The New York Knicks somehow, some way, silenced the doubters and the haters by beating a .500-plus team for the first time in a month.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the latest and spiciest quotes coming straight outta Magic City.<\/p>\n
On the Brunson-Towns two-man game against the Hawks:<\/p>\n
\u201cKAT and Jalen \u2026 they did what they were supposed to do. It\u2019s no secret that we put them in the two-man game, and those guys delivered on the offensive end of the floor along with everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur guys stayed with it, and there wasn\u2019t a panic. The bench was really, really good. Just the chatter. Guys were encouraging one another and uplifting one another. Jose hadn\u2019t played the last couple of games, and he was more into the game than anyone else. His words were really good and helped during the times when we got down.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Brunson closing Monday\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t necessarily going his way the whole night. But he stayed with it and did what great players are supposed to do and carried us home down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the heave that could have sent the game to OT:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tricky. If he misses it, obviously it\u2019s a long heave. But if you foul him on the rebound or you foul him when he\u2019s turning to heave it now they get three free throws. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve talked about before \u2014 it\u2019s still a toss-up situation. \u2026 The whole thing was at worst they\u2019ll tie it and we\u2019ll go to overtime. Lesson learned on a couple possessions down the stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Brunson\u2019s scoring ability:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge to know a guy like Jalen can shoot and score the way he does. On top of that, he\u2019s crafty.\u201d<\/p>\n
On sticking with the starting five:<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe in never ever. But right now we\u2019re going to start that five and that\u2019s how I foresee it. If I feel I need to make a change at any time, I\u2019ll make a change. But I don\u2019t feel that way right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
On lineup debates and potential starting-five change:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s debate literally all the time. Obviously there was a debate at the start of the season when we started two bigs. And there was debate almost every day because I was the only one with that plan \u2013 and I was getting hammered this angle, that angle, every angle. So we talked about it a lot. That\u2019s just chatter that you have throughout the course of the year, trying to ways to improve your team. So I think there\u2019s always going to be chatter about it. But there\u2019s nothing I\u2019ve felt close to acting on yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his fourth-quarter surge:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ball found a way to go in the hoop for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy with the way we finished the game. They came to fight and put us on our heels, but we found a way to come back every time with an answer and find a way to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
On maintaining his confidence even after struggling during the first half on Monday:<\/p>\n
\u201cJust found a way to keep my confidence. Obviously, things aren\u2019t going to be perfect all the time but you trust your work and find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Josh Hart\u2019s late improvements:<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s all about how you respond. Things aren\u2019t going to be perfect. You\u2019re going to have bad stretches. You\u2019re going to have things that don\u2019t go your way. You\u2019re going to do things that seem easy but don\u2019t go your way. It\u2019s all about how you respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the need to finish games strong every time out:<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everything matters. So regardless if you\u2019re up 30, down 30, if it\u2019s a close game, the way you finish games translates to the next game. So being able to have that rhythm going into the next game is really important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the clutch-time execution with Brunson:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great. Obviously, give credit to all of our teammates who put us in the position to be there and have a chance to win. We have one of the best closers in the NBA in Brunson, so you feel good about your chances. We were just ready for the moment. It was funny. I thought, in the moment, I\u2019d have to hit a big shot for us to win, and it ended up being three assists. I just accepted what the defense gave and Brunson hit the shots, which he\u2019s been known to do when the game matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe perception and standards have obviously changed for us ever since we made that stride last year in the playoffs. Getting through the first round, we weren\u2019t supposed to make it out of there. Then the second round, we definitely weren\u2019t supposed to be making it out of there. We showed the world that we can beat these teams, especially in the playoffs. But in doing that, we put the antennas up for the rest of the league as well. They know what we can do and on top of that, coming in with the expectations we had this year, finding a way to win the NBA Cup. Even through all the ups and downs, finding ourselves the third seed. The world is not unaware of how good we are. But it\u2019s up to us to execute in a seven-game series and be disciplined and find a way to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMe, personally, I\u2019ve been dealing with expectations since before I stepped into the league. Honestly, it\u2019s really the same thing. It\u2019s been the story of my career. Dealing with expectations that are lofty. On top of that, the expectations I have for myself are even higher than what people give me. So I have a lot of work to do. But I\u2019ve been used to it. So it\u2019s a blessing to have pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
On treating the stretch like playoffs:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe playoffs should\u2019ve started 10 games ago for us. We should be building on our standards all year. That\u2019s what the goal was. We have four good games where we can get some good tape, get our coverages right. See how we can execute different coverages, different things. And we could just find different ways to show what we can do, and have adjustments ready to go in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
On being ready all day every day:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m good. I\u2019m chilling. I\u2019m ready for my moment. I\u2019m ready for my name to get called whenever it is. \u2026 So just whenever it\u2019s Jose\u2019s time, whenever that time is, I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks somehow, some way, silenced the doubters and the haters by beating a .500-plus team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,677,2964,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-703533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-hawks","13":"tag-knicks-news","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116364132086750216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703533","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=703533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}