Knicks’ Josh Hart Fires Back At Comments From Pistons Coach Monty Williams

March 26, 2024

Detroit Pistons coach Monty Williams appeared quite unimpressed with New York Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo burying a franchise-record 11 3-pointers on Monday night.

DiVincenzo did it against Williams’ Pistons in the Knicks’ 124-99 blowout win at Madison Square Garden.

“I don’t care about their team at all,” Williams told reporters about the feat. “I couldn’t care less. Those guys, the way they got those 3s, I don’t want to be a part of their story.”

Well, Knicks wing Josh Hart heard those comments and fired back.

“If you don’t want to be part of the story he should’ve told his guys to defend better, what else is there to say?” Hart said. “We got a guy that’s hot, we’re going to try to find the guy that’s hot. That’s common sense in basketball.

“He’s a head coach in the league. I think he has the IQ to know if someone’s hot you go to them, they’re going to be part of that story regardless.”

For the record, DiVincenzo scored a career-best 40 points.

“Impressive, and he’s been doing it all year,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I thought his teammates helped create good shots for him, he knocked them down and played hard the whole game.”

The Knicks (43-28) currently sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, a half-game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for third.

Meanwhile, the Pistons (12-60) are back to owning the NBA’s worst record in Williams’ first season with the organization.

Anyway, some have suggested Williams was upset because Thibodeau left his starters in the game too long in a blowout.

“This touches on those unwritten rules of basketball, where if you’re already beating a team badly you don’t leave key players in the game to run up the score or get a record,” wrote Jasmyn Wimbish of CBS Sports. “And in this case, the Knicks already had the game in hand so there was really no reason for DiVincenzo to still be in the game. But to Hart’s point, the Pistons could’ve also defended better to not allow him to break that record or force Tom Thibodeau to take him out of a game they had practically already won.”