A look at Josh Hart’s resurgent Game 2
Josh Hart proved his doubters wrong in the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals. Can he keep it up?
In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks had their greatest playoff comeback victory in franchise history — and it had come at the expense of benching their Swiss Army Knife Josh Hart down the stretch. In their Game 2 win, Hart proved everyone (yes, including me) wrong by doing everything on both ends.
Hart scored a playoff career-high 26 points on 10-of-21 shooting, making five of his 11 threes on the night. He had come into the game shooting just 26.7% from beyond the 3-point arc these playoffs, and a number of them had come while being pretty open.
In the win, Hart became the second Knicks player with at least 25 points, seven assists, five 3-pointers made, and two steals in a playoff game, joining current Knicks groupie John Starks (1994 NBA Finals Game 6 in Houston), who was courtside once again at Madison Square Garden for the Game 2 victory.
The key to everything with opening the Pandora’s Box of possibilities for the Knicks is Hart being able to knock down his 3-point shots. And, oh boy, did he do that Thursday.
He had entered Game 2 against the Cavs shooting just 24.1% (7-29) on catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts in these playoffs. In Game 2, he knocked down five of his nine catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts (55.6%).
The Knicks were dominant on both ends of the floor with Hart out there in Game 2, a far cry from how things unfolded in Game 1. The defensive prowess of this team continued from Game 1 with Hart on the floor, posting a 103.4 defensive rating (DRTG), after they had a 108.1 DRTG with Hart out there in Game 1.
The offense was stymied significantly in Game 1 with Hart on the floor, as the Cavs had held the Knicks to a 72.1 offensive rating (ORTG) and -35.9 net rating (NETRTG) in his minutes in the series opener. Things changed in Game 2 in a big way as the Knicks had a 129.5 ORTG and +26.1 NETRTG in his 33-plus minutes of action in the win.
The Knicks went from minus-23 in Hart’s minutes in Game 1 to plus-18 in his minutes in the Game 2 victory over the Cavs.
Mike Brown saw ample success with the starting lineup in Game 2, as opposed to Game 1 where it floundered. The starters were minus-13 in 35 offensive possessions in Game 1 and they flipped things in Game 2, going plus-13 the other way across 47 possessions.
The starting lineup had an 80 ORTG in Game 1 — its fifth-lowest ORTG of the season and second-lowest of the playoffs, only behind their Game 3 loss in the first round against the Hawks (72.2)... their last playoff loss a month ago. However, in Game 2, the offense went scorched earth with a 131.9 ORTG and 65.1% true shooting percentage (TS%).
The Knicks’ starting lineup also turned in a 106.5 DRTG in the Game 2 win against the Cavs. That’s the lineup’s best defensive performance of the 2026 playoffs.
The hot topic from Game 1 — from myself included — was that the Knicks needed to limit the use of their starting lineup, especially if it struggled again against the Cavs. And that was for good reason: The Cavs love going with an extreme use of their center on Hart and the Knicks’ starters had a 100.2 ORTG in 14 games since Dec. 5 where their opponent went with that scheme 10-plus times against the starting lineup in that span.
Hart, however, doesn’t care. The starting lineup’s 131.9 ORTG in Game 2 against the Cavs was its highest of any of the 15 games this season where there was an extreme use of center-on-Hart against the starters (Shax’s tracking backs this up).
Because of the outstanding success of the starting lineup in Game 2, Brown rode it for most of the game. For the Knicks, 47 of their 88 offensive possessions (53.4%) were with their starting lineup on the floor. That 53.4% usage was the highest usage of the starting lineup in any single game this season for Brown and the Knicks.
For the fun of it, I decided to look up how Hart specifically fared in the minutes he shared with Jarrett Allen on the floor. In the 25 minutes and 26 seconds (48 offensive possessions) they shared the floor vs. one another in Game 2, the Knicks outscored the Cavs 65-46, with a 135.4 ORTG, 100 DRTG, +35.4 NETRTG, and 66.8% TS%.
No other player on the Cavs was outscored more in Game 2 with Hart on the floor than Allen... though Max Strus did have a -47.1 NETRTG in his minutes shared with Hart!
The Knicks are two wins away from their first NBA Finals trip this century. However, their trip to Cleveland will be a tough job for this rolling team. The Pistons had won each of the first two games at home in the previous round against the Cavs... before losing the next three, winning Game 6 in Cleveland, and getting blown out in Game 7 at home.
The job should be to win at least one game in Cleveland... or just win them both! If Hart can play like he did in Game 2, that might be a realistic outcome.
