On Tuesday evening, the New York Knicks kept up their winning ways with a comfortable home victory over the Indiana Pacers. The Knicks played this game without star point guard Jalen Brunson, who was dealing with a neck injury, meaning other players had to step into bigger roles.
One of those players was wing Josh Hart, who more than stepped up to the challenge, scoring 33 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists in the win. After the game, the newest member of the Knicks, Jose Alvarado, jokingly mocked Hart's point guard abilities.
“Hell no, he can't handle no basketball. He just gets the ball and puts his shoulder down but he ain't no point guard. He just did good today, man,” said Alvarado, per Knicks Videos on X, formerly Twitter.
Hart and some of his other teammates, including Brunson, have long been known to take playful jabs at one another in the media, so the fact that Alvarado is already in on the tradition shows how quickly he is fitting into his new home in New York.
Alvarado had a solid game in his own right in Brunson's absence on Tuesday, scoring 16 points to go along with 10 assists in the win.
Meanwhile, Knicks fans will certainly be hoping that Brunson's injury isn't something that keeps him out of the lineup for an extended period of time as the playoffs quickly approach. New York currently occupies the number three seed in the Eastern Conference, but they could realistically either move up or down a spot by season's end, depending on how things play out.
The Knicks will next take the floor on Friday evening for a road game across the bridge against the Brooklyn Nets.
