It looks like the Knicks just can’t get things quite right, can they?
Phoenix made New York eat their four L in five attempts, and the folks won’t have it any easier going forward with a few more West Coast games on the horizon.
Here’s a little of what was said on Friday night.
Mike Brown
On turnovers costing New York and the tiny margin for error on the road:
“When you have 17 turnovers for 22 points off turnovers, compared to their 10 turnovers for 11 points off turnovers, on the road, it’s going to be tough to overcome.”
On the Suns as an opponent:
“They’ve been playing good basketball. They have some veteran guys that have been through the fire, you have a guy in Dillon Brooks who has shown that he can obviously defend and bring an edge to this basketball team and get it done on the offensive end of the floor. Booker is obviously an All-Star player. They get out and run, crash the glass. They do a pretty good job defensively overall, trying to put pressure on you. They’ll pick up full court. They can attack in a lot of different ways.”
On expanding the rotation with Josh Hart out:
“Obviously, we’re trying to give some young guys an opportunity and some guys that aren’t in that situation an opportunity. And they’ve just got to do the best they can.”
On Josh Hart’s injury progress and potential return:
“I don’t know. I know he’s progressing every single day. He’s doing controlled scrimmaging right now. So we’ll see, but he’s definitely getting close.”
On adjusting schemes during practice:
“I’ve got to keep trying to find ways to help them. So on both ends of the floor I’ve got to continue to do that even now. That’s what my job is. We made some changes on both sides of the ball. We’ll see how effective it is and see if it can help us combat that — quote unquote — problems that we may be having technically at times on both sides of the ball.”
On Mikal Bridges’ skill set:
“He was a guy here who shot the ball well, moved well without the basketball, got out in transition. Obviously, defended a lot of times at the point of the opponent’s attack. But he’d really get in the passing lanes, and those are things we definitely rely on him to do for us.”
Jalen Brunson
On late-game execution and his final turnover:
“I just feel like I need to execute and be better towards the end of the night. That’s when I’m at my best. That’s what I pride myself on. I just need to be better down the stretch and be more sound and be more fundamental.”
On his final turnover costing the Knicks:
“That turnover at the end… that’s just good defense by Oso. Hands up, not letting me create enough space. Just a careless pass, and that was the game.”
Mitchell Robinson
On his expiring contract:
”I tell you this every time, brother. I let my agent handle that. That’s what you got an agent for. Let them do your s—.
“Just continue to play hard.”
On conditioning work doing him good:
“Yeah, we do a lot. Too damn much.”
On progress with his conditioning:
“Yeah, for sure. You didn’t see that last game when I was sprinting down the court? I got tired, obviously. But I ran down like seven times, then rolled, came back, set a screen. I did alright. So it’s getting better.”
Mikal Bridges
On returning to Phoenix to face the Suns:
“Yeah, man, being drafted here and being here for so long, being embraced by the culture here and the fans and everybody, yeah, it’s always amazing coming back here. It always feels like home. No matter how many times I come out here or when I come out here.”
On adjusting to Mike Brown’s system in New York:
“I think it’s a little mixed. I think offensively when I was in Phoenix, it was kind of a no-brainer, the movement. I think we’re still figuring out what we’re doing here offensively because it’s still a new system. But yeah, you could say that.”
On his ongoing rehab and impending return from injury:
“I’ll be back at some point. We’ll see. Pretty good little sprain. If this is my left ankle, I’m back by now. Because I’ve had some good ankle sprains on my left ankle. But I haven’t had many good ankle sprains on my right. This was a good one. After this, I won’t have any ligaments to sprain. So I’ll be solid.”