Just two days left.
Saturday can’t come soon enough.
Come on, dawg.
Mike Brown
On not thinking about his potential firing if the team falls short of a title:
“I don’t really think about the last part of the question. Everybody in that locker room has a competitive spirit that I like and that I can say is unmatched. I love the group and we’re competing. Not just for 53 wins, we’re competing at the end of the day, like everybody
else is, to win it [a championship]. For us, we’re concentrating on practice tomorrow, getting ready for Atlanta. But our competitive spirit is there. It’s not anything we take lightly.”
On the Hawks’ strengths:
“They’re very well-coached. They have a lot of pieces. They’re good at adjustments, clearly being able to have a pretty big trade mid-season and then adjust to be the team that they are now. And so they’ve been playing great. We’ve gotta be ready for the challenge when it comes on Saturday.”
On wanting Karl-Anthony Towns to be aggressive:
“At times [in the post], they’re not necessarily coming with a hard double all the time. And then when that happens, we really want him to be aggressive.”
On Onyeka Okongwu and Atlanta’s size:
“The excuse that Atlanta is ‘small at the center spot,’ I don’t buy it. Because it’s your approach to the game and the things that you do out there. So he can impact the game on both sides defensively with his athleticism, and then offensively with the way he shoots it and the way he [grabs] offensive rebounds.”
On how he has changed as a coach:
“More mature, more experienced, more seasoned. If you want to get specific about it, I didn’t message great back then. It was more about the work. That’s the one thing I always knew I had control over, is I can outwork this guy if I want to — it’s my call, that’s easy. Therefore, if I’m gonna do something with our team, our team is gonna outwork that team, it’s easy. Now it’s based more on feel, a little bit smarter with my work and the team’s work. I do feel like I message better. I learned all these things being around great players and great coaches and just over time, learning from your mistakes I feel like I have a better opportunity now, because I’ve been through a lot, to be more present than before. When you’re present, it helps you be able to make adjustments more timely on both sides of the ball.”
On similarities among his past championship teams and these Knicks:
“It’s what our standard is about. They were different teams. I was the head coach of Cleveland and we got to the Finals with a young team. Assistant coach in San Antonio with a veteran team. Assistant coach in Golden State with a veteran team. If there was something that was similar with all those different teams, they all somehow, someway sacrificed throughout the course of the year.They found a way to be connected, especially at the right time. They all had an unbelievable competitive spirit and the belief in the process and each other was always there. And everybody was OK holding one another accountable. They all embraced that. I feel that this group has trended towards that way.”
On the team’s never-ending adjustments this season:
“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. And them continuing to try to stay the course and believe and buy in and all that, to see that from a veteran group, when we’ve hit some adversity even during that time, has a lot to do with their makeup.”
Jalen Brunson
On the championship-or-bust pressure:
“Obviously, we want to win, which is very important for us, but I think our approach matters and how we attack that every day, attack that goal is really important. So I think regardless, it’s important for us to just focus on one day at a time.”
On embracing the process:
“I enjoy that. Like I said, I enjoy the process every single day. Yes, it’s tough. Yes. There’s times, there’s ups and downs and self-doubt creeps in maybe sometimes, but I mean, this is something that I enjoy doing and it’s something I worked my entire life for. So I embrace the opportunity.”
On the confidence within the locker room:
“To be honest, there’s a lot of things that go on that you guys don’t see, a lot of things that we talk about, a lot of things that we do that we don’t even say publicly, and for a reason, because we want to keep everything in-house. We want to make sure that the people that are inside this building, inside the locker room, we’re all we’ve got, no matter what. And so, like I said, I have the utmost confidence in them.”
On the Knicks-Hawks matchup:
“For the most part right now, this whole matchup is basically on-paper. So we gotta go out there and just do what we gotta do, and obviously we want to take care of business. It’s going to take one game at a time, and it’s not going to be easy, whatsoever.”
On Dyson Daniels:
“He’s a great defender. He’s very smart and 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 puts them in position to be successful. I’ve got a lot of respect for him. With trash talk or not, being competitive, that dude can hoop.”
On the Hawks as a playoff opponent:
“They’ve been playing great. We’ve gotta be ready for the challenge. I’m definitely excited. I think it’s gonna be great for us and it’s gonna be a hard-fought battle. It’s not gonna be easy whatsoever.”
On Madison Square Garden in the playoffs:
“It’s something that we could sit here and explain. But no one really knows it unless they experience it.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On the importance of capitalizing in the playoffs:
“It’s great that we put ourselves in this position to be in the playoffs in this position. At the end of the day the season doesn’t mean anything if we don’t capitalize on this opportunity. …This is the time. We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to execute, capitalize again on this opportunity. At the end of the day we’ll be judged by what we do in this run.”
On his confidence entering the postseason:
“I’m confident. I step into every playoff run confident in our team, because at the end of the day we’re the ones that are going to need to get the job done and also, we’re all we need. I know everyone in that locker room believes that we have everything we need in that locker room to give ourselves a chance and we’ve just got to continue to go out there and play at a high level. Every day we’ve had to prove ourselves. I think it’s going to be cool to go out here and compete at the highest level possible, the NBA playoffs. It’s great competition. It’s going to be against a great team first round. We’ve got to take care of business.”
On navigating a long season:
“The highs are high and the lows are lows. You just weather the storms, you stick with each other. That’s when team bonding and unity are so important, when things aren’t going well. It’s never when things are going great that team bonding is lacking. You test each other when things are going bad. We’ve had those highs of highs this year with the [NBA] Cup. We’ve had the lows of lows with the losing streak. And this team has stuck together. The locker room has been great. So it’s good for us to know that if things are not going well, we’re going to lean into each other and get closer.”
On the Knicks set to being judged by their playoff run:
“At the end of the day, We’ll be judged on what we do on this run.”
On the regular season meaning little without playoff success:
“It was great that we put ourselves in this position going into the playoffs. At the end of the day, the regular season doesn’t mean anything if we don’t capitalize on this opportunity.”
On his preparation for every game:
“For me, I just consistently walk into this gym and put the work in. So I’m confident whatever I need to do for us to win.”
