When the New York Knicks were rolling to a 15-8 turnaround with the league’s second-best defense from early December to mid-January, Isaiah Hartenstein became an afterthought.
Rumors started flying around that his former team, Los Angeles Clippers, would like to reunite with him. National media was going after Tom Thibodeau for misusing Hartenstein.
So when Mitchell Robinson went down with a thumb injury on Jan. 18, a pale gloom hung over the Knicks.
They started life without their defensive anchor with two straight losses, three if you count the road loss in Washington, where Robinson suffered the injury.