INDIANAPOLIS — On Sunday night, for the first time in 485 days, Josh Hart came off the bench for the New York Knicks, ceding his spot in the starting lineup to center Mitchell Robinson in a move aimed at providing a shock to the system of a lineup that’s gone stagnant over the past several months.
It wouldn’t be unheard of for the change to rankle Hart. After all, he’d just turned in the best season of his eight-year career, averaging 13.6 points on 52.5% shooting to go with 9.6 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.5 steals in a league-leading 37.6 minutes per game. He’d established himself as a vital two-way piece of a Knicks team that advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years, shooting 41.3% from 3-point range and playing a huge role in closing out both the Pistons in Round 1 and the favored Celtics in Round 2.
Players stamped as that consequential don’t typically get sent to the second unit … unless, of course, they volunteer to go there.
“I mean, it was never going to be a tough day for me,” Hart said after New York’s latest breathtaking comeback of these playoffs, a 106-100 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 3 of the 2025 Eastern Conference finals. “Because I had a hand in that decision.”
Seated at his locker after the win, which saw the Knicks erase a 20-point first-half deficit and race past the hosts with a roaring 36-20 fourth quarter, Hart explained that he’d met with Thibodeau and expressed that he was comfortable with coming off the bench to make space for Robinson — a continuation of a dialogue that Hart said started against Boston.
“This was a conversation that I’ve had before,” Hart said. “I actually had a conversation … before Game 6 [against the Celtics], when I was struggling with the matchup of Luke Kornet.”
After strong performances in New York’s thrilling wins in Games 1 and 2 in Boston, Hart went just 5-for-16 from the field over the next two games, having a difficult time getting untracked while being cross-matched against the 7-foot Kornet, forever sagging off of him to pack the paint and stifle other Knicks’ scoring efforts. And while Hart scored a postseason-high 24 points in Game 5, making five of his nine 3-point attempts, the Celtics outscored New York by 24 points in his 36 minutes — a blinking-red-lights indication that the time might be ripe for a change.
Josh Hart didn’t start Game 3, but finished it with big plays down the stretch. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
(Gregory Shamus via Getty Images)
“I wasn’t able to really figure that out,” Hart said. “And Game 6, I had a pretty good game, but it’s something that I’ve had in the back of my mind, and I’ve always been willing to do.”
Hart had a rough Game 2, scoring six points on three shot attempts with just one assist in 28 ineffectual minutes during which he failed to make Pacers defenders Andrew Nembhard and Tyrese Haliburton pay for aggressively helping off of him to muck up New York’s half-court offense elsewhere. Robinson, on the other hand, continued to make a massive impact on the interior in Game 2, grabbing nine rebounds (four offensive) and blocking three shots in 29 minutes — during which the Knicks outscored the Pacers by six points.
“You know, down two [games to none], especially with how Mitch played last game, it was just … you know, that’s something that we had to do,” Hart said. “And obviously, that’s a group decision that really boils down to Thibs and myself.”
“Yeah, he wants to win,” said Knicks captain and longtime Hart pal Jalen Brunson. “This just shows who he is — as a person, as a player, as a teammate. He doesn’t care for anything individual. He just wants to win. It’s a true testament of a great teammate.”
Thibodeau praised Hart for his willingness to sacrifice what some other players — maybe a lot of other players — might see as the status and prestige that comes with starting, in pursuit of an edge to help the team win.
“The thing I love about Josh is the unselfishness,” Thibodeau said. “Like, you’re concerned, because you’re not only impacting him, but you’re impacting other guys in the starting lineup, so you’ve got to make sure that that’s all good. And then you’re also impacting the second unit in a different way, so then you’ve got to figure out, ‘OK, how can we put this all together where we can make it work?’”
The rotational shuffle extended far beyond swapping Robinson in for Hart:
It also included elevating little-used guards Delon Wright and Landry Shamet over the scuffling Cameron Payne, hoping that putting more size and defensive acumen on the court might help slow down a Pacers offense that had been humming. Those bets paid off handsomely: Wright made several good hustle plays, Shamet made a corner 3 and dished a pair of assists to help the Knicks stay within hailing distance amid their first-half woes, and both contributed to a second-half defensive effort that saw New York limit the Pacers to just 42 points on 14-for-38 shooting (36.8%) in the third and fourth quarters.
Hart played a significant role in that effort, too. He helped crank up the communication and precision of New York’s switches and rotations, and came up with a number of big plays, including a pair of huge defensive rebounds in the final minute and a half to prevent Indiana from getting a second chance to cut into the Knicks’ lead:
Hart played the entire fourth quarter, finishing with 8 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal in 34 minutes off the bench. Robinson, for his part, finished with 6 points, 6 rebounds (3 offensive), 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block in 29 minutes.
“[The lineup switch] really didn’t impact either guy from a minutes standpoint,” Thibodeau said. “To me, when Mitch was coming off the bench, he’s a starter coming off the bench. When Josh comes off the bench, he’s a starter coming off the bench. Their minutes are going to be the same, and both guys mix and match, both guys are comfortable with both units.”
And because Hart’s comfortable with the second unit, sliding him out of the first five was never uncomfortable in the first place.
“For me, it wasn’t a tough day,” Hart said. “It was funny, because everyone was saying something to me, or guys would text me on other teams and all that, and I’m like, ‘Bruh, I don’t care.’ I don’t care if I start. I don’t care if I play 20 minutes. If we win, we win. …
“You know, whoever won the championship five years ago, you can’t really — you have no idea who the starters are,” he continued. “You know that those guys won. And they have that camaraderie and that connection for life. It doesn’t matter how many points you score, doesn’t matter how many minutes you play, doesn’t matter if you started or not. It depends on if you win. And at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing for me.”
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