The New York Knicks are Finals* bound, baby!
On the other corner, the Thunder Spurs will be trying to hoist the Mini Larry O’B on Tuesday as the other finalist of the in-season battle royale.
Here’s everything about the Semifinals and the upcmoing championship game. Can’t wait!
On Jalen Brunson’s MVP case:
“To me, we’re talking MVP. When you look around the league, and you’re talking about an MVP candidate, you’re talking about probably the top-three teams in each conference. You’ve gotta look at their main guy.”
On Brunson making the game easier:
“When you have an MVP of the league candidate in Jalen Brunson, 16-for-27, 40 points, he makes the game easier for everybody. That’s what MVPs are supposed to do, and he definitely did that tonight.”
On Brunson’s national-stage performance:
“It’s beautiful to be able to see him do what he’s more than capable of doing on a national stage like this in an environment like this. So that hopefully you guys as media and the fans out there can continue talking about him as an MVP of this league because that’s exactly what he is.”
On pushing Brunson into the MVP talk:
“There’s no campaign speech. I’m just telling the truth, and he has not gotten enough credit. What I have seen, somebody bring up conversations about MVP, and you see a lot of other great candidates that are well-deserving but I don’t ever hear Jalen’s name. When you’re first or second in either conference, and you’re putting up the numbers that he’s putting up, his name’s got to be one of the first names coming out of somebody’s mouth.”
On MVP candidates around the league:
”That boils down to Cade and Jalen, Luka and Shai, and I don’t know who’s third in each conference, but whoever’s third. Those are the names that you start with and end with because somebody’s gotta score, somebody’s gotta rebound, and usually if you’re a team that’s a Play-In team, or you’re out of the playoffs or in the bottom echelon of the playoffs, you’re not impacting [winning] at the level that the guys that I just mentioned are.
“And so for me, Jalen is just doing what he gets paid to do. He’s an MVP candidate in this business, and he’s just showing it again to everybody, and hopefully, you guys and the rest of the world take notice of it.”
On the NBA Cup experience:
“I was one of those guys when they came up with the Cup idea, I was like, ‘Oh, man, for what? In the middle of the season? We are trying to do this and that and practice and blah, blah, blah. It’s a fantastic experience for everybody. You really applaud how the NBA has tried to continue to find ways to make this more meaningful across the board. So it’s a pleasure to be here.”
On Josh Hart’s shooting:
“I tell you, it’s interesting to continue to see teams put their five on him. I think he’s shooting close to 40% from three, if not that, I don’t know exactly. They keep going in and people keep leaving him open, because they’re trying to put their fives on him. Maybe down the road, they might think he can shoot a little bit, but he works really hard at it. It’s no surprise to us that he’s shooting as well as he is. A five is not used to guarding a guy out on the perimeter. A five wants to go help. When we create paint touches with ball reversals, it’s natural for a five to start drifting toward that rim. Our guys did a good job of finding him with sprays and he’s knocking them down.”
On Josh Hart’s overall value:
“He reminds me of Andre Iguodala from the sense that if you don’t really understand basketball, then it’s hard to really appreciate their game. Both those guys, sometimes you look at them and go, ‘He’s not really this. He’s not that. He can’t do this. He can’t do that.’ It’s the opposite. They can do everything. Josh can do everything. There’s just some things he does that are elite and some things that he does pretty good. That’s what Josh is. He does everything that you want him to do, not just offensively, but defensively, too — guarding one through five. Same offensively. When you have a player with the IQ of Andre or Josh, then good things can happen for your whole team and it makes your job easier as a head coach.”
On Brunson’s relentlessness:
“They have a relentlessness to them where they just keep coming and coming. That’s their competitive spirit coming out. They get denied, they get double, they get hit, but they just keep coming. When you have that, you know your team is in good hands because, at the end of the day, no matter what defense you see, no matter how physical your opponent is, he’s going to be right there. And he’s confident. That gives everyone — not just his teammates on the floor but his teammates on the bench, the coaching staff — the confidence he has breathes into everyone else.”
On matching Orlando’s physicality on Saturday:
“In the first quarter, in the first couple of minutes, they were beating us up physically. Coach Brown basically told us to wake up. We had to match it, exceed it and do what we had to do. I think it was good on our part how we responded to that.”
On his shooting confidence:
“I think the way we’ve been playing, I’ve been able to get a couple more catch and shoots. I have a lot of confidence in my shot. I work way too hard not to be confident. Sometimes it’s going to go in, and when it’s going in I’m just going to keep firing them.”
On finding ways to excell at his size:
“It’s something I had to learn. Obviously I’m not the tallest and I’m not jumping over people… My game’s unique. I play off balance. I’m on balance, but most people wouldn’t be. That’s the stuff I work on, just be deceiving. I’ve done it for a long time and it keeps getting better and better like you said.”
On the Magic’s defense:
“Yeah, [the Magic] are really physical. That’s what [Orlando’s head coach, Jamahl Mosley] prides himself on. The way that they have been able to do it makes them very successful. There’s a lot of ways you combat it. Obviously with physicality. But I would move it, with space and transition, getting stops and running. I think no matter what, they are going to play their solid basketball. We have to play ours and do it to the best of our abilities.”
