INDIANAPOLIS — Josh Hart is “all for it” if Tom Thibodeau decides to make a change to insert Mitchell Robinson into the starting lineup for Game 3 Sunday night against the Pacers, even if that means coming off the bench for the first time this season
“I’ve been a 15th man, I’ve been a third man, I’ve been a sixth man, I’ve been whatever,” Hart said Sunday morning at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.”I truly feel like I’m a starter in the league, I think I’ve played amazing this year. So if he does [make a change], cool.
“I can’t sit here and preach about sacrifice and getting out of our own personal agendas and all that, and then as a decision like that is made, then be mad at it and not wanting to sacrifice and not wanting to do that. That’s not the kind of person that I am.
“So if Thibs does that, which I don’t know if he is or isn’t, I’m all for it. I’m gonna play my game, my minutes, my style, no matter if I’m coming off the bench or I’m starting.
After Friday’s Game 2 loss, Hart had said the Knicks need to “figure out ways … if [Robinson] can play more,” and that the other players “gotta be willing to sacrifice for the betterment of the team.”
The Knicks’ starting unit put the team in another early hole in Game 2, trailing, 15-5, before Robinson came off the bench.
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He played 16 straight minutes nearly through the end of the second quarter for a 52-49 halftime lead.
Robinson, who missed the first four months of the regular season following offseason ankle surgery, finished the game with six points, nine rebounds (four offensive), three blocked shots and a plus-6 rating in a playoff-high 29 minutes.
Hart admittedly had “low energy” and an unusually ineffectual stat line in Game 2, with six points on only three shot attempts and one assist in just 28 minutes due to early foul trouble.
When pressed again on a potential lineup switch, Hart joked, “You can go around this corner, open that door and go ask Tom Thibodeau.”
Hart also offered a telling answer when asked if the Knicks need to do “something drastic” after losing the first two games of the series on their home court.
They entered Sunday’s game, however, with a 5-1 record on the road in the first two rounds against Detroit and Boston.
“Yeah, I think we need something drastic in terms of our energy and effort, our competitiveness,” Hart said. “You saw that with Minnesota yesterday [in the Timberwolves’ Game 3 win over Oklahoma City]. They came out of the gate aggressive … But just every game of a playoff series the intensity has to pick up.
“You can’t have any lapses, especially to start the game and you allow a team like that, who is extremely talented offensively to get comfortable. I think that’s the biggest drastic thing we can do is have that energy change.”
