Even the greatest teams in NBA history lost a few games before making a postseason run toward the title, you know what I’m saying?
The Knickerbockers will keep their road trip going with a matchup against
wannabe Knick Giannis tomorrow, and that’s all we care about now.
Here are some quotes based on comments from Coach Brown and a few other New Yorkers in the past few hours.
Mike Brown
On the team’s progress:
“We’re getting there. I thought we made improvement from our last game with our reads, although it didn’t show because we didn’t shoot the ball as well as we wanted to. We gave up too many transition baskets, and we sent them to the free throw line, but our reads are getting a little better. I still had to kind of direct them and steer them with different stuff to try to mix it up, but we did get a little better, which is exciting, and there are some positives we can show offensively from tonight’s game.”
On three-point shooting approach:
“If you’re open, you’ve gotta shoot it, because I don’t know if we’re gonna get a better shot. I truly believe we’ll knock those downs. I can’t tell you if all 54 shots were good threes, but I know we had the right people taking them. So if you’re open, let it fly, and we’ll live with it.”
On the type of threes he wants:
“You saw the last eight minutes: you touch the paint, you spray it. You don’t go too deep. If you’ve got a guy closing out on you, snap-drive it, keep the dominos falling. Let somebody else come help, now you spray it. We didn’t get that rhythm until late, which is fine. We’ll figure it out. It’s why I’m okay with that. That’s still a learning curve.”
On transition defense and fouling:
“But what I’m not okay with, and it all kind of ties together, is us fouling and us giving up 45 transition baskets. It doesn’t matter how you play offensively, especially when you’re still trying to find your way, you can’t gift points to your opponent like that. That’s tough to overcome versus a good team on their home floor.”
On the team’s defensive standard:
“We’re really big on the possession game. This is the first time we lost it maybe all year. We lost the possession game to the Heat. Obviously they’re a good team and we’re playing on their home floor. To lose the possession game can cost you and it cost us tonight. We know we’re better than that and we will correct that. On top of the 45 transition points we gave up 31 free throws. We talked about both of those things at halftime and then in the third quarter we came out and we gave up 15 free throws just in the third quarter alone. That’s where the game was won or lost. Could we have played better offensively? Yes. But it’s going to be hard to win versus a good team on their home floor if you give up that many fast break points or transition baskets and we send them to the lane 31 times.”
On overall defensive effort:
“It’ll be hard to win all year on someone else’s floor when we play that kind of transition defense.”
Josh Hart
On his slow shooting start:
“I think most of my shots have been short. I’m just getting my legs under me, getting a rhythm.”
On whether his finger is affecting his shot:
“I think it’s more legs than the finger. The finger is what it is. But when I get my legs under me, a lot of those shorter shots won’t be short.”
On conditioning and playing extended minutes:
“I think honestly just for me it’s more so trying to get my wind. Today was a tough one in terms of energy and stuff like that, and obviously being down Deuce hurt us. That’s a guy that can knock down shots, pick the ball up, push the pace. So on a day like this where I don’t have it and I’m still trying to get my legs in, someone like that is perfect for me to be like, ‘You know what? Go get me. Deuce, you get in.’ It’s learning and growing for me, but more so trying to get my legs under me. There were a lot of possessions where mentally I’m like, I’ve gotta get out there — and then I was a step slow.”
On team defense and fatigue:
“It was a step slow, physically and mentally. Obviously there was some where we kind of put our hands in and reached and that’s more of a mental thing, making sure you’re in those gaps and getting your hands out so I think some of that was more mental than physical, and when you add fatigue, sometimes you resort to your habits. So it’s a new group, a new coach and we haven’t formed those habits yet. But it’s Game 3 and we’re still learning and getting better.”
On the team’s woes in Miami:
“We knew we would face some adversity in this game. But we’ll grow from this.”
On the Knicks’ offensive identity:
“I don’t think it’s too much of an adjustment because we have good shooters. We’re pushing the pace and getting shots up, but we’ve got to make sure we’re set, ready, and crashing the glass. This was kind of our first game of having some adversity, so we’ll continue to build.”
On transition defense and missed shots:
“There’s gonna be games like that where you get good looks and they don’t fall, and you’ve gotta figure it out defensively. We gave them a lot of fast-break points, and obviously missed shots and bad possessions contributed to that. It’s Game 3. We’re learning. There will be growing pains, but we’ll be alright.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On trusting coach Mike Brown’s decisions:
“[Mike is] going to make the right call for our team. He puts the time in at the gym all the time. It’s not a secret to y’all how I like to play a lot of minutes, so it doesn’t matter. If that requires one day you play 30, one day you play 45, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
On transition defense and team growth:
“Things happen. It’s a long season, and we’re still searching for that consistency. But I think the effort is there. We’re figuring it out. We have a new coach, a new system on both sides of the basketball. This team keeps working and getting that one percent better. Today was a game where you want to learn an inexpensive, expensive lesson — one where you win the game but still understand you didn’t play your best. But things like this happen, and it’ll make us a better team for the next one.”
On three-point shooting struggles:
“It’s a double-edged sword. You’re happy you’re getting good looks, but at the same time you’re frustrated as hell that you’re not making them. We haven’t shot well to start the season, but our offense is a big firepower of ours and it’ll come together. So keep shooting, stay confident. We’ll have days like this if we’re going to shoot the three ball as many times as we did today. You live and die by it. Today, we died by it.”
On offensive frustration and confidence:
“Of course you’re happy you’re getting good looks, but at the same time you’re frustrated as hell that you’re not making them. We haven’t shot well at the start of this season. But I think at the end of the day, we’ve shown that our offense is a big firepower of ours and will come together.”
Jalen Brunson
On team shooting and confidence:
“We’re getting good looks. The ball’s in the paint, we’re making plays. I have faith in us that we’ll knock them down.”
On transition defense and discipline:
“We were definitely a step slow in transition defense. Just not being disciplined on their drives, fouling. Not a good night for us defensively. That shouldn’t happen this early. But at the same time, it is early and we have to understand we’re getting back in the flow of things so we need to be ready to go when the ball is jumped up. Very correctable mistakes.”
