The Knicks let another one slip and they’re now navigating a three-game skid.
New York welcomed back the Twin towers but that could prevent the Sixers from snatching the win
Here’s what Coach Mike and a few of those involved said before and after yesterday’s game.
Mike Brown
On the Knicks facing adversity:
“We are in an area we are not used to. We’ve hit a little bit of adversity. I’ve never been part of a team that has not gone through adversity throughout the course of the year, whether we won it at the end of the year and we were in the Finals or we had a halfway decent season. Every team is going to hit it. For us, it’s about how we respond and how we come out of it. This is a great opportunity for us to see what we’re made of while we are going through this stretch.”
On Tyrese Maxey and picking your poison:
“Obviously, we didn’t play our best basketball. Maxey was really on. He was a real handful for us. We tried to get the ball out of his hands, and then someone else made plays. If you try to take it out of someone’s hands, you are going to give someone else a chance.”
On Josh Hart’s absence impacting the offensive pace:
“At the end of the day, having Josh out there helps a ton. Right now, our pace is not good. We’re walking the ball up almost every time and then everything is just going to the front side. Our staples — our pace in the full court and the front court, spacing the floor correctly, making quick decisions, touching the paint and getting the ball reversed — we haven’t seen a lot of any of that.”
On defensive priorities after another loss:
“It starts with guarding the ball and guarding the ball without fouling. On top of that, obviously our transition defense — both of those areas haven’t been good. Those have been themes as of late for us and we’ve got to somehow, someway fix it.”
On confidence the issues and how to fix them:
“We’re going to fix it. We’ve done it before. Hopefully we’re not going backwards too many more steps. But it starts with guarding the ball and not giving up easy buckets in transition. From there, you can clean up the rest.”
On offensive stagnation hurting the team:
“Sometimes, if you play the right way, you’re going to take a loss and you’re OK with it. But offensively, we were pretty stagnant, and that plays right into their strength. If we don’t play with pace in the half court, if we don’t touch the paint, make quick decisions — our staples — it’s going to be hard for us to score.”
On urgency slipping:
“The sense of urgency has to be there for us for as close to 48 minutes as possible. It’s tough to do it for 48. Everyone has a lapse. But our sense of urgency has to be at a high level, especially when it comes to transition. Our sense of urgency wasn’t always there.”
On his coaching perspective regardless of the record at any particular point:
“I don’t even know what our record was in December. You win a lot of games and can feel it. As a coach, you just try to preach the right things to your team no matter what you are currently doing. If I don’t see something right, it’s my job to let them know.”
On the need for defensive accountability when shots aren’t falling:
“When the shot’s not falling, where else are we going to hang our hat? It has to be on the defensive end. And we didn’t do that tonight.”
Jalen Brunson
On the much-needed defensive corrections:
“We just need to be better defensively. There are so many different things you can say. Keep your man in front. Have better rotations. Objectively, we need to be more sound and have each other’s backs. Things aren’t going to be perfect, but we have to have each other’s backs when things break down.”
On missing Josh Hart but rejecting excuses:
“We miss him, but it’s no excuse. He’s a big part of what we do, but we need to step up. The key is sticking together and not pointing fingers and not feeling sorry for ourselves. Just have each other’s backs. I think that’s the most important.”
On navigating the slump as a group:
“Sticking together. Not pointing fingers, not feeling sorry for ourselves or trying to find a quick solution instead of working through it for the long term. Just have each other’s backs, I think that’s most important.”
Mikal Bridges
On second-effort defense breaking down:
“Just the effort. The initial effort might be there, but just making plays after — the second effort is not there.”
On injuries and keeping internal trust:
“I mean, yeah, those guys are key pieces and I miss them. But I trust everybody in this locker room to come in and do what they have to do. We’ve got a lot of talent, a lot of guys that work hard. Everybody’s got to step up.”
On rejecting travel fatigue and the schedule as an excuse:
“I don’t want to blame traveling or anything like that. No excuse. We’ve just got to be better. You’ve got to learn from it and get ready for tomorrow.”
On missed shots not excusing bad defense:
“I know we weren’t making shots, but that doesn’t give us an excuse to not play defense and get back. We can’t let missed shots affect us on the other end.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On hoping the Knicks respond to the three-game losing skid as they have before:
“I hope history repeats itself. For history to repeat itself, we gotta lock in and be ready for the next game. It’s not gonna get any easier for us.”
Joel Embiid
On his first dunk since forever:
“It was whatever. It was an easy one. I wish it would have been one off the backboard. That’s the next step.”
Nick Nurse
On Embiid’s first dunk of the season:
“You saw he wanted to get one. It was a pretty cheap way of getting it, I think. But at least we know he can still dunk, and he can check that off his list.”