For some reason, the Knicks have decided to play down to the level of their opponents.
Nearly lost in Indianapolis. Damningly close to dropping one to a G League-like Warriors. Will it finally happen when the Pacers visit MSG on Tuesday?
Here’s what the protagonists had to say, including Steve Kerr.
Mike Brown
On whether he will change the starting lineup before or for the playoffs:
“Right now I don’t feel the need to. But like I said, if I felt the need to, I would. I don’t feel the need to right now.
“It’s not too late to do anything. And if I feel the need, I will. I’m not thinking that right now. I’m not concentrating on each individual because, like you said, we’ve started different people at different times.”
On demanding better starts despite the recent wins:
“We have to figure out individually, collectively, how we can start games better…. I’m not talking about the outcome, win or loss, I’m talking about the start of the game. (We need to start games) with a level of focus, a level of physicality, so that they’re feeling us to start the game. This group knows it. They understand it. Now we’ve just gotta go do it.”
On Mikal Bridges’ overall impact on the game:
“It’s no secret Mikal has not shot the ball well. But he’s given us life at times, and he’s given us life at the right time at times. I thought he was fantastic in Indiana. On both ends of the floor. So it’s not just Mikal. It’s us collectively as a group.”
On expecting more from the team despite the strong defensive numbers:
“I’m sitting here bitching about this and somebody told me from the first of January on, we had the No. 1 defense in the league. Something like that. We can play better. I know for myself and every man in that locker room, every person in that locker room, expects more. And somehow, someway, we got to figure it out.”
On Steve Kerr’s pregame warning text:
“Steve texted me and he said he came up with some killer plays that were going to make us spin backwards and forward. I believe him. Situations like this, we faced it in Utah. We faced it to a certain degree in Indiana. They’re tough. But if you expect to be who you think you are at the end of the day, you will approach this in a business-like manner.”
On not skipping details against undermanned teams:
“The biggest thing is making sure you don’t skip any details. I think in games like this, the details or the small things are huge. And playing with a sense of urgency while making them feel you on both ends of the floor — that doesn’t mean going out and blowing them out, but if you’re lackadaisical at any point in the game for any stretch, they’re NBA players. A lot of these guys are hungry and some of them have proven that they belong on this level and in a pretty good spot in terms of a rotation. If you relax at any moment in time and they see one, two, three go in, like the guys did in Utah, it can be a climb back up the hill to get back in the game.”
On road trip fatigue not being an excuse:
“I think every game can be challenging for a lot of different reasons. Mainly, all teams are in the NBA, and they’re here for a reason. That stuff’s above my head. A lot of times they say, ‘it’s because of your clock’ or whatever. You win some, you lose some, and I don’t see rhyme or reason for it.”
On prioritizing playing the right way over seeding:
“It’s tricky because let’s say we were in second, and we were a game in front of somebody. Are we just gonna play better because of that? I hope at this point of the season we’re playing the right way regardless of seeding, and sometimes, you’ll lose while playing the right way, but you’re playing the right way all the time—not just to try to catch Boston. That’s part of the equation, but that’s not the end-all, be-all.
“I want us to play the right way because it’s time to do that. We’re going into the playoffs. Play the right way. Again, you’ll lose sometimes playing the right way, but you want to go into the playoffs doing this, not just with your play but with your confidence or your belief, and so I think that’s just as much of it as opposed to — hey let’s find a way to win just to catch these guys. No, no: handle all the small details, embrace the details, embrace the journey. All that stuff and go get a win. So there are a lot of factors, not just those guys are ahead of us by a game-and-a-half and the guys are behind us by two games.”
Josh Hart
On the possibility of the NBA reducing the 82-game schedule:
“I probably be retired before that happens. So I don’t care. Nah, do I think it will be probably be better for the game and the quality on the court? I think so. Do I think it will happen? Probably not because everybody is so money-hungry and money-driven. I think everybody puts that above everything else.”
