Is it going to be a sweep?
It is going to be a sweep!
Here’s the latest after a delightful Game 3!
Mike Brown
On Philadelphia’s strong start to Game 3:
“They jumped out and they kind of punched us in the mouth to start the game. Our guys settled down and they figured it out the next three quarters after that first one went by. Great response by our group. They’re resilient, they’ve been through a lot as a veteran group and it showed tonight.”
On learning his team slowly but surely:
“I said when I took the job, you don’t really know the team until you get in the trenches with them. But from the outside looking in, you felt that this team would give you a chance. And they’ve done things throughout the course of the year … that we’re like, ‘OK, yeah, we might have a chance at this.’”
On Jalen Brunson as his security blanket:
“I’m Linus, and Jalen’s my blanket. So he gets me, he helps me relax at a lot of different times throughout the course of games. But that’s what great players do. They keep you poised, they make the game easier for everybody else, and they help you get through the stretch.”
On the bench’s resilience in Game 3:
“We’ve got a lot of good guys that are resilient, that are fighters. And they’ve done a good job of keeping their mind or staying present in whatever we’re doing. And it’s showing when they go out there and get the opportunity.”
On Shamet’s impact in Game 3:
“Landry hasn’t played a drop all playoffs. The first game, he was in the rotation, second game a little bit, and then he was out. Six, seven games that he hasn’t seen significant minutes on the court. Landry was huge for us tonight. Huge for us on both ends of the floor.”
On Shamet providing a spark:
“We needed a spark when they hit us in the mouth and Landry gave it to us. It was a big game on the road and it didn’t phase him. It was a lot of fun to watch.”
On depth players staying ready:
“As a coach, you love to see it. Sometimes you start Landry, sometimes you start [Mohammed Diawara]…at the end of the day, coming from me, that I have confidence in them. Not only that, your number can be called at any time and you need to be ready. They’ve done a good job of keeping their mind and staying present in whatever we’re doing. It’s showing whenever they get the opportunity. It’s shown with Jordan, it’s shown with Jose and it’s shown with Landry…Just a fantastic job by Landry tonight.”
On Mitchell Robinson’s Game 3 performance:
“Mitch Robinson was huge for us. He was huge. We ran him longer in stretches at times than we normally do but he was great in both directions for us. He was big for us throughout the course of the game. You talk about being physical without fouling defensively. You can be physical without fouling offensively, too. He set some great screens. And you can talk about, too, driving to the paint for a paint touch and a spray 3. His rolls — he’s a dynamic roller — his rolls caused Philadelphia’s defense to collapse. And that allows us to spray our passes. His rolls are dynamic and it helped us generate great looks from the perimeter, as well as his vertical threat. He had a couple lobs at the rim. And his offensive rebounding. He kept the ball alive a handful of times. So he was great on both sides of the ball.”
On Mikal Bridges guarding Paul George without OG Anunoby:
“Obviously with OG out we were down a big wing. So Mikal had to take that part over. We’re not switching Mikal necessarily on Embiid, but if it happens he’s just got to play him without fouling. Mikal did a lot of good tonight defensively no matter who he guarded. He was big in helping us get the win because of it.
“I applaud Mikal. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t point out the continued work Mikal is doing at the point of attack with Maxey. Maxey is a great player and you’re not going to stop him. You’ve got to give multiple efforts while guarding him. Mikal’s busting his behind trying to do that while also doing well offensively too.”
On playing without OG Anunoby:
“No matter who’s in or out — Mitch was out for us last game — we just have to go out, try to do our job, whatever our job is. Nobody has to do anything extraordinary. And so defensively and offensively, it’s the same with OG being out. You know, it’s going to be a collective effort for everybody to step up. And, you know, you always talk about next man up, and that’s what it is during this time of year or the regular season.”
On defending Tyrese Maxey:
“Maxey’s a great player, and you’re not going to stop Tyrese. Mikal has had most of the responsibility at the point of the ball, and so the point of the ball, you’ve got to be locked in guarding Maxey, you’ve gotta give multiple effort and you’ve gotta make him feel you without fouling because he’s a great player. Mikal is trying like the dickens to do that, and he’s doing a pretty good job with it based on who Maxey is.
“You’re not going to stop him. He had 13 in Game 1, and there was no point during the year where he had two games below 25 in a row. You just hope he misses some and you hope you can keep the pressure on him. But more importantly, you hope the defense is understanding what the coverages are and where the help is available, because he’s good. Great players find a way, and that’s why it’s our job as a staff to keep trying to throw different coverages at him, so hopefully that helps the guys on the floor.”
On the idea of drama motivating the team:
“I don’t look at it like that. I just coach the team, and I just tell them what I think is the truth. So I don’t try to intentionally increase, you said drama?”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On the Game 3 comeback win:
“Is a testament to the guys in this locker room, our discipline, just our mental fortitude to get through all the adversity and just find a way to win.
“We withstood the first punch. That’s a great team.”
On his belief in the locker room:
“I’ve been telling ya’ll, we believe in everybody in this locker room entering into the game and producing at a high level. Today showed that again.”
Jalen Brunson
On the Knicks not having reached their ceiling:
“I think we still have a lot of room that we can grow.”
On stepping up without Anunoby:
“It was definitely a team effort. Obviously, we want everyone back healthy. But it was important for everyone to step up and have the right mindset. To do whatever you gotta do to win.”
On Bridges’ Game 3 performance:
“We needed him, and he was great.”
Josh Hart
On Jordan Clarkson’ off-the-pine game:
“He’s an amazing person. He’s a great character dude and a true professional. We see him out there picking up full court at times, being physical on the perimeter and re-establishing himself in terms of defense. The way he’s able to bring an energy defensively, and he’s one of our best offensive rebounders. It’s amazing to see him change his game and doing his role to the best of his ability.”
