On a night when the opposing coach compared his acumen on the boards to Dennis Rodman’s, Josh Hart moved ever closer toward joining an elite category of rebounders in NBA history.
Hart’s 18 rebounds in another triple-double performance in Saturday’s win over the Kings gave him an eye-opening average of 9.8 per game in 45 appearances this season.
With 36 games remaining, beginning with Monday’s home matchup against the Grizzlies, the 6-foot-4 Hart has a legitimate chance to become only the fourth guard in NBA history to record at least 10 rebounds per game in one season, according to StatMuse.
Tom Gola accomplished the feat in three consecutive years for the Philadelphia Warriors from 1957-60. Oscar Robertson also did it in three straight seasons for the Cincinnati Royals from 1960-63. And Russell Westbrook grabbed at least 10 per game four times — three for the Thunder from 2016-19 and again for the Wizards in 2020-21.
The 29-year-old Hart has averaged 12.7 rebounds over 13 January games, and he easily will join that company if he continues at a similar clip the rest of the way.
“I just try to go get the basketball,” Hart said following his sixth triple-double of the season, the fifth most in the league. “Sometimes, unfortunately, I steal rebounds from my guys. I don’t try to.
“Whenever I see the ball hit the rim, I see the ball and nothing else. I see arms and all that. I have no idea whose arms they are. My thing is just, ‘Go get the basketball.’ So I think it’s that.”
While teammate Karl-Anthony Towns ranks second overall in the NBA in rebounding (13.9 rpg), behind only Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis, Hart is second to Sabonis in total rebounds for the month with 165.
Hart also is scoring 14.1 points per game and posting career highs in rebounds, assists (5.7), minutes (37.8), steals (1.5) and field goal percentage (.558).
“Not only the rebounds, whatever the game [needs] — the hustle, the heart, the toughness,” Tom Thibodeau said Saturday night. “And then getting into the gaps and then making plays. He’s a terrific playmaker, particularly when you’re trying to get the ball out of [Jalen Brunson’s] hands.
“Josh reads the floor well. He reads the game. He doesn’t fight the game. So if someone’s open they get the ball. It’s really simple. When you play like that, good things come from it. We feel like he’s a secondary ball handler. We can initiate offense with him. We can bring it to him on the backside.”
Kings coach Doug Christie, who appeared in 35 games for the Knicks in the mid-’90s, also compared Hart’s ability to read where the ball is going and to grab offensive rebounds — including seven against Sacramento — to that of Rodman.
At 6-foot-7, the Hall of Famer and five-time NBA champion is three inches taller than Hart, but he led the league in rebounding seven times and finished with a career average of 13.1 per game.
“I like him. He’s a good player, I like how he gets down,” Christie said of Hart. “I respect [him], and Thibs finds those guys and he puts them out there and they do what they do. Next time we see him, we’ll be better. Hats off. That’s how they play. It’s a brand of basketball that if you don’t buckle up, it can get bumpy. And tonight it did for us.”
According to Christie, Hart is “playing a whole different [game] on the backside” during the Knicks’ offensive sets, reading the play and waiting for his chances to crash the glass.
“He’s actually going to do something every single time,” Christie said. “If you’re in help [defense], if you’re wherever you’re at, and you don’t get a body on him, he’s getting in there and he’s either getting the ball or he’s getting his hands on the ball.
“So you almost have to play him mano [a] mano on the backside, kind of like Dennis Rodman. … It’s like, you face-guard him and don’t worry about what’s going on [elsewhere] so he’s not getting [the ball]. You’re not getting it, but the key is he’s not getting it. But give him credit. That’s part of who he is and what he does, and you gotta respect that.”
