NEW YORK — Josh Hart called his shot. And then, he made it.
And then, he made another. And another. And another. And another.
After struggling with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ defensive cross-matching in Game 1 — a game plan predicated on putting a center on him, sagging off him, and all but daring him to knock down shots in favor of gumming the interior works of the Knicks offense — Hart found himself a spectator down the stretch, watching from the sideline as coach Mike Brown went with Landry Shamet in a five-shooter lineup to try to get the New York Knicks out of the 22-point hole they’d dug. The move worked: Shamet’s insertion kickstarted a historic comeback for the Knicks.
But while Hart preached approaching the game without ego and with extreme humility when asked about it during New York’s practice session between Games 1 and 2, he’s also an extremely proud professional — the type of guy not especially good at, or interested in, taking disrespect lying down.
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“They’re probably going to do the same exact thing,” Hart said of the Cavs’ game plan heading into Game 2. “And I’m going to shoot the same exact shots. I’m going to shoot them with confidence. I’m going to play my game.”
Hart did just that on Thursday, continuing to pound the rock until eventually it broke — to the tune of a career playoff-high 26 points, a 5-for-11 mark from 3-point range, and seven assists — and until the Cavaliers broke with it, as the Knicks raced away to a 109-93 win to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven set.
The Cavs, as predicted, did open Game 2 in that same cross-match with Jarrett Allen playing several yards off Hart on the perimeter. And Hart, as promised, did attack it aggressively, taking his first triple of the evening less than 90 seconds into the contest, off a drive-and-kick to the corner by OG Anunoby. And another two minutes after that, from the opposite corner, after another kickout by Anunoby. And a third two minutes after that, after running a dribble handoff with Jalen Brunson and sliding to his left, where Allen, again, left him all by his lonesome.
The problem: He missed all three, and with Allen continuing to plug the paint and take away Brunson’s driving lanes, the Cavs once again leaped out in front in Game 2, taking an early 17-11 lead. The slow start prompted a brief, but audible chant of “LANDRY SHAMET!” from the Madison Square Garden faithful; it also prompted a brief bout of self-flagellation from a clearly frustrated Hart.
“I don’t know if he could say what he was saying to himself out loud,” Karl-Anthony Towns joked to reporters.
But Hart stuck with it. He trusted the work he’s put in with Knicks shooting coach Peter Patton all season, the work that had him knocking down a career-best 41.3% of his triples during the regular season, before starting the 2026 playoffs a dismal 12-for-48 from long distance. He rattled in a short jumper off a baseline out-of-bounds set and pushed the tempo in transition to set up a driving layup by Towns, helping close the gap to 20-19 midway through the first quarter.
Hart set screens and ran dribble handoffs to try to free up his teammates. He played physical, aggressive, in-your-jersey-every-possession defense on Donovan Mitchell. He used the space Allen was giving him as a runway, attacking the basket hard when he caught the ball with a chance to drive. As promised, he kept playing his game, kept contributing to the effort that had the Knicks leading late in the second quarter.
And then, with 3:27 to go in the first half, on another catch-and-shoot corner 3 created by an aggressive middle drive by old buddy Mikal Bridges, the dam finally broke. He’d cash out again three minutes later, knocking one down from the left slot off a bullet feed from Brunson, who’d also spoon-feed Hart a fast-break dunk shortly after halftime — part of what appeared to be a series of efforts by the Knicks captain to get his friend off the schneid, though Brunson demurred on the subject after the game.
“I mean, I’m really not trying to look for him,” Brunson said through a smirk. “He just happens to be open. So I give him the ball.”
Hart rewarded that faith in the third quarter, knocking down two more 3s as part of an 18-0 run that blew the game open.
“You know, obviously, if they continue to leave him open, he’s got to continue to let it fly,” Brown said after the game. “I think he started out 0-for-3 on his first three 3s, and he was 5-for-8 after that. So we want him to keep shooting it. If his feet are set, if Jarrett Allen wants to play in the paint, shoot it, and we’ll figure out the rest of the game after that.”
The Knicks’ ability to figure it out on the fly, once again, left Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson on the short end of a sharp stick, with his pragmatic process and justifiable game plan torn to tatters by a Knicks team that’s playing at an extremely high level.
“You got to pick your poison — that’s what the playoffs are about, right?” Atkinson said. “You’ve got to kind of pick players that you gotta help off of, so those are the choices you make in the playoffs.”
In Game 1, Atkinson chose to allow Brunson to keep hunting James Harden repeatedly in the fourth quarter until eventually Brunson carved up the Cavs enough that the coach started dialing up double-teams … which the Knicks promptly burned for drives, 3s and free throws. In Game 2, he doubled down on trying to bottle up Brunson — the Cavs held him to just two points on 1-for-6 shooting in the first half and just nine points on 4-for-12 shooting through three quarters — and forcing the All-NBA guard to move the ball elsewhere.
