INDIANAPOLIS — The New York Knicks have discovered a remarkable new method of playing basketball. Every time one of their millionaires remembers how to score, another apparently forgets what the basket looks like.
Friday night, it was Josh Hart's turn to disappear.
The Knicks lost to the Indiana Pacers, 106-104, in an NBA Cup contest that proved once again that New York has assembled an expensive collection of basketball players who occasionally forget they're supposed to be a basketball team.
Mikal Bridges, who had spent much of the young season impersonating a man wanted by the authorities for stealing his own salary, finally emerged from the witness protection program. He scored 18 points on a respectable 8-for-12 shooting, looking for all the world like the player the Knicks thought they were getting.
Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Josh Hart that Bridges' return did not require his departure.
Hart played 23 minutes and 13 seconds. He scored zero points.
Not one. Not a free throw. Not an accidental basket. Nothing.
He missed all four of his shots, including three attempts from behind the arc. He collected five rebounds and four assists, which is commendable in much the same way that rearranging deck chairs was commendable aboard the Titanic.
His plus-minus was minus-11.
For that kind of production, the average working man might reasonably expect to be escorted out of the building.
Hart, of course, will be back.
This is the NBA, where a man can earn a fortune for making baskets and still collect his paycheck when he doesn't make any.
Meanwhile, Jalen Brunson did everything except sell popcorn. He scored 33 points and handed out 11 assists, conducting an offense that frequently resembled an orchestra in which half the musicians had forgotten their instruments.
Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 23 points and 15 rebounds. The Knicks' two stars combined for 56 points, which ought to be sufficient against an Indiana team that entered the evening with more losses than victories.
But these Knicks have developed a remarkable talent for making ordinary opponents look extraordinary.
Pascal Siakam scored 19. Aaron Nesmith added 18. And Ivica Zubac collected 13 rebounds, nine of them off the offensive glass.
Nine offensive rebounds!
That isn't rebounding. That's a man repeatedly being invited into your house and helping himself to the refrigerator.
Indiana outscored New York 50-30 in the paint and outrebounded the Knicks 50-43. The Pacers weren't performing miracles. They were simply doing the unpleasant work that basketball requires.
And work, apparently, is becoming an optional activity in New York.
The Knicks trailed 106-98 with less than two minutes remaining before suddenly remembering that the game hadn't ended. Brunson attacked. Bridges scored. Indiana obligingly missed free throws and eventually misplaced the basketball with 2.8 seconds remaining.
New York had one final chance.
Towns took the last shot, a turnaround jumper from approximately 15 feet.
It missed.
The horn sounded.
And the Knicks were left examining another loss, as if the explanation might be hidden beneath the hardwood.
They are now 6-6, a perfectly symmetrical record for a team that can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a contender or a curiosity. Their NBA Cup record is 0-2, making their defense of the trophy increasingly resemble a funeral procession.
Coach Mike Brown has a problem that cannot be solved by drawing another diagram on a clipboard.
He doesn't know which version of his supporting cast will report for duty.
One evening Bridges disappears. The next evening he returns, only for Hart to vanish. OG Anunoby contributed 11 points on 4-for-13 shooting, hardly an offensive masterpiece himself.
These men are not rookies learning where to stand. They are seasoned professionals being paid handsomely to perform basketball's most elementary function: put the ball in the basket.
Nobody expects Hart to score 25 points every night. Nobody even expects 15. His value has always been his energy, his rebounding, his willingness to dive after basketballs that other players treat like radioactive waste.
But zero points in 23 minutes from a starting forward on a team with championship expectations is not a charming statistical curiosity.
It's a warning light on the dashboard.
And the Knicks have so many warning lights flashing that Madison Square Garden is beginning to resemble Times Square on New Year's Eve.
There was a time when New York basketball was built around bruising defense, physical rebounding and a collective refusal to be embarrassed. Those Knicks didn't always possess the finest talent in the league, but opponents generally knew they'd been in a fight.
These Knicks have plenty of talent.
What they don't seem to have is a reliable supply of urgency.
The troubling question isn't whether Bridges can score 18 points again or whether Hart will eventually make a basket. Of course they can. Of course he will.
The question is whether this team can get five men to contribute meaningfully on the same evening.
Because championships aren't awarded for individual résumés, projected potential or payroll figures.
They're awarded for winning basketball games.
And Friday night in Indianapolis, the Knicks discovered that even with Brunson scoring 33, Towns collecting another double-double and Bridges finally finding his shooting touch, they could still lose to a team that simply wanted the basketball more.
Somewhere in Manhattan, the accountants can take comfort in knowing that all the checks will clear.
The fans would settle for a few more shots doing the same.
