Only one more sleep.
Just a bit over 24 hours for tip-off.
If you feel anxious, crack Trae Young jokes.
Zohran Mamdani (NYC Mayor)
On why the Knicks’ playoff ticket prices are sky-high:
“First, I would say that I blame Trae Young. And I think it’s always important to blame Trae Young.”
Mike Brown
On the sizable in-season changes:
“You always evolve over the course of the season. But to change as much as we did on both sides of the ball. We made some pretty sizable changes to our offense and defense throughout the course of the year.”
On what he learned about the roster throughout the regular season:
“That they’re resilient. That’s probably the biggest thing. You don’t really get that feel until you’re around them. I say that for a lot of different reasons – some of the wins that we’ve had coming back, especially late in games. We started off the year playing one way on offense and one way on defense, and we made some pretty big changes throughout the course of the year. I don’t know if I’ve ever gone through a season with a team, as a head coach or as an assistant coach, making the changes that we’ve made with a group of guys.”
On leadership and player ownership:
“Part of giving your group hope is to give them ownership of the process. Because when people have ownership of the process, they’re probably more engaged or they want to buy in more. So I’m not gonna come in and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna play our offense this way. We’re gonna play our defense this way. And you guys are veterans, you adjust and figure it out.’ No, if I think that it could be a little better with hearing what they have to say — now I can’t listen to all 18 guys, but the top guys: if your top guys have input, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, what about this? Or I’m not sure about that?’ Then I’ve gotta listen, and I gotta think about making adjustments. That’s what that’s all about.”
On the need for a full-team partnership:
“This is a partnership. At the end of the day, though, when you have as many people involved with this, I have to make the decision that’s best for everybody, so at the end of the day, I’m gonna make the decision, and I chose to change some things up because I felt it would fit the group better on both sides of the basketball.”
On Atlanta’s length and versatility:
“Those guys [the Hawks], they’re all long, they’re all athletic. So is that a ‘quote unquote’ edge for them, their versatility? I don’t know. I do know I like our bigs. I like KAT’s size. I like his ability to play outside and inside. I like what he brings to the table when you’re comparing him to Mitch.”
On Mitchell Robinson’s impact:
“Mitchell’s size, his athleticism, his ability to be a vertical threat, it gives our opponents different looks offensively, just by substitution. And so, from that standpoint, it’s pretty neat. And then, you know, like I said, defensively [Robinson and Towns] both bring different things to the table.”
On Jalen Johnson and Atlanta’s resurgence:
“Jalen [Johnson] is a really, really good player, a great player. And shoot, he’s [in the running to win] a lot of awards this year. Him and Nickeil [Alexander-Walker] have led the charge in [Atlanta’s] resurgence here at the end of season; so a lot of respect there.”
On defending Johnson as a team:
“In our last game, Josh matched up with him a little bit more than OG. So it’s more of a team thing than anything else. In this league it’s very hard — especially when you’re talking about a great player like Jalen Johnson — it’s very hard to stop anybody one-on-one. And so your team defense has to be on point, and you just have to make guys work. And if you make them work, you hope the basketball gods are in your favor a little bit, and they end up missing some shots, as well.”
On Brunson’s counters and adjustments:
“Jalen, he’s seen it all, and he’s very smart, very cerebral. So he takes it all in, and he’ll have plenty of counters to a lot of different defenses on his own. But in the same breath, we have to, as a staff, make sure we continue moving him around because we don’t want to give them the same dose the entire game. If you give a team the same dose the entire game, then they can sit on the coverage and get more comfortable with it as the game goes along. It’s a combination of us helping him and him helping himself.”
On the need for consistency over 48 minutes:
“So if you can be consistent instead of fluctuate, you have a better chance of being elite. Because you’ve already shown that you’re a great team, but can you do it over 48 [minutes] instead of over 24 or over 12 or whatever it may be? Because usually the elite ones figure out a way to do whatever they do for a longer period of time than everybody else.”
On approaching the series day by day:
“Just one day at a time. More than anything else, it’s my job to make sure we as a group, starting with me, stay present, and, you know, you go through the hypotheticals, but you can’t dwell on them because if you do, you’ll lose focus at what your strengths are.”
Mitchell Robinson
On what will determine the postseason outcome:
“Yeah, everything matters: box-outs, rebounds, offensive rebounds, just the little details. Everything literally counts, and you’ve got to make the best of it. I’ve been in a couple of playoff series now. So, got a little experience. With that, I use that as motivation and know what to look for.”