On Knicks fans on the road:
“New York always comes out and shows love. They support us wherever we go. We need that. We need them to continue to do that, continue to support us.”
On stepping up without OG:
“Everyone picked it up. It’s one of those things where it’s next man up. Obviously we say that but that just means it’s more opportunity for guys. Mikal did an amazing job. Deuce gave us what he had. Landry, the ultimate professional, giving us big minutes offensively and defensively. We responded well to that adversity.”
On the Knicks’ identity:
“That’s just what our identity is. We continue to give something game after game and that’s energy. That’s what we strive to have, that energy, that physicality, that attention to detail and focus. We try to have that every game. We need to do that game after game after game.”
Mikal Bridges
On Shamet’s professionalism:
“Lan is a true professional. Just mentally not playing and throwing him out there and he ends up finishing the game. And we talk to him and give him his dap for what he does, but that’s just a true professional. And he works so hard and just got that mental — that mental killer in himself.”
On the Knicks’ response without OG:
“Everybody stepped up. We know how much OG means to us and everybody has to do their part. Everybody has to lend a hand. I think we all did that.”
Landry Shamet
On how the Knicks won Game 3:
“We talked about it the last few days. We knew they would. Coming back home down 2-0, you’re going to have a sense of desperation. That was coach’s sentiment this week… They played really well, scored the ball really well early. We weren’t as physical as we needed to be. Made a couple of adjustments and picked up our physicality and presence defensively, and it helped us.”
On staying ready as a bench player:
“Just stay ready. Your number’s called, you just stay ready. Felt good to be out there with my teammates. Felt good to get a win. We got one more in a matter of hours, really.”
On stepping up in Game 3:
“Yeah, it felt good, felt good to get in there with my teammates, felt good to get a win. We got one more, one more in a matter of hours, really. So trying to get our bodies right, get our minds right and try to go get one.”
Mitchell Robinson
On the Embiid poster not being good enough:
“The picture don’t got no trucks in it.”
On moving past the Embiid controversy from two years ago:
“No, not no more. I hear people talk about it. Kind of just channel it out. At the end of the day, it happened two years ago. You can’t go back in the past and I don’t want to go back in the back in the past and relive it. So it’s like, just learn, move on from it, keep pushing.”
On his free-throw work before Game 3:
“It paid off.”
On competing against Embiid:
“I like that fight. He’s a talented player, a great player. Been playing against him over the years now. And we’re playing on the big stage now. At this point, we just got to go.”
Nick Nurse
On Embiid’s effort in Game 3:
“I thought he gave us everything he could. I really do. I think he tried to give us everything he could tonight, and that’s all he can do.”
On facing elimination:
“We’re in a situation where we have to go out there and get the next one and see what happens. If you get one, it gets to 3-1, and then a series can turn pretty quickly. But we’re going to have to dig in and do some things better. We started out tonight playing great. But we had a bad stretch of defensive rebounding, and we gave up direct line drives. We just didn’t score enough. We didn’t keep the scoreboard moving.”
Joel Embiid
On returning from injury for Game 3:
“I’m OK. Obviously, a tough loss tonight. Just have to take it one game at a time.”
On the refs supposedly siding with the Knicks in Game 3:
“I’m not sure. Maybe it was let go on our end. They shot 32 free throws, we had 16. We’re not a team that shoots a lot of threes. We attack, put the ball on the ground. So, yeah, I don’t know. I guess it’s good when New York wins, so we’ve just got to have that mentality of just not fouling, I guess, and being smart enough to not put ourselves in a position where they’re going to take advantage of it.”
Paul George
On what’s next for the Sixers:
“S—. Win a game. Win a game. Keep the season alive.”
On playing tight games even in defeat:
“We’re right there. We’re just not finishing the game. I think we’re right there. We’re putting together three great quarters. We’re just not closing it out. I think we’ve just got to take it one game at a time. Again, we’ve been in position to win these games, give them credit. They’ve been huge down the stretch on their end, but I think the adjustments we can make limit their possessions, their extra second possessions, take one game at a time, and we’ll be back in that 3-1 spot where we were comfortable in the first series and try to claw our way back into it.”
On Brunson’s shot-making:
“Yeah, I mean, I think our defense have been good for the most part. I mean, we’ve got to tip our hat to JB. He’s making some big shots. He’s getting to his spots.”
Tyrese Maxey
On avoiding a sweep:
“We have to add a game to it. We have to just come out and try and get a game. We have to take it one possession at a time and one play at a time. But most importantly, we have to play with some pride and not get swept on our home floor.”
On making shots and limiting rebounds:
“We just have to make some shots. We have to limit rebounds. We have to keep playing together and playing the right way. Hopefully, that will benefit us.”
On facing Game 4 down 3-0:
“It’s still a great challenge. You gotta go do it. Either you don’t play with any pride, and you get swept on your home floor in the 2nd round of the playoffs, or you play with some pride, you win one game at a time.”
Kelly Oubre Jr.
On staying focused despite Knicks fans invading Philly:
“I could say something that could get clickbaited, but I’m not. At the end of the day, we’re the show on the court. We’re not necessarily focused on the crowd, the things like that. Obviously, we need it. We love it and we love our fans. But at the end of the day, we have to lock in on our task. We have to figure out our game plan, just have a tight huddle. No matter what, it’s loud. It’s kind of the same no matter who the crowd is cheering for. It’s loud. We have to be focused on the task at hand and just kind of have a short-term memory when it comes to things like that.”
Shea Langeliers 
Otto Lopez
Jack Leiter
COVERS INTEL: