Knicks Hit Playoff Threshold as Injuries Mount Against Pacers

Shortly after Isaiah Hartenstein suffered a heavy fall at the beginning of game 4, he felt a sensation of numbness in his hand. Hartenstein had trouble raising his arm at halftime.

After the game, Hartenstein used one of his hands to take off his shirt. X-rays on his shoulder were negative.

“It’s probably just a nervous thing,” Hartenstein said after the Knicks‘ Game 4 loss. “I’ll be fine.”

You can add Hartenstein’s shoulder to a long list of injuries plaguing the Knicks right now.

Jalen Brunsonthe feet. OG Anunobyhamstring. Mitchell Robinsonankle. Julio Randleshoulder. Bojan Bogdanovicankle.

The Knicks have managed to overcome several key player injuries this season. But on Sunday, it appeared the aftereffects of those injuries hit New York.

The Knicks looked two or three steps slow from the start of Game 4, and it snowballed from there. They trailed by 30 or more for most of the game in one of the most lopsided playoff defeats in franchise history.

None of the Knicks were going to use their injuries as an excuse on Sunday. But it’s clear the team is reaching its limits.

Brunson doesn’t have the same lift/explosion on offense due to a foot ailment. He is much more hurt than he would ever publicly disclose.

The Knicks have been unable to replace Anunoby’s production on both sides of the ball. And they will enter Tuesday’s all-important Game 5 with a starting center dealing with hand numbness.

Maybe they can warm up to the home crowd on Tuesday and find a way to win two of their next three games.

If they can’t do that, the autopsy of this Knicks season will invariably focus on the heavy minutes played by key players.

It’s something that followed Tom Thibodeau from Chicago to Minnesota and New York. He overwhelms his teams in the regular season.

This season doesn’t fit that narrative perfectly. The Knicks dealt with injuries to Robinson, Randle, Anunoby, Hartenstein and others throughout the year.

So Thibodeau had to play big minutes with his best players. And no Knick ranked in the top 10 in minutes per game in the regular season.

But some fans and the media will see what happened Sunday as the sum of all those regular-season minutes. Players don’t seem to see things that way.

“I think for us it has nothing to do with the minutes. It’s more about getting our mental state right to be who we are and that’s what we need to do in the next game.” Donte Divincenzo said Sunday when asked if the Knicks were tired after all the minutes played throughout the season.

Josh Hart also disagreed with the idea that the Knicks were tired from all the minutes played and games played in the postseason.

“At the end of the day, like I said, it’s the playoffs. You’ve got to find it,” Hart said after Game 4. “That’s something we didn’t do today. I put that on my shoulders, someone who brings energy, brings hustle, the kind of things I didn’t do today.

“(Now), it’s time to improve. It’s rest and recovery. Mentally, we have to make sure we are prepared to do whatever it takes to get a win on Tuesday.”