Josh Hart quips at Jalen Brunson's playful jab over teammate abandoning Knicks bench in 4th quarter during blowout game against Kings

Josh Hart made an early exit in the fourth quarter when the New York Knicks took on the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night. Usually, when a team has a commanding lead in the final few minutes of the game, the coaching staff tends to bench their star players.

In this case, Hart already knew the outcome of the game and decided to head back to the locker room before the fourth quarter started.

Hart's Knicks teammate, Jalen Brunson, went on X, formerly Twitter, to playfully call him out for leaving early.

"Josh left before the 4qtr started @joshhart," Brunson tweeted.

Karl-Anthony Towns joined in the fun and responded to Brunson's tweet by commenting:

"I can confirm this report."

Josh Hart had the perfect response to Jalen Brunson's playful jab.

"Have to get home so I can sleep. One of us has to play defense tomorrow," Hart replied.

---

Knicks vs Kings recap: Josh Hart's triple-double leads New York to victory

NBA: Sacramento Kings at New York Knicks - Source: Imagn

It was a good day to play at the Garden as the Knicks came up with a dominant 143-120 victory. New York's starting five took charge as they all put in an effort to take out the trio of Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan and De'Aaron Fox.

Josh Hart was arguably the best player on the Knicks squad as he came up with a triple-double performance. Hart put up 20 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists to lead his team to victory. Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns both supported Hart efficiently, each player having a double-double outing.

Brunson added 25 points and 11 assists, while Towns put up 18 points and 15 rebounds. As for the remaining starters OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, both players had an all-around performance.

Anunoby was the highest-scoring Knicks player, adding 33 points alongside four assists, three rebounds, two steals and one block. Bridges, on the other hand, had 27 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

The New York Knicks are now on a three-game winning streak. They are only two games away from overtaking the Boston Celtics in second place in the Eastern Conference standings. New York is set to face off against the Memphis Grizzlies in their next game on Monday.