BOSTON — Josh Hart finished one assist short of a triple-double with 20 points in his return from a two-game absence to rest his sore knee, an issue he’s been dealing with throughout his career and which required extended time off around the All-Star break to calm down.
“It’s something that comes and goes, something that I’ve managed for a long — one time I was in the bubble [during the pandemic] with New Orleans, I would play and the next day really I couldn’t even get to half-court,” Hart said. “It was a pain, it was a struggle for me to even jog to half-court, and now I’m playing 48 minutes for Tom Thibodeau. So there’s peaks and valleys with it. Not really worried about it. All the time I pray for it before every game. By his grace I’m healed so I go out there and play my game.”
Hart hadn’t played since logging 46 minutes on Feb. 12, in an overtime victory over the Hawks. He then participated in a practice after the All-Star break before shutting it down.
“I just felt that there was a couple, you know, couple more days of rest obviously would benefit my knee,” Hart said. “So that’s something that we all came to an agreement on. Now it’s back to the regular scheduled program.”
It was an encouraging return for Hart but a poor result versus the Celtics, a 118-105 loss.
“I thought his activity was great,” Thibodeau said. “Running into pick-and-rolls, generating advantages. He got into the pocket some, we were able to get points in a paint off that. So I like the way he played a lot.”
While with the Lakers in 2019, Hart had a platelet-rich plasma injection in his right knee, then underwent an ultrasonic debridement procedure on his patella tendon that ended his second NBA season.
According to the LA Times, Hart dealt with tendinitis in his knee for years before undergoing the procedure.
Karl-Anthony Towns’ own nagging knee problem resurfaced Sunday when he came up limping after a dunk attempt in the fourth quarter.
He left for the locker room but returned to the game despite a noticeable limp.
“They wanted me to [be examined],” Towns said. “I just wanted to get a walk in and come back.”
Towns has missed two games this season with the knee problem — specifically, patellar tendinopathy — and didn’t want to speculate on whether he’ll sit more. The Knicks next face the Sixers at home on Wednesday.
“We’ll just see how the next couple days go,” Towns said. “Time will tell.”