The result: a career playoff-high 14 assists for Brunson, all five Knicks starters in double figures, Hart eventually turning into a “ghost” buster, and New York finishing with a 123.9 offensive rating — a mark that would’ve led the NBA in offensive efficiency during the regular season.
“Obviously, he’s an NBA player, he’s going to make 3-pointers,” said Allen, whose off coverage Hart eventually found a way to exploit. “Just have to follow the statistics, have to follow the coaches’ trust and intuition. Sometimes, just … the plan doesn’t go to plan.”
Not much did go to play on Thursday for the Cavs, who shot a ghastly 38.8% from the field, went 9-for-35 from 3-point range, missed 10 free throws and saw their defensive game plan busted again. Having missed a chance to steal Game 1, they head back home in familiar, if uncomfortable, territory: down 2-0 against a favored opponent, just as they were last round against Detroit heading into Game 3.
“You live between misery and awesomeness in the playoffs,” Atkinson said at the Cavs’ Wednesday walkthrough, between Games 1 and 2. “And this is, of course, misery.”
They believe that the shots they’re generating will start to go down, and they believe their process will lead to better results. They probably also don’t believe that they’re going to see Hart make another handful of 3s, along with some of the rest of the stuff he was doing on his way to a career night.
“Sometimes you gotta tip your cap,” said Mitchell, who led the Cavs with 26 points on 8-for-18 shooting. “I’m not comparing the players, but you see a similar situation in the other series. [Alex] Caruso, they’re guarding him kind of the same way. I’m not saying he’s him or whatever, vice versa, but you’ve just gotta adjust. And we’ll look at the film and figure out ways to adjust. But sometimes you gotta tip your cap. I mean, he made a one-handed spin move on me.”
JOSH HART PLAYOFF CAREER HIGH IN STYLE 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/veCnZScmWG
— ESPN (@espn) May 22, 2026
“We obviously sloughed off some other guys [to slow down Brunson], and they made shots,” Atkinson said after Game 2. “You got to live with stuff in this league.”
If you’re Brown, some of the stuff you’ve got to live with is the ebbs and flows of Hart’s shot-making. Because, like Mitchell’s game-plan reference point, Caruso — and honestly, if the NBA had an All-Make S*** Happen Team, Caruso and Hart would be perennial First Teamers — while Hart’s flaws can complicate your game plan when he’s down in one of his valleys, his strengths can also make the entire team sing when he’s playing at his peak.
“I mean, [Hart] just impacts the game,” Towns said. “He impacts winning. You’ve heard me say that a bunch of times coming into the press conferences after the game and stuff like that. He’s the perfect example for any basketball player who wants to learn how to truly impact the winning of a team, you know, and he does that at the highest level. […] When he goes out there, he’s hustling, he’s playing that hard, you know, you feel like you’ve got to match his intensity. And because of him, when he goes out there and shows that kind of energy, it brings our whole group up, and it makes us feel like we got to be where he’s at on the court.”
Where Hart’s at on the court, on a night like this, is damn near everywhere at once, energizing and fortifying the Knicks on both ends, in ways both quiet and loud. It’s a brand of contribution with which Brown has some experience.
“I’ll tell you what: My time with Andre Iguodala in Golden State helped a lot,” Brown said. “Because, you know, they’re different players, but they’re similar players, because Andre’s edgy too, and Andre’s a hell of a player. I mean, he’s a great player, and he does so many little things that if you’re not careful, you won’t appreciate them. And it’s the same with Josh. He does so many little things that don’t show up in the box score.”
Sometimes, Brown learned, if you want to reap the rewards of Hart’s maximalist, electric play, you’ve got to be willing to deal with some stray voltage.
“On top of that, because he’s so impactful as a connector, I gotta give him probably more leash than anybody else,” Brown said. “I gotta let him go be him and get out of his way.”
Brown giving Hart that space helped allow Hart to stay connected amid the misfires — to choose joy, cut himself some slack and believe the next one’s going in. Even if that nettlesome, meddling voice in his head is cursing him out with every clang.
“You know, I don’t really celebrate when I score or make a good pass and stuff like that, and I kick myself probably a little bit too much when I miss shots or make turnovers, those kind of things,” Hart said. “I think I started to learn to play the game and give myself more grace and not to try to be perfect. And, you know, I’m happy with that.”
The Knicks don’t need Josh Hart to be perfect. They need him to be Josh Hart — the guy who cheers from the bench when that’s what the team needs, who keeps shooting when that’s what the team needs, and who comes through with the best game of his playoff career when that’s what the team needs to get within two wins of the NBA Finals.
“It’s hard sometimes as a coach. because you’re looking at X’s and O’s, and you want everything to be perfect, and you’re looking at the box score, and you’re looking at this,” Brown said. “With Josh, with Andre, all that s*** should be thrown out the window. Because those dudes are winners.”