If you ever doubted the Knicks…
…you better get outta here.
Only three first-round postgame Bulletins coming after this one. You know the reason. Knicks in four.
Mike Brown
On the team’s sacrifice and depth:
“We feel like the team is deep and anybody can get going at any time. For us, it’s about sacrificing and not worrying about shots, minutes or anything like that. Just try to go do what you can to help the team win.”
On Brunson’s Game 1 start:
“It’s big. He stepped up to the plate like he should have done, and he hit some big shots for us early to help us get out front.”
On cleaning up transition defense:
“Transition — they shook free in the first half and the way we chart it, they had 18 fast break points. We talked about it at halftime and we did a little better job in the second half.”
On defending Atlanta’s small-small pick-and-roll:
“We did a nice job in the second half with our transition defense. Their small-small pick and roll also is a problem, and our guys did a pretty good job of defending that the right way in the second half.”
On handling Atlanta’s Hack-A-Mitch:
“We’ll see how the game goes, and we’ll leave him in until we think we need to make a sub. And whenever we feel like we need to make a sub, we will. But we’re gonna give him a chance.”
On using the bonus to counter fouling:
“If they wanna start fouling, then that would get us closer to the bonus. So it’s a time for us to go back to him.”
On OG Anunoby’s impact:
“OG hit some big shots.”
On preaching sacrifice and Brunson’s command:
“We have capable guys. We feel like this team is deep, and anybody can get going at any time. For us, it’s about sacrifice and not worrying about shots or minutes or anything. [Jalen] was good defensively; he was good commanding a double-team. It’s something we’re going to face the entire playoff, and we have to make sure we continue to be on point about it.”
On Towns’ second-half surge:
“The ball went in for him in the second half.”
On playing through Towns early:
“In the first half, he facilitated a lot. We played through him. He made some great passes for some easy buckets, and so we’re just trying to mix it up for him.”
Jordan Clarkson
On Mike Brown’s coaching:
“Intense, smart, challenges us as players. Makes some really good adjustments. His communication throughout the year has been really good with us. From meetings, talking to us, finding out what we see, doing different things (based on player feedback). He’s done an amazing job.”
On Brunson’s breakout in Utah:
“It wasn’t like he wasn’t on the scouting report, but I don’t think us as a team thought he was going to perform the way that he did. It was like his coming-out party. He was just busting our ass, for real.”
On OG Anunoby’s ankle and spiritual healing:
“We need OG out here, so we’re gonna make it happen. He came over to the bench and asked me if I could do (the spiritual healing) for his ankle; then he sat over there for a second, came back in the game and finished the game. Like I said, we need him on the floor so whatever I gotta do to keep it going… sprinkle a little magic on him.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On facilitating early in Game 1:
“I wanted to make sure get them going early and facilitate.”
On reading Atlanta’s game plan:
“I wanted to know — they had a week of practice — to see what their game plan was. Seeing the pressure, when you’ve got someone like [Brunson] and the amazing teammates we’ve got, I wanted to make sure to get them going early.”
On team trust:
“We’ve got an amazing team that, not only our starting five, but everyone on the team could impact winning and can go out there and do an amazing job. So, just us continuing to trust each other and us going out there as a team and winning as a team is the most important thing.”
On his father returning to the Garden:
“To have someone who I would say is the most important person in my life, it’s really awesome to be able to have him back in Madison Square Garden supporting me. I feel like any son out there who plays basketball or plays any sport, you get to see your father there at your competition, you always have a sense of pride, and you want to make him proud.”
Jalen Brunson
On the Game 1 win:
“It was a hard-fought win. It was physical. It was a grind-it-out game.”
On fighting through highs and lows:
“It’s really important, you never know what’s going to happen. There’s going to be highs and lows of a season, highs and lows of a game, and to be able to fight through and still find a way to impact, is very important for us, especially this point of the season.”
On growing chemistry with Towns:
“The longer we’re on the court together, our chemistry’s better. I think we’ve grown as teammates, grown as friends.”
On moving past the McCollum incident:
“It wasn’t purposeful, so we move forward.”
