Josh Hart had a 0-for-3 first quarter from three, slammed the ball after a miss, and then went off. By the end of Game 2 against the Cleveland Cavaliers he had scored a playoff career-high 26 points, fed by 14 assists from Jalen Brunson, and had helped fuel an 18-0 run that pushed the Knicks to a 2-0 series lead.
The viral moment came afterwards. Asked about the suggestion from his coaches and former players such as Andre Iguodala that he is the kind of player who should ignore the box-score numbers and just trust his feel, Hart delivered the line of the night.
"I'm never a huge analytics guy," he said. "At a certain point, they're a lamp post to a drunk person. You can lean on them, but it won't get you home. So at a certain point, you got to have a good feel for the game."
Brunson, sitting next to him on the podium, joked that the line belonged to Jay Wright, his former Villanova head coach. Hart, who also played at Villanova, took the credit. The room laughed, but the quote travelled far past the podium overnight.
On First Take, Kendrick Perkins reacted the same way the rest of the league did. "I love it. I love every word. Everything he spoke was the gospel. And analytics has ruined our game. Has ruined a lot of organisations," he said.
Stephen A. Smith, who prides himself, in his words, on being a relatively intelligent dude, admitted he initially lost the metaphor. "I'm at a loss. You can lean on a drunk person? You say a lamp post to a drunk person, you can lean on them, but it won't get you home? Really? I understand the lamp post part." Co-host Jay Williams broke it down for him: the drunk person is the analyst, leaning on the lamp post for support, but the lamp post can only hold them up — it can't take them home.
Perkins used the moment to swing at the broader culture. "Analytics keep people who never played basketball hired in the front offices, and that's what they lean on. Allah Daryl Morey, that's what he leaned on. Stephen A., you remember when they got beaten in the conference finals, I believe it was with the Houston Rockets, he went to Tilman Fertitta with the paper saying, hey, we actually won on paper. No, you actually lost on the scoreboard."
He extended the critique to Cleveland's coaching staff after their Game 1 collapse. "After their practice, [Kenny Atkinson] leaned on analytics. If you look at the analytics, we have the data, James Harden is one of our best defenders. Well, my eyes tell me otherwise. The game that I'm watching tells me that James Harden was getting cooked."
Hart's line landed not because it was a clean shot at the analytics movement, but because his game backed it up. Brunson, asked at the podium why he kept feeding Hart in spite of the cold first quarter, deflected the question into a tribute. "I'm really not trying to look for him. He just happens to be open. But I got the most confidence in him watching the things he does after practice and his routine and everything. He works hard. I know we joke around a lot about his practice habits, but he does work hard."
Mikal Bridges, who was watching it all unfold from the wing, called Hart a teammate who refuses to be defined by misses. "He just impacts the game. He impacts winning. He's the perfect example for any basketball player."
Hart himself was less interested in the analytics debate than the actual numbers on the scoreboard. "You know those first three, they felt good. I was kind of frustrated because I've been putting in the reps. I'm just like, bro, this is not translating right now. And then I just know to just keep shooting. If I did that, I'd be good."
He kept shooting. He went home with the win, the career-high, and the quote of the playoff round.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/josh-hart-lamp-post-drunk-analytics-perkins-knicks-cavs-game-2-may-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
