'Ultimate glue guy' Hart makes Knicks whole in win over Celtics
NEW YORK, United States — At some point in the fourth quarter, the math stopped making sense for the Boston Celtics.
They were getting the shots they wanted. The ball was moving. Jayson Tatum was orchestrating. The defensive game plan — load up on Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns — was, on paper, working.
And yet, the scoreboard kept tilting the other way.
Because the one variable Boston was willing to live with — Josh Hart — stopped playing along.
The night the “Fifth Option” took over
In a season defined by stars, it was the Knicks’ ultimate glue guy who authored one of their biggest wins.
Hart erupted for 26 points on 66.7% shooting, drilling five 3-pointers and scoring 15 in the fourth quarter to carry the New York Knicks to a 112-106 win at the Madison Square Garden on Thursday (Friday Manila time). Two of those threes — both in the final 42 seconds — served as the closing argument.
But it didn’t start that way.
Hart was just 1-of-4 from the field and 0-of-2 from three in the first half, a quiet start that fit Boston’s plan to sag off and live with his perimeter looks. For stretches, he looked hesitant — passing up shots, searching for rhythm.
Then the switch flipped.
“I regrouped,” Hart said. “Second half, I was like, let’s go… be aggressive and move past the mistakes.”
He didn’t just take the shots. He owned them.
A calculated gamble that backfired
Without Jaylen Brown (Achilles tendinitis), Boston leaned heavily on its remaining perimeter defenders and help schemes to contain Brunson and Towns. The approach forced the ball into Hart’s hands — by design.
It worked early.
It didn’t last.
The Celtics were a step slow on closeouts, and Hart — who came in shooting a career-best from deep — found confidence as the game wore on. What began as a hesitant first half turned into a decisive second-half takeover.
By the time he rose for that first dagger three, the Garden already felt it.
By the second, it was over.
“What a shot… the Hartbreaker comes through,” Towns said. “That’s just who he is.”
The sequence that flipped the game
For a brief moment late, it looked like Boston had one final push left.
Second-year guard Baylor Scheierman, who tied his career high with 20 points, drilled back-to-back 3-pointers that gave the Celtics a 104-103 lead with 2:19 remaining — quieting the Garden and forcing the Knicks into a response.
That response came immediately.
Hart cut hard to the rim and finished a layup off a feed from Jalen Brunson, reclaiming the lead. Then, moments later, with the shot clock winding down and the possession breaking, Hart rose over Nikola Vucevic and buried a contested three that put New York ahead for good with 43 seconds left.
Josh Hart Dagger 3! pic.twitter.com/rRtQsyx02O
— alder almo (@alderalmo) April 10, 2026
He wasn’t finished.
On the next critical possession — again with the clock ticking and the defense set—Hart pulled up over Vucevic once more and drilled another three, sealing the win in the same improbable fashion he had taken control.
Two possessions. Two shots. Same result.
Game over.
Brunson conducts, Towns anchors
Lost beneath Hart’s late-game explosion was another masterclass in control from Brunson, who finished with 25 points and 10 assists. It was his seventh 25-and-10 game this season, continuing a campaign that has quietly climbed into franchise history.
He didn’t dominate the ball as much as dictate it — probing, collapsing the defense, and trusting the next read.
Often, that next read was Hart.
Towns complemented the effort with 16 points and 12 rebounds, recording his 55th double-double of the season — tied for the league lead. His presence forced Boston to stay honest inside, even as their defensive attention stretched outward.
The Knicks didn’t overwhelm. They executed when it mattered.
Celtics show resistance but not enough
Tatum, back in the building where he suffered a devastating playoff injury nearly a year ago, delivered a near triple-double: 24 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists. Payton Pritchard added 23, while Scheierman’s shooting surge nearly flipped the game.
The Celtics made their runs. They just couldn’t land the last one.
Every time Boston crept within reach, New York answered — not always with a set, not always with its stars, but always with conviction.
A team that’s becoming hard to game plan
The win pushed the Knicks to 52-28 — their highest total since 2012-13 — and within two games of Boston for the No. 2 seed, with the tiebreaker secured.
More telling than the standings, though, is how they’re winning.
All five starters scored in double figures. They committed just seven turnovers — their cleanest performance of the season. And they’re finding offense in places opponents are increasingly willing to concede.
Their tight nine-man rotation all delivered. Filipino-American Jordan Clarkson led the bench with eight points, six at the onset of the fourth quarter that kept the Knicks afloat.
Head coach Mike Brown, now with the most wins by a Knicks coach in his first season — surpassing Pat Riley — downplayed the milestone, instead pointing to the bigger picture as the postseason approaches.
“We’re heading in the direction of being where we need to be,” Brown said. “I like the climb that we’ve made the last week or so — the last three to four games. We’ve got a couple more games to get there. We’ll take it one game at a time, but we’ve got these two left and we’d like to win both of them. What does that mean? I don’t know — we’ll see at the end of the day. But when we lace them up, we’re playing to win.”
That clarity — of purpose, of identity — is starting to show.
The player contenders need
Every contender has stars.
The dangerous ones have players who can bend a game when the stars are covered.
Hart has always done the invisible work — rebounding, defending, connecting. But Thursday was a reminder that his impact isn’t limited to the gaps.
Sometimes, it fills the entire frame.
Boston gave him space.
Hart took the game.
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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for US-based publication Heavy.com.
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