The Knicks and the Pistons are clashing tonight for the first time this season in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown.
Too bad the game is at Pizza Palace and not MSG.
Here’s some of what’s been said in the last few hours.
Mike Brown
On the Knicks’ offensive identity breaking down:
“It’s been a while — at least these last two games — our staples, our pace in full court, the front court. We want to space the floor correctly. We want to make quick decisions. We want to touch the paint, and we want the ball to get reversed, and we haven’t seen a lot of any of that. It’s a lot of front-side actions that are happening, and if we don’t have anything on the front side, it’s almost like we’re in the water. We don’t know what’s next. We can’t get to the play after the play, and that’s something we have to figure out sooner than later.”
On lacking physicality at the point of attack:
“The biggest thing is right now, we want to be physical defensively. You can see guys are up in us… they’re getting in our bodies and blowing up any dribble hand-off, even pick-and-roll situations, and we’re not able to come off a pick-and-roll and turn the corner and get downhill. So, defensively, we want to do the same as them, but right now, we’re not as physical as we should be at the point of attack, we’re not navigating the ball screen like we should be at the point of attack a lot of times. And then when we do, we’re picking up a foul here, a foul there. And sending guys to the free throw line. So our physicality, as well as our shifts, have to be better so we can help protect that paint a little bit more.”
On the ongoing pace issues:
“Right now, our pace is not good. We’re walking the ball up almost every time, and then almost everything is on the front side.”
On the need for avoiding emotional reactions to officiating:
“The officials are human. They’re gonna make good calls. They’re gonna make bad calls. We can’t rely on the officials to win us the ball game. We have to go win it ourselves. The reality of it is even with us fouling late, they shot 23 free throws, we shot 32. We had 18 fouls called against us, and they had 23 called against them.”
On refocusing internally instead of blaming whistles:
“We have to do a better job of focusing on what our job is or what we can do to help the group get over the hump and win the ball game. Nobody has to do anything extraordinary. But we’ve gotta give a little bit more in a lot of areas to help us get over the top, but the officials are the officials; they’ve been fine. And now we’ve just gotta figure out a way to win and not focus on them at all.”
On going small late against Philadelphia:
“We needed to score, so we needed to spread the floor and see if we could touch the paint and spray it and knock down a couple threes, so that’s one of the reasons I went small. But I’ve said this before: Deuce is really good at the point of attack in terms of pick and roll defense when he’s on the ball, trying to get to a body and getting over the top of the ball. That’s why I threw him out there. A combination of those two things made me do that.”
On focusing only on the next opponent:
“For us it really doesn’t matter. It’s whoever’s in front of us. We need to figure out how to go play the right way on both ends of the floor and get a win. It’s as simple as that.”
On bringing more effort during the slump:
“Our mindset is everybody just trying to bring a little bit more. A little bit more defensively. A little bit more offensively, in order to get over the hump. There’s not anything tricky or magical that we’re going to come up with in a matter of two days. We just know we can bring a little bit more to the table.”
Mikal Bridges
On the lack of pace and offensive indecision:
“I think we’re not playing fast enough, and that’s on everybody. We’ve gotta know what we’ve gotta do spacing-wise. I think we know what we should do, but we’re either not thinking or taking too long to think about what we have to get into, and that’s been our problem.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On increased aggression after halftime:
“I got more shots. So just trying to make shots. I’ll watch the tape. I know in the third, I got more aggressive on the offensive end and made the most of those opportunities. I just shot more shots. That’s the only way you can make more points.”
Jalen Brunson
On responding to the slump as a group:
“Sticking together. Not pointing fingers, not feeling sorry for ourselves or trying to find a quick solution instead of working through it for the long term. Just have each other’s backs, I think that’s most important.”
On defensive accountability when things break down:
“Objectively, we need to just be more sound and have each other’s backs. Things are not going to be perfect, but we’ve got to be able to have each other’s backs when things break down.”
