Knicks praise Ariel Hukporti's bench efforts, despite fouling out in just 13 minutes against Hornets

While the Knicks haven't carved out much of a role for Ariel Hukporti off the bench, the second-year center discovered an unconventional way to appease his coaches and teammates on the court.

It was Hukporti himself who capped his playing time in the Knicks' beatdown over the Hornets on Wednesday night, as he fouled out in just 13 minutes of action. And the stat line wasn't pretty -- he scored zero points, committed two turnovers, and failed to record a defensive rebound.

But jammed in between the excessive fouls were a few strong efforts in the paint from Hukporti. To his credit, he blocked a pair of shots from Hornets leaders LaMelo Ball and Kon Knueppel, and Knicks head coach Mike Brown praised the unusual performance by giving him an amusing accolade.

"I don't know if I've ever done this before, and I've been doing this a while, but our defensive player of the game was Ariel," Brown said after the win. "And he had zero defensive rebounds and fouled out. Interesting. Having said that, his impact was huge. He had a couple blocks, 50-50 balls. He went vertical a couple times and changed shots in the paint."

Hukporti's limited production -- he wound up logging a plus-minus of plus-6 -- was also acknowledged by Karl-Anthony Towns, who manhandled the Hornets with a team-high 35 points and 18 rebounds. Towns appreciated his teammate not wasting a single second of an opportunity.

"He used every one of those fouls. I appreciate that," Towns said of Hukporti. "He was special. His ability to come into the game, always staying ready, being a professional, always working on his game. It was a night we needed him. I don’t think we win this game without him making the contributions that he did."

Hukporti, who's actually started twice for the Knicks this season, is only averaging 2.2 rebounds and 0.8 points across 12 games. But, as he demonstrated against the Hornets, some valuable court activity isn't always accounted for.