Jalen Brunson’s blunt reaction to Isaiah Hartenstein’s dig at the Knicks

Isaiah Hartenstein claims he didn’t allow Trae Young to celebrate the Hawks’ NBA Cup quarterfinal win on Wednesday at the Garden with the Knicks’ logo.

Jalen Brunson’s response: We’ll never know.

“Isaiah is not here,” the Knicks captain said Saturday after practice.

Young, a Knicks villain from the 2021 playoffs, stopped at the Knicks logo, picked up fake dice and rolled them like he was playing craps in the final seconds of the Hawks’ win in Las Vegas.

Hartenstein, who spent the last two seasons with the Knicks before signing with the Thunder this offseason, told reporters that if he were still a Knick, “I wouldn’t have let him roll the dice at center field.” I would have done something. I’ve always loved New York.”

Brunson reiterated that the Knicks’ biggest mistake was letting the Hawks win the game and not allowing Young to celebrate.

“Do I have a problem with that? Yeah, but he won, they won,” Brunson said. “So why invest fake and fake energy into doing something like that when you could have done that to try to win the game? That’s just my point of view on it.”

A recent ESPN report listed a timeline that had Mitchell Robinson not returning from left ankle surgery until late January or early February.

This was news to coach Tom Thibodeau.

“I haven’t heard that,” Thibodeau said. “He follows a protocol, takes it step by step and when he’s ready, he’s ready. He is fine, he is not yet cleared to train. As soon as he is cleared to train, we will be able to better assess the schedule. But we will be patient and let him get through this. There are a lot of steps he has to go through first.”

Ariel Hukporti (sprained left ankle) was able to “practice a little bit,” Thibodeau said.

He will miss Sunday night against the Magic.