Knicks' Tim Hardaway Jr. talks about his first full court contact work in his return from injury. Steve Popper/NorthJersey.com
MINNEAPOLIS — After a six-week absence, the Knicks got Tim Hardaway Jr. back Friday.
The fifth-year shooting guard was sidelined with a stress injury to his lower left leg since Nov. 29. But he had gotten clearance in the last week to begin contact work, scrimmaging half court Saturday in Dallas and then moved on to full court work Tuesday and Thursday. With no setbacks, the Knicks opted to put him in uniform and let him work his way into shape with the team.
"I feel good. I had a little burst of speed here and there," said Hardaway, who scored 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting in 25 minutes off the bench. "It was just great to be back out there, get my feet wet, taking hits, taking bumps, finishing at the rim, knocking down jumpers, just trying to do whatever I can to help the team.
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"The conditioning felt good actually. Very surprised. Taking each and every day the past month working on the treadmill, the underwater treadmill, alter-G, a little bit of weight off here and there. I think my training staff, everybody did a great job of just monitoring everything and making sure when I’m able to come back it doesn’t take too hard to get my conditioning, my endurance."
The Knicks were 11-10 when he went down and were 8-12 with him out of the lineup - although the schedule turned tougher of late with 14 of those first 21 games at home. His 17.4 points per game were offset by the performance of Michael Beasley, but Kristaps Porzingis slumped with him out of action.
“Well, I think with Tim back we’ve got to kind of get back to how we were playing earlier,” Hornacek said. “We were a little more uptempo. We got the ball up and down the court a little bit faster, which I’d like to do. We had more three point shooting. During this stretch we’ve stayed in these games with great defense by our guys for the most part. So now that Tim’s back hopefully he can lend the defense a hand, give us some of those other things we were lacking in that stretch.”
Beasley benched?
Beasley sat in his locker last week in Miami talking about how he’d matured, no longer letting frustration get the best of him when the opportunities he thought he deserved didn’t come. And just days later it was tested again.
With Tim Hardaway Jr. returning, Beasley could be buried on the bench again despite his offensive production of late. Since Hardaway went out of the lineup, Beasley has averaged 16.6 points on 52.7 percent shooting. But Knicks’ coach Jeff Hornacek has admitted that Beasley could struggle for playing time again.
“I enjoy playing basketball,” Beasley said. “That’s the bottom line, no matter who’s in, no matter who’s out. Like I said, I’m used to dramatic change, I’m used to ups and downs. If anything happens to where I don’t play anymore I can’t cry about it. Just got to look forward to tomorrow, get my work in, keep my conditioning up.”
He scored 13 points in 16 minutes, hitting 6-of-8 shots Friday.
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Thibodeau reunion
Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau had Joakim Noah playing for him in Chicago during Noah’s best seasons and was pragmatic about seeing his former player buried at the end of the Knicks’ bench.
“I think in his case he’s dealt with injury,” Thibodeau said. “He’s got to work his way back. The strength of their club when you have a guy like Porzingis and getting (Enes) Kanter, (Kyle) O’Quinn has played well for them, Beasley gives them a different look. Jo will figure it out. He’s really a good player. If he’s healthy he adds a lot.”
Email: popper@northjersey.com