Miles McBride
On the second-half defense:
“I feel like they were getting out and they were winning a space battle (in the first half), getting open, getting to their spots and I feel like in the second half, we really cut that off. We made catches difficult, and we got to loose balls.”
On the need for steady defensive consistency:
“Every single night. It’s nonnegotiable; we have to bring it every single night and be locked in.”
OG Anunoby
On his ankle:
“It’s OK. I just rolled it; it just happened.”
On his performance:
“I think I played good. I could always be better.”
On improving for Game 2:
“Everything.”
Quin Snyder
On the Towns matchup:
“That’s a challenge for us right now. It’s a little bit of pick your poison, you know? How do you handle him on the post with a mismatch? Do you just guard him? How do you handle pick and roll? How do you handle him and Brunson on pick a roll? I think for us to be prepared for all those situations, you can adjust every time down the court. Obviously, we will be doing that. That’s no secret. That’s what, you know, great offensive players demand.”
On Atlanta’s center depth:
“We picked up Tony Bradley [who was on] our G-league team last year. Mo Gueye has been playing the five, which hasn’t been his primary position this year and then obviously spent time guarding [KAT]. So hopefully we can do a better job guarding him than we have. There’s times where it’s good defense, better offense. One of the biggest things is we’ve got to keep him off the foul line. There’s some ways that he scored against us I think are real. Trying to focus on that and make him do something different. I say that he can do a lot of things that are different, so we’ll just lock in, try to make it work.”
On Towns’ rebounding and pick-and-roll:
“He’s always just been a gifted scorer. I think the thing that maybe gets overlooked a little bit at times is his rebounding. That’s another layer to it, because even when you feel like you’ve impacted him and he doesn’t score, he’s on the glass. The situations that he’s in [in New York] are a little different, especially the pick and roll with Brunson. That’s a layer that it’s hard to deal with when you have two players that are that gifted individually and then, when they’re connected as well, it presents more problems.”
On guarding Towns on the perimeter:
“Like any player in the league, they get better as they’re in the league, but I think having him in trail as much as he is and the range that he has, those closeout situations — if they’re long, you think you’re on them and then you realize they’re seven feet tall, you’re not. Then you think you’ve done a good job at that, and he makes a quick read and jabs, shot fakes and goes around you. So do your best. But I think he’s gotten better.”
On not manipulating playoff seeding to face the Knicks:
“That was completely bogus — our focus was totally on us coming into [the season finale]. If we were fortunate enough to be playing in the playoffs, I think that was the goal for us, and then to be healthy. We had lost Jock a short time prior to that, too. The focus for us was on our health. There was no easy matchup, and we weren’t concerned about that as much as we were ourselves.”
CJ McCollum
On the technical and Brunson’s reaction:
“I shot a jumper, and Jalen thought we were at a Broadway show. He acted it out until they reviewed it. It’s a normal jump shot. Nothing there. Unnecessary, and I look forward to getting my $2,500 [fine] back.”
Danny Green
On the Knicks’ late-season form dooming them:
“Simply because the fact that the Knicks this year, especially late in the season, they looked very up-and-down. They looked like they were disconnected. The chemistry wasn’t there.”
On rumblings of a players-Brown clash:
“There are rumblings about some guys don’t like Mike Brown or work with the coaches. There are rumblings that some guys are feeling they’re not getting touches or there’s over usage of Jalen Brunson. That seems to me like a team that could self-implode.”
On giving Boston the edge:
“Originally at the beginning of the year, I had the Knicks. The Knicks probably had the highest expectation, the most pressure on them. They made it to the Eastern Conference finals last year. Indiana dropped out with injuries. Boston had dropped down with injuries but came back, and they’ve been playing well even without Jayson Tatum for most of the year. Detroit is good. They’re just young and inexperienced. That’s why I couldn’t give the edge to Detroit. Boston and New York have to face each other in that second round at some point. The winner of that matchup is the one that’s going to get to the Finals. Right now, I’m giving the edge to Boston, even though the Knicks have played well against Boston.”
