https://nypost.com/2018/11/27/mario-hezonjas-defense-keeping-him-in-knicks-starting-lineup/
DETROIT — The offensive numbers are awful for Mario Hezonja since he was named the New York Knicks’ starting small forward four games ago versus Portland.
But coach David Fizdale has seen phenomenal growth in Hezonja’s defense, even highlighting the forward’s work on that side of the ball during film sessions. Hence, Fizdale has stuck with the enigmatic Croatian, who is shooting 37.7 percent.
In fact, Fizdale gave credit to Tim Hardaway Jr. for a pep talk after he made the surprising Hezonja promotion.
Fizdale wasn’t about to touch the starting lineup as the Knicks faced the Pistons on Tuesday night at Little Caesar’s Arena — not with the club riding its first three-game winning streak since December.
“Timmy did a great job of going to him after we made the decision and really pumped him full of confidence,” Fizdale said after Tuesday’s morning shootaround in Motown.
“He said, “Oh, man, let’s make this work.’ He said, ‘You’re our most seasoned three-man. We’re going to push you to do a good job for us in that lineup.’ I think it helped Mario to get that from Timmy.”
“He’s really competing defensively,” Fizdale said. “His size at that position has been helping us. But he really has been taking the challenge defensively for us. Every film session since he’s been starting. There’s four or five clips on the edit of him doing something really well defensively.”
The flip side to Hezonja’s defensive emergence is that surging shooting guard Damyean Dotson has been a DNP for four straight games, and that doesn’t appear to be changing. Dotson is on a non-guaranteed pact for next season, and The Post reported two teams have asked about his availability.
