Did you think we were trying to dodge the bullet of covering the ugliest defeat in Knicks’ history here in the Bulletin?
Not really. I was just inside on a 13-hour transatlantic flight and could barely do enough to keep breathing all throughout Tuesday.
Here’s a whole lot of excuses and promises from your New York Knickerbockers.
Mike Brown
On Jalen Brunson’s All-Star recognition:
“It’s great. He’s having a great season. It’s definitely an honor that’s well deserved.”
On halftime message after defensive collapse:
“They scored 75 points in the first half. At halftime, we usually do the clips and talk about technical X’s and O’s and all that crap that coaches do, teams do. There was nothing to be said at halftime except for lock in and do your f–king — excuse me on that — do your job.”
On frustration and doing the little things:
“It’s frustrating; it’s frustrating to me, it’s frustrating to every person in that locker room. And we all can’t get it back by thinking we’re going to go score and get this many shots. We have to embrace doing the little things and right now we’re not.”
On belief in the locker room despite struggles:
“There’s no doubt in my mind. I believe in everybody in that locker room. You can ask them — I feel they believe in each other, too. We’re going through it. We’ve got to figure out how to get out of it.”
On team communication and collaboration:
“I talk to management all the time, Leon and I talk all the time. Even when we were playing well, we were talking. So that hasn’t changed and that’s not going to change. I’m big on collaboration, not just with the players, but with the coaches, too. I will take input. At the end of the day, it’s up to me to make the decision.”
On effort-driven improvement in second half:
“We didn’t change anything schematically in the second half. There were more clips from the second half that showed us doing our job the right way. We have to try to do it for 48 minutes.”
On defensive execution against hot shooters:
“The two guys that we labeled hot were 9-for-11 in the first half. Most of those shots were open or we left our feet. No changes to the X’s and O’s. Just do your job. Play with physicality and do your job early. We all have to do our job for 48 minutes, and it didn’t happen tonight.”
On being fine with boos at MSG:
“I’m OK with the boos. If we’re playing crappy, boo. If I was in the stands, I would boo, too. You pay hard money to come to the games and this is a form of entertainment for the fans. They know good basketball from bad basketball.”
On early-season rhythm and post-Cup decline:
“We felt like we were in a pretty good spot through the Cup on both sides of the ball. For whatever reason, it’s changed. I’m not sure of the reason, but it changed after the Cup. We have to keep trying to find different ways to put them in the best possible position.”
On evaluating everything during downturn:
“When you’re in the area that we’re in right now, you gotta look at everything. You gotta keep trying to find ways where you can help the group on both sides of the ball.”
Jalen Brunson
On accountability within the team:
“There’s been a lot of things to pinpoint. But as a team we know what we have to do. Either we do it — we care enough to do it — or we don’t.”
On accepting boos from fans:
“I mean, I’d be booing us, too. Straight up.”
On failing to execute the game plan:
“We just didn’t follow the game plan at all. As a team, we know what we have to do. It’s either we do it, we care enough to do it or we don’t.”
On urgency to fix issues quickly:
“We gotta figure this out fast.”
On belief in the locker room:
“I have the utmost confidence in every person in this room, in this locker room. Just things haven’t gone our way. But we have the ability to do it.”
On effort and care level:
“We just have to care a little more about what we’re doing. It has to mean a little more to us.”
On his ankle injury embarrassment:
“It’s as embarrassing to say versus watching. Just tripping over my own two damn feet. It’s that simple.”
On managing recurring ankle issues:
“Obviously I’ve had things with my ankle the past couple of years. I’m going to be fine. I’m going to be in the gym and doing all my treatment to get back to full strength.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On team accountability amid struggles:
“It doesn’t matter when. It matters that it did happen. So we’ve gotta figure it out. We have a special team and we’ve got a special opportunity and we can’t just let it go to waste.”
On responding to boos from fans:
“You spend your hard-earned money to come here and for us to not only not win, but to not really have a chance? I’d be disappointed too. Fans are doing their part and we’ve gotta do our part.”
On cutting through excuses:
“You just gotta win at the end of the day. Fans nor us want to hear any excuses. We’ve just gotta wanna get the job done.”
On lack of resistance in a loss:
“We was gettin’ beat, beat to the punch, beat to the basket. We didn’t do the job we needed to do today to come out with a win.”
Josh Hart
On urgency as losses mount:
“We have to go out there with a sense of urgency. At this point, 40 games in, we have to play desperate, because that’s what we are right now.”
On embarrassing level of play:
“We all need to do some soul searching. Right now we’re playing embarrassing basketball. We’re not executing on the offensive end. Defensively, we’ve been abysmal.”
On effort compared to last season:
“Last year, no matter what we did, the effort was there. I haven’t seen this kind of effort that we had today. It was embarrassing.”
On diagnosing ongoing issues:
“If I could answer that question, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation right now.”
On dog days and physicality:
“We just have to play with more energy, more physicality. We have to figure out how to do that for the whole game.”
On professionalism and execution:
“We have to make sure we have a professional mindset. We can’t come out and not execute. At this point, we have to play desperate.”
On building identity through adversity:
“It’s a new philosophy, a new coach, a new system. It’s gonna take time to really build that, and you really only build that through adversity.”
Miles McBride
On opponents outworking the Knicks:
“They just came out more hungry. Teams are coming out more hungry than us.”
On defensive breakdowns:
“They were getting to the paint, finishing, kicking out. We just had no cohesiveness on that end.”
