eight playoff games where he tallied double-digit rebounds. During the Knicks' Game 3 clash against the Indiana Pacers, Hart hauled down 18 boards. And back in the first round, the 29-year-old had a 17-rebound outing versus the Philadelphia 76ers.
As mentioned, his minutes were also talked about. Hart had three playoff games where he saw action in all 48 minutes. In Game 5 of the first round, Hart logged in 53 minutes due to an overtime period.
All in all, he averaged 14.5 points and 11.5 rebounds in 42.2 minutes per game during the postseason.
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