New York Knicks forward Josh Hart, who is dealing with a lower back contusion, will be available for Game 6 of the team’s first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night, according to coach Mike Brown.
Hart played 30 minutes in New York’s dominant Game 5 win, scoring 9 points with 5 rebounds and 4 assists. But after subbing out with 6:27 to go in the fourth quarter, he went back to the Knicks locker room and did not return to the bench before the end of the game.
After suffering a back injury in New York’s first preseason game, Hart missed the remainder of the Knicks’ exhibition slate and their regular-season opener with back spasms. He came off the bench for the first month after his return, as Brown managed his minutes and explored several different options — center Mitchell Robinson, guards Miles McBride and Landry Shamet — for the fifth spot in New York’s starting lineup alongside entrenched starters Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges.
When he returned to the starting lineup just before Thanksgiving, though, Hart didn’t skip a beat. The 31-year-old averaged 12.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game for the rest of the season, shooting 57% on 2-pointers and 43% from 3-point range. The Knicks went 36-16 in Hart’s starts — a 57-win pace.
Hart has struggled with his shot against Atlanta, shooting just 37% from the field and 3-for-19 (15.8%) from long distance. He’s made his presence felt elsewhere, though. He’s grabbing 10 rebounds per game, including 29% of available defensive rebounds — the fourth-highest defensive rebounding rate of anyone to play at least 100 minutes in this postseason, behind only Nikola Jokić, Victor Wembanyama and Towns — to go with 4.8 assists and 1.6 steals in his 34.8 minutes per game.
Hart has also played an integral role for a New York defense that has held the Hawks to 107.6 points per 100 possessions, the fourth-lowest offensive rating in these 2026 NBA playoffs.
He started out the series on Jalen Johnson, bodying up the All-Star forward to push him out of his comfort zone and limit his ability to create advantages off the dribble and get into the paint, before sliding over to check crunch-timekiller CJ McCollum midway through the series. McCollum has 17 points on 16 field-goal attempts with four turnovers and zero assists when Hart’s been his primary defender, according to NBA Advanced Stats matchup data. Without the veteran guard’s shot-making and drive-and-kick playmaking, Atlanta’s offense sputtered in Games 4 and 5, allowing the Knicks to regain control of the best-of-seven set; for the series, New York is allowing 7.3 fewer points-per-100 with Hart on the floor.
If Hart is limited for Game 6, Brown could elevate McBride — a better perimeter shooter, but a smaller point-of-attack defender whom McCollum can shoot over — into the first five. He could tap Shamet, a veteran two-way guard who played well throughout the regular season, but who has fallen out of Brown’s rotation after a rocky final month and rough first two games against Atlanta. He’s been reluctant to lean too hard on double-big looks, with Robinson flanking Towns, for fear of creating quickness disadvantages against the smaller, faster Hawks; if keeping the Hawks off the glass remains a top priority, though, Brown could opt to super-size off the jump in hopes of continuing to dictate the terms of engagement through physicality.
Those decisions and trade-offs underscore the unique and valuable role Hart plays in the ecosystem for a Knicks team that seemed to be hitting its stride over the last two games — and that needs to keep that momentum going to close the Hawks out on the road and avoid a winner-take-all Game 7 back at Madison Square Garden.
“He, by far, is one of the best connectors I’ve been around — that I’ve seen, just in general,” Brown told reporters between Games 1 and 2. “Because he just does so many little things every time he steps on the floor that go unnoticed, or that you can take for granted. And the things he does, we definitely need, especially when you’re talking about a physical, seven-game series versus anybody that you’re facing come playoff time.”
