Knicks Star Questionable for Road Trip Opener

New York Knicks guard Josh Hart has been hot to start this season, but he’s questionable to face the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.

That’s the official diagnosis from the Knicks as they open a four-game road trip in South Beach (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG). Hart’s ailment is also listed as a lower leg contusion.

Hart is coming off a bittersweet showing in the Knicks’ Monday night loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers: he earned his second consecutive double-double with 16 points and a team-best 13 rebounds (including four of the offensive variety) but he was forced to leave the game with an apparent lower-body injury after a collision with Caris LeVert.

Hart earned two successful free throws off the incident and sank them both but called for a substitute shortly after. The Knicks (1-2) missed him over the final four minutes, as Cleveland outrebounded them 5-2 to secure a 110-104 win. Hart was also questionable for Monday’s game after he worked through a bit of a limp in Friday’s victorious home opener against Indiana, but he recovered well enough to score 20 and pull in 10.

Hart is the Knicks’ runner-up in the rebounding department behind only Karl-Anthony Towns. That talent has come up big in the wake of losing Julius Randle and Isaiah Hartenstein over the offseason, as well as the continued absences of Precious Achiuwa and Mitchell Robinson, both of whom remain mainstays in the “out” column on the nightly injury lists.

The idea of Hart, well-known for playing a series of complete games during the most crucial stages of last season, asking for remove had to be a scary sign for Knicks fans amid an already-heartbreaking loss. The fact that his diagnosis is a mere “questionable,” however, has to be a somewhat encouraging sign for a team in need of good news.

Miami’s lone entrant on the injury report is Kevin Love, who has yet to play this season due to personal reasons. That trend is set to continue on Wednesday, as Love has officially been ruled out.

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