Knicks Josh Hart wants to fix his wayward shot his wonky knee wont let him

LOS ANGELES — Josh Hart’s conundrum is juggling his lingering knee pain and trying to fix his wayward 3-point shot. As the Knicks forward revealed Thursday, the obvious solution of more practice has become more difficult while his knee is screaming for rest.“I think it’s more not being able to put the extra work in like I did earlier in the year.The mechanics are off,” Hart said.

“I think that’s mostly what it is, a tweak here, a tweak there.Obviously doing those tweaks, that only gets cemented by repetition. “If you’re not able to do the repetition obviously it’s hard to cement that.”Hart’s 3-point efficiency has been in a deep decline for over a month.

He entered Thursday shooting just 15.7% in his last 13 appearances, including just 1-for-7 since Feb.12. The drop coincided with Hart’s knee flareups and two missed games around the All-Star break for patellofemoral pain syndrome, also known as runner’s knee.

Lately, Hart has been on the injury report for knee effusion, or swelling. “I will take a couple of days off, feel good, go out and shoot for 10 minutes and then it swells up again,” Hart said.”It’s just a constant process of playing, resting, getting that inflammation out, and then just cut and paste and keep doing it.”Still, Hart has missed just two games this season and entered Thursday at No.

3 in the NBA in total minutes played, behind only Mikal Bridges and Anthony Edwards.He was also enjoying arguably his best offensive season while averaging 14.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 5.7 assists. But Hart’s 3-point shooting has fallen lately under the microscope because of a dip in attempts and efficiency.

Defenses, as a result, are getting more comfortable leaving Hart open on the perimeter, hurting New York’s 5-out spacing. “If I’m out there, I’m healthy enough.I think I’ve had to sacrifice some of the other work, putting in to try to focus on the recovery aspect (of my knee) and those kinds of things,�...