{"id":707116,"date":"2026-04-10T04:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707116\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T04:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T04:15:26","slug":"teams-keep-leaving-knicks-josh-hart-open-and-he-keeps-hitting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707116\/","title":{"rendered":"Teams keep leaving Knicks’ Josh Hart open \u2014 and he keeps hitting"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Boston Celtics focused on slowing down the duo of Jalen Brunson and Kart-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart repeatedly found himself open behind the arc \u2014 and the forward repeatedly knocked down shots.<\/p>\n

Josh Hart led all scorers with 26 points in Thursday\u2019s 112-106 victory over the Celtics<\/a> thanks to 5-of-7 shooting from downtown, including two daggers in the final 42.9 seconds to thwart Boston\u2019s comeback attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a shot. What a shot. The Hartbreaker comes through,\u201d Towns said postgame. \u201cThe first one was special because he had a wide open one and turned down an open three and took a contested three and made that one. In true Josh Hart fashion. He felt good after the first one, shot the second one, made it. He\u2019s a special player. He does so much for our team that doesn\u2019t show on the sheet but at any moment he can do those things and we trust him with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few of the treys were made with the Celtics way too slow to close out on the perimeter, which seemed like a questionable strategy for a player entering the matchup shooting a career 40.6% from deep.<\/p>\n

The Celtics, though, were without Jaylen Brown (left achilles tendinitis)<\/a>, the team\u2019s two-way star known for lockdown defense. Joe Mazzulla did deploy Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Sam Hauser and Jordan Walsh \u2014 all players familiar with this Knicks roster and capable of defending the perimeter.<\/p>\n

But Hart was left open too many times, and it cost them in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, I mean it all depends,\u201d Hart said when asked if he\u2019s baffled by the soft defensive coverage. \u201cFor me I always talk about I\u2019m the fifth option, sixth option. My thought process always is how can I get these guys easy shots, get these guys involved, get them feeling good. Am I surprised with that? Nah, because I don\u2019t go out there like, you know what I\u2019m going to shoot seven, eight threes. That\u2019s not really my cup of tea. But when I\u2019m open I know I\u2019ve got to shoot those shots. But they\u2019re probably looking like he might shoot three or four, so let him have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifteen of Hart\u2019s game-high 26 points came in the fourth quarter alone. Hart said he was able to \u201cregroup\u201d in the second half after letting a \u201ccouple of bad plays\u201d earlier in the game \u201clinger a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He came through when it mattered most, though.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s fourth-quarter point total eclipsed his points scored in the Knicks\u2019 past three games combined (14).<\/p>\n

And after Thursday\u2019s standout performance, the key Knicks starter said the obvious while playing in his best season shooting to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think so. I\u2019m a better shooter, more confident shooter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Boston Celtics focused on slowing down the duo of Jalen Brunson and Kart-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,46,327,304,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-707116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celtics","13":"tag-josh-hart","14":"tag-knicks","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116378476676513508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707116","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=707116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}