{"id":532372,"date":"2026-01-12T20:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/532372\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T20:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:07:10","slug":"knicks-notes-hart-towns-kolek-nba-finals-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/532372\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Notes: Hart, Towns, Kolek, NBA Finals Chances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Hart<\/a>\u2018s return made the Knicks feel like a more complete team, writes James L. Edwards of The Athletic<\/a>. Hart was back in the starting lineup in Sunday\u2019s win at Portland, logging 31 minutes and finishing with 18 points, three rebounds and six assists. He told reporters that he considered trying to come back earlier from a right ankle sprain he suffered on Christmas Day, but the lingering pain prevented it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy plan, originally, I wanted to come back (for) the Clippers game (on Wednesday),\u201d Hart said. \u201cI learned a day or two before that was not going to happen because of how it was feeling. If we were on a good little run, I probably would have taken a couple more days, couple more games, but I felt like I could come in and help with where I am right now. If I\u2019m banged up a little bit, I go out and play, get the movement, and it helps me heal faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York had lost five of its previous six games without Hart and slow starts were a recurring problem, with Edwards noting that coach Mike Brown frequently had to call the first timeout of the game. The energy level was noticeably better from the opening tip on Sunday, Edwards adds, as the Knicks improved to 12-3 with Hart as a starter.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of our guys are irreplaceable, but especially a guy like Josh who does so many little things for you,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSometimes they don\u2019t even show up in the stat sheet. To have him back is good. To have him back helps with our pace because he gets out and runs, throws it ahead or pushes the ball at an extremely fast pace. We get easy baskets when we play like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on the Knicks:<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> sat out the final 9:24 of the fourth quarter, with Brown explaining that he made the decision to stick with a combination that was working, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post<\/a>. New York outscored Portland 31-20 during that stretch, using either Mitchell Robinson<\/a> at center or a small-ball lineup. Towns has talked about the challenges of adapting to his new head coach, but Brown said it\u2019s a mutual project. \u201cI\u2019ve said this before: It\u2019s not all on KAT to adjust to and adapt to what we have to do,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe\u2019s had the hardest adjustment period because he\u2019s had to learn the most. In the same breath, I have to make sure that I help him by simplifying what we do and making sure I\u2019m putting him in the right spots and then he\u2019s got to do the things necessary to help out, as well.\u201d
\nHart\u2019s return forced Tyler Kolek<\/a> out of the rotation, Bondy adds. The second-year guard picked up his first DNP-CD since November 19.
\nESPN\u2019s Vincent Goodwill<\/a> examines the Knicks\u2019 chances of reaching the NBA Finals, offering three reasons why it could happen and three things that might prevent it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Hart\u2018s return made the Knicks feel like a more complete team, writes James L. Edwards of The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,327,563,3357,6,11,1254],"class_list":{"0":"post-532372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-josh-hart","10":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","11":"tag-mike-brown","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-playoffs","14":"tag-tyler-kolek"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115883936513743393","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}