The Knicks played a home game on the road.
Make that make sense, Philadelphians.
Here’s your crew dropping some gems after yesterday’s affair.
Mike Brown
On parity across the NBA:
“In the NBA anything can happen. It doesn’t surprise me at all because teams are a lot more even in today’s NBA than back in the day. Teams are really good, players have gotten better, coaches have gotten better, so you have to be ready to play every single time you step on the floor.”
On OG Anunoby’s defensive impact on Saturday:
“OG obviously changed the game defensively. His quick decisions with the basketball, it was beautiful to watch. Defensively, guard Paul George, guard their power forward and then guard Joel Embiid. He was phenomenal defensively.”
On Anunoby guarding Embiid late:
“We can’t do anything like that if you don’t have a guy like OG. OG allows us to play the basketball game in a lot of different ways. So, we were able to do it.”
On the Knicks response to Towns’ never-ending foul trouble:
“We gotta just have other guys step up. We can’t control the fouls called, so if somebody is in foul trouble, hopefully the next guy can step up and play the right way to help us get a win.”
On the late-game challenge:
“I didn’t even see the play. I didn’t even hear our challenge guy say yes or no. I just know the whole bench was yelling at me to challenge. So I was ready to MF everybody if we didn’t win it.”
On Ariel Hukporti’s readiness:
“Ariel, he has been back and forth with the G-League team. He has been practicing, playing games, coming here, he kept himself ready. We throw him out there in a crucial time and he was phenomenal for us in those minutes.”
Mitchell Robinson
On the second-half defensive turnaround against the 76ers:
“We locked in defensively. We came back into halftime to see what we were lacking, especially myself. Defensively in the first half, I ain’t do too great. But definitely in the second half came with more energy.”
On battling Joel Embiid:
“Playing against him is always gonna be a little fight. That’s our nature, it is what it is. He’s an All-Star player so you’ve gotta come out there and fight and make some adjustments yourself.”
Jalen Brunson
On adjusting after Towns fouled out:
“Obviously, we want him in the game, but it’s a next man up mentality. We gotta find a way to go out there and execute our gameplan, play with pace, play good defense, play physical and get back to what we do.”
On the chaotic finish:
“Just pure chaos, but we found a way to win. That’s the best way I can describe it.”
On winning the late-game challenge after replay proved him right:
“Very. It’s very satisfying. If I’m animated like that, I’m pretty sure I’m right.”
On closing out a tough win vs. Philly:
“When you’re a team that’s struggling to put together wins, you got to do the little things. Good attention to detail, good focus, good energy, and get all those 50-50 balls.”
On the Knicks’ late-game execution:
“We played well, but our execution the last couple minutes… I don’t know if we deserved to win the game. I don’t know if they deserved to win either. It was just a toss-up.”
On staying level-headed after back-to-back wins:
“Yeah, it is good, but also it’s January. You can’t get too high or too low. Three games ago we were turning into a lottery team, now people say we’re battling the East. We’re just trying to stay level headed.”
Landry Shamet
On the bench production and its variability:
“Some nights that bench scoring is going to have a huge onus on it. Other nights our first five have it going. That’s the beauty of our team. We’ve got to be adaptable and find ways to win.”
Guerschon Yabusele
On trade uncertainty ahead of the deadline:
“It’s nothing that I can control. Just try to be smart, preparing, as ready as I can. I’ve never gotten traded before or been in a situation like this. I just work hard and try to stay prepared.”
On unmet expectations this season:
“It’s definitely not what I was expecting coming into the season. I thought it would be a little more different. Obviously, my role is different from last year or from the Olympics.”