Josh Hart’s ‘winning time’ mentality helps Knicks eliminate Cavaliers

Things are different for Josh Hart in the final six minutes of a game.

“That’s winning time. In my mind, there’s no such thing as fatigue, no such thing as being tired, no such thing as being hurt. If I’m out there, that’s the time where I gotta raise my attention to detail, raise my intensity, raise my energy even more,” Hart says. “And that’s something that I’ve always been wired to do. So for me, it’s once that time hits, it’s totally different. In my eyes, it’s 0-0 and you’ve got to go win it.”

On Wednesday night, winning time started a little early. At 6:34, Hart had an offensive rebound off of an RJ Barrett miss. That extra possession ultimately ended in Hart patiently finding Mitchell Robinson for an alley-oop. The Knicks led by 12 at that point. The game wasn’t over, but it felt like the sequence took the life out of the Cavs.

The Knicks closed the game out over the final six minutes, and closed the series against Cleveland. They beat the Cavs in five games and will face Miami in the second round.

If recent history is any indication, Hart will play a big role in the series.

He had 12 rebounds in Game 5 (three offensive) and two assists. He played 46:46 of the game and was the primary defender on Donovan Mitchell for most of that time. Mitchell finished with 28 points on 11-for-26 shooting. He missed nine of his 12 three-point attempts and went to the free-throw line just three times.

“They did their job and we didn’t,” Mitchell said after the game.

Hart certainly did his job; he’s done it every night since coming to New York from Portland at the NBA trade deadline.

The Knicks are 21-7 with Hart in the lineup since the trade (disregarding two losses at the end of the season when the Knicks had nothing to play for).

That includes the 4-1 series win over Cleveland. This was Hart’s first postseason, but you wouldn’t know it based on how he played.

Why was Hart so comfortable in his first playoff experience?

“I don’t get play…