Heart-and-soul.
Heart of the team.
All the various plays and puns on Josh Hart’s surname have rung true all season.
Now he’ll try to gut through the Knicks’ latest injury and save their postseason.
Hart is very much in doubt for Sunday’s decisive Eastern Conference semifinal Game 7 at the Garden with an abdominal injury that forced him out of Game 6.
He didn’t speak to reporters Friday and was officially listed Saturday afternoon as questionable with a strained abdominal
“Knowing him, he’ll do whatever to play,” Isaiah Hartenstein said. “If his leg’s not falling off, he’ll do whatever to play.”
For the Knicks, seeing their iron man finally break down was both shocking on Friday and scary for Sunday.
Already injury-riddled, they can’t afford to lose another body, much less the most reliable one they have.
Hart has played in 93 of 94 possible games for the Knicks this season, and logged four complete games already in the postseason — including a 53-minute master class in Game 5 of the first round against Philadelphia and back-to-back 48-minute efforts to open this second-round series against Indiana.
His 142 rebounds tied Nikola Jokic for first in the playoffs, and his 511 minutes logged — including 144 straight at one point — lead all players by a huge margin.
But will Hart log any more? If he’s absent or compromised, it could force Alec Burks and Jericho Sims into duty.
“I would assume he’s going to play,” Jalen Brunson said. “It’s Game 7.”
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The injury occurred fighting for a rebound less than midway through the first quarter Friday.
Hart asked out and went back to stretch, putting heating pads on the left side of his abdomen.
Trainers put kinesio-style tape on him and he went back in, only to finally ask out for good with 9:53 left in the game.
Hart did manage to pull down eight boards, but he was clearly compromised.
He usually plays marathon minutes at sprinter’s pace, and at just 6 foot 4, guarded Pascal Siakam.
He’s even shot 40 percent from deep after struggling all season from behind the arc.
But Hart wasn’t his active aggressive self on Friday.
With the Knicks already forced to play small without Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and OG Anunoby, Indiana targeted a compromised Hart.
They shot 14 of 20 against him as the primary defender, per ESPN.
With Miles McBride already thrust into the lineup due to Anunoby’s injury, Precious Achiuwa would likely start at power forward if Hart can’t play.
That would move Burks and Sims into a seven-man rotation.
“Him asking out is not a good sign,” said McBride. “But I think he’ll bounce back.”
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