Isaiah Hartenstein always thought he was starter quality.
Now he’s getting to show it to everybody else.
The center again dominated the paint in the Knicks’ 116-100 victory over the Bulls on Wednesday night at the Garden, recording a career-high 20 rebounds and tying a career-high with five blocks.
The German-American owned the glass against Chicago’s Andre Drummond.
“[I’m showing that] I can play this role. That’s the biggest thing,” Hartenstein said. “ I always had the confidence that I can really play it, but was never really in that situation.
“Before, yeah, I would finish games, but now I’m consistently playing 30-plus minutes. I feel like I can keep building on that.”
Hartenstein adopted this extended role after the injury to Mitchell Robinson, who might be done for the season after undergoing ankle surgery.
After a rough beginning — which included a steep drop in the interior defense — Hartenstein seems to have found a groove.
In the previous game — a victory over the Timberwolves — he had three blocks, including two highlight rejections against center Rudy Gobert.
“I’m impressed with the way he’s protecting the rim, to be honest,” Julius Randle said. “We’re used to Mitch doing that — covering up for our mistakes when we get beat off the dribble. But he’s a monster doing that now. And to go up against Drummond and get 20 rebounds, it’s not easy. So he’s been amazing.”
You can thank the Hollywood strikes for the late tipoff on a Wednesday.
Because the writers’ and actors’ strikes left ABC with a paucity of original programming, the station scheduled extra NBA games — one apiece every Wednesday in January at 8:30 p.m. — with Knicks-Bulls as the rollout.
It replaces one of the two games on ESPN, which would typically tip off an hour earlier on Wednesdays.
It was the latest home game of the season thus far for the Knicks, although they have two more 8:30 p.m. weekend tips at MSG — against the Lakers on Feb. 3 and the Celtics on Feb. 24.
Both those games are also on ABC.
Counting Wednesday, the Knicks have 28 remaining home games — tied with the Hawks for most in the NBA.
They added a home game recently to the schedule after getting burned by the In-Season Tournament. Due to scheduling adjustments associated with commissioner Adam Silver’s tournament, the Knicks were left with just 40 home games — including just four in 10 combined matchups against the Bucks and Celtics.
So the NBA changed the location of their game against the Pistons on Feb. 26 from Detroit to New York. According to Forbes, the Knicks generated $154 million last season in gate receipts.
The Pistons, meanwhile, only earned $46 million.
“I’m not sure all that transpired in that. I think it was a byproduct of the In-Season Tournament and then the imbalance of the schedule,” Tom Thibodeau said. “You knew it wasn’t going to be perfect from the start and I think they just tweaked it, they saw this was a way to balance out. So I think it came more from the league.”
Malachi Flynn still wasn’t available to make his Knicks debut.
The backup point guard, who was part of the package sent from Toronto, has been unable to practice and arrived with a “tweaked ankle,” Thibodeau revealed before Wednesday’s game.
Flynn played six minutes for the Raptors on Saturday and was traded the next day.
He’s expected to compete with Miles McBride for minutes as Jalen Brunson’s backup, although McBride, who struggled Wednesday, was given first crack at the opportunity.
“Just stay ready,” Thibodeau said. “We’ll see how it unfolds.”
The other battle is for backup frontcourt minutes between Jericho Sims and newcomer Precious Achiuwa.
Entering Wednesday, Sims hadn’t played since spraining his ankle on Dec. 18, despite being healthy and available for the previous two.
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