On Brown supporting his MVP case:
“No, I don’t read into that stuff. It just shows the trust and the faith that he has in me, and I’m very thankful of our relationship over these past couple months. It’s only going to continue to get better. Our communication has been great. It’s a growing experience, a learning experience but I’m really thankful for our relationship.”
On the early development of his footwork:
“I always played against (people) older than my age when I was younger. I had to be deceptive. I had to be crafty. That footwork lasts a long time. It’s (been a focus) since fifth or sixth grade, really. That was the start of it.”
On Brunson’s physical limitations and smarts:
“He’s barely a 6-foot guard. He’s not physically impressive, not athletic. But he’s able to manipulate the defense. Obviously big head, so he has a big brain. He’s able to figure out these angles and find himself in positions to be successful. You know, inch for inch, I think he’s probably the best [scorer in the NBA].”
On improving his shooting and dealing with finger issues:
“It’s definitely feeling better. I’m working with Pete every day on my shot … I think, I’ve said it before, it was something vital to me to have a shooting coach here on staff that I could work with every single day. I had one before, but he lived in Los Angeles and I was playing 38 minutes a game, so it was tough on those off days to really focus on the mechanics. Now, with Pete, I’m able to work on the mechanics every day, even if it’s just a little bit, but just the feeling, the repetition.”
On Brunson thriving under pressure:
“If there’s something on the line and you know you go home, I think it just brings the best out of him. That’s how he was raised, and it’s just within him. He’s just built for it. Especially when times get tough.”
On the Knicks’ growth and sacrifice through the NBA Cup:
“I think recently we’ve been playing very good basketball, even though we still could be better. The fact that we are doing this right now, and we are still learning, but we are winning games while learning is a testament to the coaching staff and it’s a testament to these guys in the locker room that are willing to sacrifice and do whatever it takes to win.”
On Tyler Kolek’s performance on Saturday:
“Tyler did a fantastic job today, our young fella, of impacting winning. He did that on a big stage tonight. I think one of his finest games as an NBA player was tonight, and may not show up on the stats sheet, but everybody in our locker room knows how important he was to us tonight. And if you were watching the game as a Knicks fan or just a fan of basketball, he showed what it is to be ready and to be ready for his opportunity, and he maximized it tonight.”
On closing out the NBA Cup semifinal:
“I think that was the first time in my career I closed it out like that. Obviously, I’ve been in before at the end of the game when we’re up big, but to be able to close it out there with my guys, in Vegas where we can advance to the final game, it’s fun.”
On Mike Brown following Tom Thibodeau’s foundation:
“I give Mike Brown a ton of credit because he knows that Tom is a helluva coach. He said that in our meeting today. So he didn’t try to change everything. He tried to tinker a little. And then he came back to a lot of the stuff that Thibodeau did. But he’s taking advantage of the continuity they have with their roster rather than throwing everything out, trying to do it differently.”
On Mike Brown checking his ego:
“Tom Thibodeau is a great basketball coach. I think everybody in this league recognizes it. Mike recognizes it. And what I really give Mike credit for is to have your ego that much under control that you don’t feel the need to let everybody see how different you are and everything else. They had a great run last year. He’s trying to build on it. So here we go. Mike’s been great everywhere he’s been. He’s competitive as hell but I don’t think he feels the need individually to prove himself. It’s not a competition between him and Thibs. We’re just trying to take this team as far as we can.”
On switching back to last year’s lineup:
“The No. 1 being with Mitchell Robinson’s injury history and being in and out of the lineup – I think you’re always going to deal with injuries but the more stability you’re going to have in your starting lineup, I think it helps everybody’s comfort zone. I don’t know if they could’ve ever had that with Mitch starting for a full year because, ‘Alright, he’s not starting in back-to-backs, so now we have a different lineup.’ So I think it was a good move for that reason.”
On Karl-Anthony Towns at center:
“I still think that he gets his best offense when he’s at the 5 spot. Even though a lot of teams are playing their 5s on Josh, he’s in his comfort zone. He’s trailing and at the top of the key. The ball is in his hands more. And I think starting the game that way, even if you play the bigs together later, KAT’s gotten into his rhythm a little easier.”
On Brunson’s defensive challenges and competitiveness:
“There are obviously challenges with the best player being that short. The biggest challenge to the Knicks is at the defensive end of the floor. It was last year. It is this year. And that’s more of a challenge with Jalen and his size because the way today’s NBA game is, with the pace and the 3-point shooting, you want to be as switchable as you can. It’s not as easy with him. So there’s going to be that challenge. But I think that’s offset by his competitiveness. His high level of competitiveness. This is one of the great competitors of our league.”
On the Knicks as contenders:
“I look at them and say, they’re the favorite to come out of the East. And it’s not just because they were there last year. It’s just the development that’s happened the last couple years in New York. And watching the new coach come in you’re kind of like, how’s he going to be? And you’ve watched them lose the essence of what they’ve built these last few years.”
On Brunson’s size and winning at that level:
“Anything is possible. No one thought that a team shooting a lot of 3s could win a title until Golden State did it. Charles is always talking about, ‘You can’t win shooting 3s.’ So obviously anything is possible. Is it hard? Yes. It’s really, really hard. So that just means for Jalen to be as great as he needs to be, that means everybody else around him needs to get better. But it is yet to be seen. We’ve got to see it, too.”