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.”
Hardaway said he has always been a big fan of the 23-year-old Hezonja, who has struggled to find himself after being the fifth pick in the 2015 draft. Knicks GM Scott Perry has a lot invested in Hezonja, having been part of the staff that drafted him in Orlando and still signing him for most of the mid-level exception in July.
“I told him he has to be focused, man,” Hardaway said. “You’re coming into a great position where this franchise and this team is going to embrace you. (We) definitely just want to see you go out and perform.
“I know you were down, but I said, ‘listen, coach is giving everyone an opportunity and I feel like you deserve this opportunity to start. We’re going to help you get through it and get better in all aspects of your game. Overall, you’re a heckuva player — athletic, tough, can shoot. Just bring that focus each and every day’ — and he’s been doing that.”
Shooting 5 of 21 and averaging 2.7 points as a starter, Hezonja is finally doing little things on D — something he wasn’t known for in Orlando. Sunday night in Memphis, there was Hezonja walking off the court with Fizdale, with his arm around the former Grizzlies coach after the win.
“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.
“When you got so many guys in that stage of growth, someone is going to take a backseat during pockets of the season,” Fizdale said. “None of this is permanent. None of this is in stone. It’s a long NBA season.”