On the need for respecting undermanned opponents:
“At the end of the day, you got to respect everybody. And if you’re in a situation like this against a team without its starters, you never want to play with a game or anything like that because you’ll never what’ll happen at the end of a game. You don’t want to put yourself in that position for someone to make a shot, someone to miss a shot or a ref to call a call you don’t agree with. So we got to approach this like any other game. And if that’s the case, then we should handle business early and it should be a game where everybody gets to play. But these guys are good. They’re in the NBA for a reason.”
On his knee soreness leaving him out of two games of late:
“It was just a play in the Laker game where I did my normal fastbreak finish, but just the landing on it kind of irritated it. So I think that kind of flared it up.”
On whether the knee will linger:
“I hope not. We’ll see. Time will tell.”
On not making excuses based on the injury:
“Ehh. I was out there. If I’m out there and able to play, there’s no excuses.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On avoiding slow starts:
“Don’t play like that. I think it’s pretty simple.”
On Brown’s frustration even after the win:
“Yeah, he was frustrated. Obviously, the win’s everything, but we don’t want to win games like that, especially this late in the year when we should have better standards and a better execution in playing. I understand it.”
On Jordan Clarkson’s impact off the bench:
“Special. The stats don’t lie. One of the best players coming off the bench in NBA history. He does one thing better than almost anybody in the league, and that’s put the ball in the basket. When he’s doing that, he’s playing with that fire and that passion he has; there’s not many players in the NBA coming off the bench you feel better about.”
On the Dominican Republic’s elimination from the WBC at the hands of the USA:
“Hell yeah, that was a ball, man! That was some bulls**t. They should have had a chance. They had Tatis Jr. coming up. Come on, man.”
Jalen Brunson
On the need to avoid playing catch-up every damn game:
“If we play better from the start, we don’t have to play catch-up. It’s definitely something that we need to get better at and it has to be our focus.”
Steve Kerr
On shortening the NBA season:
“I’m willing to stick my neck out and say I’m all for that because I think the quality of the product is the most important thing.”
On managing player workloads:
“In talking to performance people, looking at the data, hearing the experts in our own group talk about the load that these guys are facing and then you get older players like Steph or Al or Jimmy – we have to manage them through 82 games. So there are nights where you just have to say, can’t play this guy. I get emails all the time from fans saying ‘I spent $2,000 on tickets to go to this game and Steph didn’t play.’ And it wasn’t an injury designation and I held him out. Shouldn’t we reconcile that somehow? Maybe it’s stretching the season out a little bit. If you can’t give up 10 games, can you extend the season by two weeks and give players more time in between games? I don’t know. I know there’s no guarantee that players are going to be out there every night, but I know that we have enough issues all clumped together that if we put our heads together – we’ve got a lot of really smart people in this league. I think we can address a lot of them and satisfy the fans, the owners, the TV partners. I believe that’s possible. Maybe I’m naïve. But I think it’s important to put it out there just for discussion and see where it goes.”
On advocating for a shorter season:
“I’m just saying what I see with all the injuries. The soft tissue injuries. I see all the data about how fast the guys are running, how much distance guys are covering now compared to 20-30 years ago. I see all the injuries, the tanking. I see everything. I’ve been in the league a long time. I’m well aware fewer games would mean less revenue, which means everybody takes a pay cut, and I’m willing to stick my neck out and say I’m all for that because I think the quality of the product is the most important thing. So I don’t say these things flippantly. I say these things because I mean them. I think there’s a meaningful discussion to be had, and I love the league, I’ve loved the NBA my whole life. My whole adult life has been spent in the NBA in some form and it’s an amazing league. We have incredible people in this league and great fans. I just want to make sure we give our fans the very, very best product we can and try to satisfy all of our corporate partners, and I just think there’s probably a way to do that without just completely ignoring some of the obvious issues we’ve established.”
