Josh Hart said the Knicks cannot afford another slow start with the NBA Finals back in San Antonio and a championship within reach. With New York up 3-1 after Wednesday’s historic comeback, Hart said the message is simple: stay locked in early, stay connected, and keep trusting the habits that have carried the team this far.
“We know they come out with a lot of energy,” Hart said. “They’ve been doing that all playoffs. So, we got to make sure we come in focused, you know, with a great attention to detail and taking things a possession at a time.”
The Knicks have already shown they can recover from adversity in this series, but Hart said they cannot keep putting themselves in holes and expecting to climb back out.
“If we do that and we play our solid basketball, we’re going to put ourselves in a good position to be successful,” he said. “But we can’t keep getting into a hole and trying to dig ourselves out of a hole.”
That has been the theme for New York’s closeout games, and Hart said it traces back to the mentality he learned long before the Finals. He said his understanding of the game was shaped at Villanova, where the emphasis was always on plays that do not always show up in the box score.
“Coach Wright did a really good job of emphasizing the competitive will, making the plays that go beyond the box score,” Hart said. “I think it really started at Nova and then when you do something for four years, it kind of just sticks with you.”
That approach has defined Hart’s role with the Knicks, especially in a postseason where the margins have been tight and the intangibles have mattered as much as any stat line.
“You know, a lot of them make those kind of plays and they don’t show up in the box score,” Hart said of the Villanova connection. “So, I think it really started at Nova.”
Hart also reflected on how far his career has come since arriving in New York after a long stretch of instability earlier in his NBA journey.
“I’ve been in the league for nine years,” he said. “I’ve always talked about, you know, I had a lot of instability in those six and a half years or whatever it was. I had six head coaches, four different teams, three different teams at that time. So I was just kind of looking for a home and stability and I found that in New York.”
He said the city’s identity matches the way he plays.
“The city is built on toughness, grit, blue-collar people,” Hart said. “And I feel like I’m the same person. They can look in the mirror and they can see myself just because that’s how I look at myself. I just happen to hoop.”
Hart pointed to the team’s rebounding and physicality as another key part of the series. He said offensive boards can create momentum, extra possessions, and cleaner looks for everyone.
“If you’re able to punish teams on the offensive glass, get extra possessions, change momentum, that’s something that’s huge,” Hart said. “It increases your chance to win.”
Most of all, Hart said this Knicks group has built its run on trust.
“It’s been invaluable,” he said of the locker room bond. “When you have a team that can do that, man, no matter what happens in a game, you feel like you can get through it.”
And after Game 4’s comeback, he said that togetherness only grew stronger.
“We’ve been very up and down with that all year,” Hart said. “So, we got to stay focused, stay detailed, and stay together.”
