Believe it or not, the Knicks have the day off.
New York will keep waiting to welcome their heroes back home, as they still have to visit Sacramento and Golden State this week before a grand return to MSG to host the hot Suns.
Here’s a bunch of chatter from the last few hours.
**_On relying on assistant coach Rick Brunson:_**
“Rick is fabulous the way he goes about his business. He helps me with the pulse of this team, he knows all these guys very well, been around this group for years now. He’s a guy I lean on a lot when it comes to communicating with guys.”
**_On trusting the Knicks’ bench:_**
“There is a comfort level to a certain degree of playing those guys. You don’t want to be in a position where you have four or five of those guys on the court at the same time. They do that and you keep them out there a little longer.”
**_On boasting a balanced scoring lineup:_**
“We got guys that can score, so it’s not surprising. I didn’t know all five guys had at least 18, but all those guys can pass, dribble and shoot, and they’re all unselfish. When we have those guys all together, they’re a lethal starting five, and they’re a lethal group when they’re together. Great things from Josh as well as the rest of the group tonight.”
**_On Josh Hart’s impact on the team’s pace:_**
“Having him back was good. Even having him back helps with our pace because he gets out and runs, he throws it ahead, and he pushes the ball at an extremely fast pace, and so we get easy baskets when we’re able to play like that.”
**_On the need for better handling of officiating:_**
“I thought our guys handled the officiating fantastic. We control whether we’re going to win or lose and not the officials. Sometimes things will go our way; sometimes, it will go our opponents’ way. When you start barking at officials, it takes energy away from what you’re trying to do and focus, too. I’ve been talking to our veterans — Jalen, Josh, Big — it starts with you guys. You guys have to leave the officials alone so everybody else falls in line, and I thought that our guys were fantastic tonight with it.”
**_On the fourth-quarter defense against the Blazers:_**
“It shifts the momentum a lot because you feel good when you get a stop. There’s a level of confidence that just grows inside of each individual when you get key stops. When you get stops and get out and run, especially when you get a good look in transition, that can kind of deflate whoever we’re playing against. We got some big stops in that fourth quarter, and we got out and we ran. We took the right shots.”
**_On the need for reducing turnovers:_**
“We talked about it at halftime. We got to stop these guys from getting out in transition. A lot of that was because of our turnovers. We did a better job in the second half of taking care of the ball, so they weren’t able to get out there.”
**_On closing without Karl-Anthony Towns:_**
“We normally do. On the minutes sheet, he’s there. But we strung a lot of stops together. And we were getting out and going. If I think a group is rolling, I’ll keep a group as long as it doesn’t impact a guy’s minutes drastically. And that group was rolling and I kept them out there because of it.”
**_On adjusting to the Knicks:_**
“Me coming here, new coaching staff, new system. Once those guys started seeing what I could do and getting me the ball in certain situations, we’ve been very successful.”
**_On the bench unit’s identity:_**
“We bring big sparks off the bench, big fireworks. It’s a different style of play. We try to play fast, turn the physicality up, mess up the game as much as we can. We’re some bandits out there.”
**_On Josh Hart’s return to the lineup:_**
“I’m just really happy to have him back. He’s worked his butt off, obviously, trying to get back. He’s a big part of what we do, regardless of what people say and all that stuff.”
**_On trying to get Karl-Anthony Towns involved:_**
“I think the second one I made, I think we call it ‘wedge.’ Middle of the play, me and KAT are yelling at each other. He was telling me to shoot it. I’m telling him to run the play. I’m trying to get him the shot. He’s yelling at me to shoot it. I just said, you know what, forget it, I’m just going to pull it.”
**_On his ever-changing role and shot volume:_**
“I’m going to keep shooting and keep making space for my teammates. I’m gonna keep trying to be as impactful for winning as possible and be the best in the role as possible. Getting my teammates involved and moving the ball and making the defense shift and giving the whole team space to operate my passing gravity. I am trying to do my best in my role and impact the winning. Tonight, it is unfortunate we did not do enough to win. I thought we did a great job to put ourselves in the position to win, so it’s more disappointing.”
**_On always trying to impact winning:_**
“I just feel like I want to do like I’ve said since Day 1, impact winning as much as possible, and whatever it takes to impact winning and get ones in the left column, I’m willing to do. Obviously, it’s frustrating when you have that philosophy and you’re not winning. But the goal doesn’t change. Do whatever it takes to get New York a win.”