Josh Hart is stepping up for the New York Knicks. Not only did he get a double-double that impressed the Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson-led squad. He also increased his leadership skills and sent a message to his teammates after losing to Giannis Antetokounmpo's Milwaukee Bucks, via Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News.
“I mean we lost. Stats don’t really mean s–t when we’re losing,” was the declaration Josh Hart made as he was livid.
The Knicks guard also fell short of delivering for his team despite a huge performance in the game prior. On 26 minutes of playing time, he notched two points along with three assists. Two rebounds rounded out his time on the floor. But, these do not concern the veteran with a knack for crashing the boards. He even likened the unimportance of statistics to a winning team like the Denver Nuggets.
“I don’t think anybody can tell me how many points Nikola Jokic or Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr. — how much they averaged last year. But they got a f–king ring. At the end of the day, the stats don’t mean anything. We can’t play to get stats. We got to play for wins and play together,” he said.
Jalen Brunson was leading all scorers in the game with his 36 points. Knicks star Julius Randle would follow that up with 26 buckets of his own. In total, five Knicks players were able to reach double-digit scoring numbers. Giannis Antetokounmpo's Bucks had the same number of individuals notch the same scoring output. But, three of them were able to get to 20 points while the two others were just a point shy.