It was not long ago that Josh Hart looked lost, particularly with his shooting.
He was visibly emotional during the Knicks loss to the Bulls on Oct. 31, and subsequently revealed that nerve damage in his shooting hand was bothering him.
He declared that he personally had the biggest adjustment under head coach Mike Brown, and it showed. He had a hard time containing his frustration.
But he seems to have put it all behind him.
He delivered by far his best performance of the season in the 137-114 win over the Timberwolves on Wednesday night at the Garden, recording a season-high 18 points, five rebounds and four assists.
The most promising development was his shooting — he went 7-for-12 from the field and a stellar 4-for-5 from 3-point range. They weren’t all catch-and-shoot, either — two of them were pullups off the dribble.
Hart combined with Deuce McBride to carry a bench unit that has become a weapon for the Knicks. McBride added 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field.
“I gotta give a lot of credit to Deuce,” Brown said. “Deuce was aggressive the right way. He played under control. If they tried to pick up full-court, he drove it by them. He touched the paint. He played off two [feet] and he sprayed it. And guys got great looks when he got us into our offensive. Josh was also a big catalyst in terms of trying to get us to push the pace and play the right way.”
More production from the bench was a major selling point for Brown.
Recently, the results have been stellar.
The Knicks bench outscored the Timberwolves reserves 53-26. That kind of advantage was almost unheard of under Tom Thibodeau.
In fact, the most the Knicks bench ever scored in a game last year was 52 points.
Thibodeau’s bench only scored 40 or more points four times last year.
Already, Brown’s bench has reached 40 points twice in the past three.
Beyond Hart and McBride, Jordan Clarkson recorded seven points, Guerschon Yabusele tallied five, Ariel Hukporti had four, Landry Shamet scored three and Mohamed Diawara had two.
Tyler Kolek seems to have lost his spot in the rotation.
He got a run to start the year to prove he can handle backup point guard duties.
But his minutes have vanished the past two games, only seeing action during garbage time.
Instead, Brown seems to trust Hart and McBride in handling the majority of ballhandling duties for the second unit.
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