With Julius Randle presently sidelined by an ankle damage, just one Knick has appeared in each recreation this season.
That participant is backup middle Isaiah Hartenstein, who performed the complete fourth quarter for the second consecutive recreation in Friday’s win in Cleveland.
Hartenstein recorded 5 rebounds, two blocked pictures and one steal in the course of the Knicks’ fourth-quarter shutdown of the Cavaliers, holding them to 14 factors over the ultimate 12 minutes.
“I believed Isaiah’s protection was phenomenal,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau stated of Hartenstein — who had by no means performed greater than 30 video games in a season earlier than seeing motion in 68 contests with the Clippers in 2021-22. “He made a variety of good performs.”
Beginning middle Mitchell Robinson additionally loved a powerful recreation towards the Cavaliers, who have been with out their starter, Jarrett Allen (groin).
Robinson completed with 10 factors and 14 rebounds, together with 9 on the offensive glass, in 22 minutes.
RJ Barrett on his third-quarter argument throughout a timeout with teammate Obi Toppin: “We’re good. We see one another mainly on daily basis. You inform me that you just haven’t had an argument with a member of the family earlier than, what I’m saying? You’ve had an argument with a member of the family earlier than. That was all it was. Proper after the timeout, we squashed it. I believe he scored six straight factors after that, so one thing labored.”
Thibodeau usually stated that nobody ought to learn an excessive amount of into Friday’s win over the Cavs, the Knicks’ possible first-round playoff opponent.
“You possibly can take out no matter you select to take out of it. For us, I would like the main target, I don’t wish to change it,” Thibodeau stated. “So after tonight, then it’s simply the subsequent step. We don’t wish to change our method. I believe angle and method are an enormous a part of profitable.
“It’s straightforward to get distracted on this league if you happen to’re a participant or a coach. And also you guys [in the media] gotta do your job, and your job is to attempt to trick everybody, proper, so that you wanna speak [about] 10 video games from now, subsequent 12 months, subsequent month, no matter, and our job is to remain locked in and to not allow you to guys take us off track.”