On Atlanta’s frontcourt:
“[The Hawks] are a great team. They got some good bigs over there, stuff like that. Come out of this and play hard.”
On the Knicks’ approach to the playoffs:
“We put in the work. Out here grinding, getting gritty and ready to go.”
On his health:
“I’m ready to go and doing everything by the book.”
On using last year’s loss as motivation:
“I used it as motivation coming into this year.”
On facing the Hawks again after they first did it back in 2021:
“Yeah, it’s crazy. Was it five years ago when we played them in the playoffs? I didn’t get to play in that series. Five years later, here we are with a different team for both sides. It’s going to be amazing, going to be fun. [We’re] going to get after it.”
On his journey in New York:
“Yeah, I’ve done seen it all. This is Year 8 for me, going from not being in the playoffs, to the bottom of the East, to now one of the tops in the East. It’s been amazing. Long journey. Trust the process and here we are.”
Josh Hart
On how they’re approaching the Hawks matchup and vice versa:
“Preparation is the same. They’re going to know us inside and out. You have to do the same thing. We’ve got to know their tendencies, what they like to do as a team, as individuals, matchups, those kinds of things. So preparation is always the same.”
On the importance of past regular-season matchups against Atlanta:
“None.”
On not caring about those regular-season games:
“The regular season honestly doesn’t really matter when you look at it in terms of a scope like this, because you never know — regular season, there’s a lot of things that you have. I don’t know if they were back-to-backs, you know, who’s in, who’s out, whatever it is. So, you know, you throw those out the window and you just focus on the team and the personnel that they have right now.”
On the Knicks set to be judged by their postseason run:
“I had no expectations [coming in]. We made the playoffs, we had 50 wins, so that was good. You know, we know we’re going to be judged by what we do starting now. So we didn’t really have expectations going into it. Just wanted to make sure we get to the playoffs.”
On the playoff energy at MSG:
“Man, the energy is great in the regular season, but if you’re able to get to a playoff game, the energy is unreal. They show up for us every single game. You have fans outside, [the] weather is good. So everyone’s outside wanting to have fun, wanting to see the Knicks play. So we need them, obviously now more than ever, and we want to show them love.”
On personal growth this season:
“The thing I’m most proud of myself on [this season] is I feel like I’m doing a better job of moving on to the next plays. If I’m not making shots, what else can I do to help this team be successful? How can I bring energy? What kind of plays can I make to help guys get in position to be successful? I’m doing that and being able to turn the page on a bad play, bad quarter, bad half, a little better than I did before. So that’s been good. But the season, it was solid.”
On Brunson’s film study:
“He watches his shots. He sees what kind of angles he can try to use or exploit. For me, I try to screen a little bit differently depending on who’s guarding him, if it’s Dyson Daniels or, I don’t know, Nickeil (Alexander-Walker) or whoever it is. So you, you always try to learn from your opponent and I think that’s something that he tries to do every time he comes to the bench, watch his film, talks to his coaches and stuff like that. So, you know, I think he’s does a good job in the course of the game, of reading the game and letting the game tell them what to do.”
Jalen Brunson
On Dyson Daniels:
“Yeah, he’s a great defender. He’s very smart and he is great. He’s able to use his wingspan and create havoc on and off the ball. He does a lot of great things for their team and he puts them in position to be successful.”
On his confidence:
“It comes from my work ethic and that hasn’t changed since I guess I’ve been dribbling a basketball.”
Quin Snyder (Hawks Head Coach)
On the need to defend Robinson collectively:
“We’ve got to approach this collectively. He’s a terrific player that impacts the game in a lot of ways.”
On Robinson’s presence and two-big lineups with KAT:
“He impacts the game on the boards in a really significant way. He does things that are selfless. The rebounds show up, but his presence — whether it’s the screening or rolling, the defending — there’s a lot of things he does. There’s no one guy for us that you can say that’s your job to stop him. So we have to approach it collectively. They play them together, too. So, you look at all those different lineups. So you can chase matchups, or you can stay with what you think works for your team. I think you need to do both.”
Tony Bradley (Hawks Bench Warmer)
On setting the tone:
“I think it’s very important to hit them in the mouth first.”
On the Garden crowd:
“Their crowd is, it can be intimidating. But it’s fun at the same time.”
COVERS INTEL: Ranger Suarez has induced soft contact 22.7% of the time, best among today’s projected starting pitchers.
