Preface
With the continuous change of game play, the pace of play in the NBA is getting faster and faster, and players have to keep running back and forth on the court, which is also a great test of their physical strength, so we now rarely see players who can average 40+ minutes per game, or even often play 48 minutes.
This is not that the current players are "soft", you must know that most of the NBA games 30 years ago were more positional battles, so many players had a chance to breathe even when they were on the court. But not now, once someone relaxes, the opposite side can easily push the counterattack, plus now everyone can not only make a layup and make fouls, many shooters like to shoot and chase three points, so maybe a wave of flow points will go directly to 20 points, so it is very important whether the physical strength of the players on the court is sufficient.
However, there are some players on the current team who can still maintain excellent attendance and playing time under such a rhythm of play, such as Tatum, Bridges and others. But there is also a gap between the "Iron Man" and the "Iron Man", like the Knicks' Hart, he is definitely the strongest player in this area in the current roster, his own physical strength is his advantage, and it just so happens that he also met a head coach like Thibodeau who likes to die rough players.
Hart played in 81 games in the regular season this season, averaging 9.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 33.4 minutes per game. At the same time, Hart often has to play the No. 4 position on the court, and the most important thing is that he will not live up to the team's trust in him, he can always actively fight for rebounds and defense on the court, and he can do his part on the offensive end.
And the reason why Hart's playing time is "only" 33.4 minutes is because Thibodeau did not "exert his strength" in the early part of the regular season, and it was only in the second half that he increased Hart's playing time a lot. In the last 35 games of the regular season,
Hart has played 40 minutes or more in 22 games, including 47.2 minutes against the Warriors, 45.4 minutes against the Cavaliers, 48 minutes against the Warriors for the second time and 46.1 minutes against the Bulls.
It can be seen that at the end of the season, Thibodeau does not use Hart as a human at all, and the most important thing is that the latter does not have any chance to rest on the court, not only does he often have to defend the opponent's strongest ball handlers, but also has to constantly compete for rebounds with various taller and stronger big men under the basket. On the offensive end, although Hart does not need to hold the ball to develop the team's offense, he has to ensure that he has an output of about 10 points per game, considering that his three-point is not very stable, many of these points also come from eating cakes, making baskets and other ways that need to fight with opponents.
With Hart's help, the Knicks still finished 50-32 and tied second in the East after losing Randle, the team's second-leader and the centerpiece of the frontcourt. The last time the Knicks won 50+ in the regular season was in the 2012-2013 season, when they were also second in the East with a 54-28 record, and their star at the time was Anthony, who led the Knicks to the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2013.
With the end of the play-offs, the Knicks' first-round opponent is also determined to be the 76ers, who fell from the top three in the East to the play-offs after Embiid's injury in the middle of the season, but it is clear that Embiid has far exceeded their ranking after his return, so it is not clear who will have the last laugh in this matchup.
The playoffs officially began, and the Knicks showed their determination in the first game, with 8 players in rotation throughout the game, 4 of whom played more than 30+ minutes, while Hart played 41.5 minutes again. Hart also played very well in this game, he shot 5 of 12 from the field, 4 of 8 from three-point range, and scored 22 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal, including 4 frontcourt rebounds.
When the 76ers fought back in the second half, Hart became a lifesaver for the Knicks, and when the team fell behind in the final quarter, Hart scored 13 points and 4 rebounds in the fourth quarter, and finally the Knicks also successfully completed the comeback and rewrote the score to 1-0.
In the second game of the series, in order to avoid falling behind 0-2 and returning to the home court, the 76ers played aggressively on both offensive and defensive ends from the beginning, and only scored 18 points after the first quarter against the Knicks. In the second quarter, Hart stepped up again, and he contributed 12 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block in a single quarter to fill the data column, including 3 of 3 three-point shots, which also made the 76ers dare not let him go easily.
In the second half, Thibodeau still did not dare to rest Hart, who had already played the entire first half, and the latter continued to play 12 minutes in the third quarter, in which he was mainly active on the defensive end, and with his help the Knicks limited the 76ers to just 21 points in a single quarter. At the decisive moment of the final quarter, the two sides began to tug of war, and the score was quite anxious, so Hart didn't dare to go down for a second, but it was obvious that his physical strength had declined a little, so he simply handed over the responsibility of offense to others, and he put all his energy on defense.
With 30 seconds left in the game, the Knicks were still five points behind, but in the end, they relied on two consecutive three-pointers from Brunson and DiVincenzo to overtake the score, and in the end, the team successfully defended their home court, and they will also go to Philadelphia with a 2-0 score. Hart didn't do much on the offensive end at the end, but he contributed the most important defense of the whole game, and it was he who stole Maxey, so the Knicks finally regained the ball.
Hart played the full 48 minutes again, and his stats were 21 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, including 4-of-7 three-pointers, and four frontcourt rebounds.
So far, Hart is undoubtedly the player who has played the most minutes per game in the playoffs, and he is the only player who has played the whole game in the playoffs. Many fans also ridiculed Randle and Brunson for a little later, Hart is the only true core of the Knicks, and now it seems that these words do make sense, but now that the Knicks' playoffs have just begun, I don't know how long Hart's physical strength can support him to play.