Josh Hart plays like a ‘beast’ on the boards in the Knicks’ season debut

Josh Hart’s season debut was worth the wait.

One wouldn’t have been able to tell that Hart was suffering from back stiffness and pain on Friday night given his “The Beast” performance on The Knicks beat the Celtics 105-95 Which made Mike Brown sing his praises.

Hart grabbed 14 rebounds in 19 minutes, the highest in the game.

Jordan Clarkson may have taken the Browns’ Defensive Player of the Year award, but Hart was deserving of second place, considering the way he hounded any man in green.

“Josh, the man, the monster, the monster, the monster…he was guarding everyone,” Brown said. “Not only was he guarding everyone, he had six offensive rebounds and eight defensive rebounds. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that before — 14 rebounds in 19 minutes — just a great, great game doing the dirty things for Josh.”

Hart wore a splint on his surgically repaired ring finger on his right hand which aggravated it and would likely require another surgery after the season. He shot a shaky 1-for-8 from the field for two points.

But Hart made up for it with his effort, his commitment to defense, and being, in Brown’s words, “an absolute monster on the glass.”

“I knew the offense was going to be a little shaky (in) the first game, so I had to do something to help the game,” said Hart, who had three assists and no turnovers. “But it felt good to go out and get up and down. We’re happy with our win and (we’ve got to) continue to build on it.”

Hart is still working on improving his physical condition after missing most of the pre-season period after sustaining an injury in an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi. He even made fun of himself for his final three-point attempt for only hitting the air.

Hart, who said Brown is his seventh coach in nine NBA seasons, also expects there will be a learning curve with Brown’s new system because he hasn’t had many game reps.

However, overall, Hart called Friday “a solid first day here in the office.”

“It was great,” Brown said. “For him to see the game he had in that short period of time was great. And again, it adds to our team… I was excited to see Josh out there.”