Wake up, get up, rinse up, dress up, eat up, and by the time you’re done, there’s a great chance it’s already tip-off time.
New York and Orlando will face each other early today, so reserve your place at the couch and enjoy the game, cause it’s revenge time.
Here’s the lastest from your Knickerbockers.
On Karl-Anthony Towns’ progress in his system:
“I am, and he’s getting better with it. Sometimes he takes a couple steps backwards on [his process], but I thought against Dallas he was pretty good.”
On Towns’ shot selection: vs. Dallas
“He mixed it up quite a bit. Sometimes he caught it at the elbow. He caught it at the post a couple times. Caught it at the top of the floor a couple times.”
On Towns’ three-point attempts:
“The one thing I want him to consistently do — he’s got a beautiful stroke, but until he finds that, I want him to keep finding the [three-point] line a little bit more. He can stop [closer to the line] because of the pressure that we’re trying to put on the defense early in the clock.”
On staggering minutes between Towns and Brunson:
“I think they’re just playing and taking the best possible shot. Obviously when Jalen’s off the floor, it’d be great to have KAT on the floor. They’ve each gotta rest. So when we have KAT off the floor, vice versa, and so that’s what we try to do. And obviously they both start together and end the game together, but now during the substitution time, we like to have one of the two on the floor at all times.”
On the Knicks’ loss to Magic two weeks ago:
“The Magic were physical, they were the more physical team that night and I like the fact that our team took ownership of it and didn’t use excuses because there could have been a million excuses that night that we could have used. But we’re a no-excuse team. It doesn’t matter what our schedule is, it doesn’t matter about the officials. It doesn’t matter about any of that. We’ve gotta go play the right way when our number is called and we didn’t do a good job of it that game, and it started with how physical they were coming in and punching us in the mouth first.”
On the uniqueness of Mike Brown’s offensive system:
“It’s different. I haven’t seen it in my 11 years [in the league]. But I’m having fun with it. I’m just continuing to get better and impact the game, and impact winning and continue to help our team any way possible.”
On his shooting struggles and staying confident:
“I want to find different ways to impact this team winning, and just continue to figure everything out. We all are. So definitely on my part, I could do a better job hitting some shots. But I’ll get to that. Numbers will always number out. So I’m just staying confident.”
On adjustmenting his offense to Brown’s system:
“Like I say after almost every game, I want to find different ways to impact this team winning. And just continue to figure everything out. We all are. So definitely on my part I could do a better job hitting some shots. But I’ll get to that. Numbers will always number out. So I’m just staying confident. It’s great to get our first road win. That’s what it’s about. It’s about the wins. So it’s a good start to what we’re trying to accomplish.”
On the Magic rematch and the need for greater intensity:
”We got to match just their intensity in general. So they did a good job last game of finding a way to win and we got to match their intensity, especially tomorrow.
“We just got to match their intensity in general.”
“[He’s] doing good. Just playing the right way, I think that’s the biggest thing. Just being aggressive and reading defenses and playing basketball.”
On maximizing his limited minutes:
“Just go out there and play hard. Like, do the little things, box out, offensive rebounding, everything else is going to work itself out.”
On adapting to his diminished role:
“I feel like I adjusted pretty well, getting out there playing hard for my little short minutes bursts, whatever. Just taking it all in. Just continue to play hard, and if they need me out there longer, shorter, whatever, I’m just there.”
“Just healthy, ready to play, that’s the biggest goal. Continue to do everything right and just keep hooping. It was [mentally tough] at first, but after thinking about it a lot, obviously, I don’t want to miss no playoffs or later on in the future. Whatever’s best, just going to stick to it.”