The Knicks decided to drop the first leg of a back-to-back affair so they can beat the 76ers nicely today.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the latest from the protagonists of Friday\u2019s disaster.<\/p>\n
On the Knicks failing to defend when shots weren\u2019t falling:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shot\u2019s not falling, where else are we gonna hang our hat? And it has to be on the defensive end of the floor, and we didn\u2019t get it done throughout most of the game tonight. And that\u2019s why we ended up losing, at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
On playing the right way regardless of who is available:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how many guys are in uniform or who\u2019s in uniform. We gotta go play the right way. Sometimes, if you play the right way, you\u2019re gonna take a loss and you\u2019re OK with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On missing Mitchell Robinson:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a force, and shoot, we\u2019d rather have him than not. When we do, he definitely protects us on the back side in a lot of different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
On being booed and his internal frustration with the team\u2019s effort:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a reality check. It\u2019s how we played. It\u2019s how I feel myself. Inside, I\u2019m like, \u2018Boo. Mike, you stink.\u2019 They have a right to boo me and everybody else. Especially if we\u2019re playing the way we were playing, starting with guarding the ball and not getting back in transition. It\u2019s tough to stomach because you\u2019re not giving yourself a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his belief in the roster despite the loss:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, I truly believe the guys that we have on this roster are more than capable. I\u2019m going to keep pushing. No matter who\u2019s in uniform, I\u2019m going to keep pushing them to play better because I believe in them. I feel they believe in each other, too, and what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the grind of the season:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality of it is it\u2019s a long season. And everybody is human, just like you are with your job, our guys are human just like you are with your job. It\u2019s my job to try to push our guys to be perfect. I know it\u2019s not going to happen, but I\u2019m going to try as best I can to push them that way. It\u2019s human nature when you have success you tend to let down a little bit. If you give them a glimpse of hope they\u2019re going to take advantage of it because they are professionals, they are the best out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Kevin McCullar Jr.\u2019s impact:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s tough. He does all the little things that don\u2019t show up in the boxscore all the time. His shifts are really good. His physicality without fouling is really good. He can rebound, he understands how to play different individuals, how to close out, how to take away air space. Just a good feel for a lot of little things along with that toughness.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Ariel Hukporti stepping up:<\/p>\n
\u201cMitch has been great for us. It would have been great if he was available, but he wasn\u2019t. So the next guy has to step up, and Ariel ended up playing 28 minutes and he did a pretty good job out there. He had 17 rebounds, and that\u2019s what you want from that center position.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Miles McBride\u2019s defensive value and offensive versatility:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just, he\u2019s a baller, man. Defensively, he\u2019s really good, he can get up into the ball. When it comes to defending the ball in pick-and-roll action, Deuce, he\u2019ll get to the ball and get over the top of that pick-and-roll with the ball. He helps nullify our opponent\u2019s pick-and-roll game. You leave him open, he\u2019s probably gonna make it. If you close out too hard, he\u2019s got a chance to go by you and get to his middy or spray it. He\u2019s a baller, and it doesn\u2019t surprise me that his net rating is high.\u201d<\/p>\n
On interpreting net rating cautiously:<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at net rating, but at the end of the day I don\u2019t put a ton of stock into it because it can be a combination of a lot of different things. Obviously, you\u2019d like to have everybody with a tremendously high net rating, that means you\u2019ll probably win a lot of games.\u201d<\/p>\n
On defensive inconsistency catching up to the team:<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly believe that the guys care and they want to try and do the right thing. We just haven\u2019t done it. We gotta go do it. We have to sustain whatever we\u2019re trying to do defensively for 48 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
On lapses in defensive focus:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re up, we\u2019re like, \u2018OK, we\u2019re good.\u2019 And we have three or four just bad defensive plays in a row. It\u2019s stuff like that that\u2019s in our control that we don\u2019t control.\u201d<\/p>\n
On second-chance points hurting the Knicks:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had 11 offensive rebounds. Our multiple effort was not good. They got the rebound and then we didn\u2019t fly around after that, and that gave them an advantage on second-chance points.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the need for steady defensive effort despite missed shots:<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just lack of energy defensively. I know we weren\u2019t making shots, but that doesn\u2019t leave an excuse to not play defense and get back. We can\u2019t let missing shots affect us on the other end.\u201d<\/p>\n
On accountability despite injuries:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no excuse, we\u2019ve just got to be better. Obviously we\u2019re missing three key guys, but we\u2019ve got everybody else in this locker room to come in and step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
On reality setting in after the loss:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great when you win and you can still fix things, but a loss really sets you back to reality. And it definitely did for us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
On failing to rebound without Robinson and Hart:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey killed us on the offensive glass. That\u2019s an effort thing and we gotta fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Knicks\u2019 lack of focus and urgency against Atlanta:<\/p>\n
\u201cNot gonna lie, we just didn\u2019t have it tonight. I know that\u2019s a terrible, lame-ass excuse, but we let shotmaking affect our overall gameplay. That includes our pace, our sense of urgency. Just wasn\u2019t our style of basketball today and it\u2019s unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the late fourth-quarter push coming too late:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was too late by that point. We have to have that sense of urgency throughout the game. Can\u2019t let it get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
On shot-making affecting the team\u2019s overall play:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just didn\u2019t have it tonight. I know that\u2019s a terrible, lame-ass excuse, but we let shot-making affect our overall gameplay. That includes our pace, sense of urgency, everything. Just wasn\u2019t our solid basketball today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks decided to drop the first leg of a back-to-back affair so they can beat the 76ers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,2964,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-513991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-knicks-news","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115831513254250159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}