INDIANAPOLIS — Donte DiVincenzo knows that feeling all too well. The status of another New York Knicks player is now uncertain.
Josh Hart joined New York’s less exclusive club on Friday after suffering a 116-103 loss to the Indiana Pacers due to what the team called “abdominal pain.” The player who has been the Knicks’ most indestructible force amid a season of attrition is now one of the team’s walking wounded — and the injury puts the group’s lives on the line.
“You never want to see anyone get hurt, but it’s been our season,” DiVincenzo said. “We have more than enough, whoever is on the field. I’ve said it 100 times.
A hundred doesn’t sound like hyperbole.
During that playoff run, DiVincenzo saw Bojan Bogdanović and Mitchell Robinson suffer season-ending injuries. OG Anunoby has missed the last four games with a hamstring strain and there are no signs of his imminent return. Jalen Brunson has been in and out of a foot ailment.
Now there’s Hart, whose injury occurred in a potential closeout game that could have propelled the Knicks to the Eastern Conference finals. Instead, it ended with the Pacers forcing a Game 7 in their second-round playoff series.
Josh Hart (abdominal pain) is out for the remainder of the game.
-NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) May 18, 2024
“I guess you can just add it to the list,” Brunson said.
It’s a list that continues to grow — and one that the Knicks can’t stress over with everything to lose.
Game 7 will take place Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET at Madison Square Garden, just 40 hours after Game 6 concluded. The last time the Knicks experienced a quick turnaround was on the morning of Game 4 of the weekend. Last night, the Pacers shook them by 32.
They hope for better fortune this time. Take them out flat, and they won’t come out again until fall.
It’s unclear if Hart will be there with them.
Aside from an in-game alert classifying the injury as “abdominal pain,” the Knicks have remained mum on his health. Head coach Tom Thibodeau replied, “We’ll see” when asked how Hart is recovering. The team did not make Hart, who moved gingerly as he left the arena, available to reporters after the game.
Brunson, who has known Hart since college, said he assumes his longtime teammate will play.
“It’s game seven,” Brunson said.
Isaiah Hartenstein conveyed a similar vibe.
“Just knowing him, he’ll do anything to play. If his leg doesn’t fall off, I can probably say he’ll probably play,” Hartenstein said. “I haven’t spoken to him. We will see. It’s hard. He has done so much for us this season.
Hart was the only Knicks player who seemed immune to New York’s outbreak. He played more than any other NBA player during the playoffs. At one point, he had a five-game playoff streak in which he averaged more … than 48 minutes.
He’s often the first shooter to lose balls, the embodiment of a team whose grit is its underlying identity. He has the size of a shooting guard, but he’s starting at power forward because the Knicks, missing four of their five best frontcourt players, are so exhausted.
He averaged 14.9 points, 11.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 42.6 minutes in the playoffs.
Hart was injured while running after a rebound early in the first quarter of Game 6. He asked to go out, a rare (if not unprecedented) act, just five minutes into the period, holding his left side. Head athletic trainer Anthony Goenaga met him at the end of the bench, testing his torso. Hart returned late in the period, but took over the affected area throughout his time on the field.
In the second half, Hart comes back with kinesiology tape on the left side of his abdomen. The Knicks ruled him out of the game in the fourth quarter.
“There’s obviously a lot of things that physically aren’t going the way we want with our team this year,” Brunson said. “I think our main goal is that we have there, no matter what you’re dealing with or whatever – if you’re there, you’re ready to go.
“Yes, Josh asked to come back, but he came back and gave everything he had. What more could you ask for from a teammate? Knowing the situation, we will just support each other.
But the Knicks have some basketball issues to sort out. Injuries aside, the Pacers dominated them on Friday.
One game after New York eviscerated them on the boards, it was Indiana who controlled the glass. Brunson shook the Pacers for 44 points in Game 5, but they held him to a draw three days later. The All-Star point guard started Friday with just 2 of 13 points from the field and had just 5 points at halftime, although he finished with 31. Most of those buckets came with the Knicks already down double digits.
Life will be even tougher for the Knicks if they don’t have Hart on Sunday.
Thibodeau said Friday that Anunoby is still unable to run, implying he is far from a return, although the Knicks have not technically ruled him out for Game 7. If Hart can’t go, then half the rotation will start the playoffs. with (Hart, Anunoby, Bogdanović and Robinson) could miss the organization’s biggest moment in decades.
The Knicks are one win away from the Eastern Conference Finals, which they haven’t reached in 24 years. The last time MSG hosted a Game 7 was May 21, 1995, when they lost to the same franchise they will face on Sunday.
If Hart and Anunoby can’t go, then Thibodeau might have to join Jericho Sims just to field a meager rotation of seven players: Brunson, DiVincenzo, Hartenstein, Miles “Deuce” McBride, Precious Achiuwa and Alec Burks.
Of course, the Knicks aren’t as pessimistic.
They suffered injury after injury. They saw Hart suffering bruises. The intensity of this playoff series, which includes six hard-fought games against the Philadelphia 76ers and now a seven-game second round, must be as emotionally draining as it is physically.
Hart may or may not play in Game 7. But for the Knicks, it’s just another day at the office.
“If you focus too much on that, it’s going to be hard to get out of it,” Hartenstein said. “What we focus on, day in and day out, is just trusting the process. Yes, it’s not easy, but we just have to keep pushing.
(Photo by Josh Hart and Myles Turner: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)