Knicks Bulletin: ‘Aw, yeah. I love Josh, you guys know that’

Loss on the court, heated exchange off of it. Those were your Saturday Knicks.

The Dubs got the dub on Saturday, beating the Knicks 97-94 in a low-scoring affair that concluded (thank God) New York’s five-game West Coast trip.

The Knicks did what they could without Jalen Brunson—now expected to remain sidelined through March if not longer—but New York just didn’t have enough.

Here’s what Coach Thibs and a few other Knickerbockers and Warriors said after yesterday’s game.

Tom Thibodeau

On his sideline exchange with Josh Hart:

“Aw, yeah—I love Josh, you guys know that. Just whatever can get us going, just try to get us going.”

On whether it was just a passionate moment:

“Yeah, that’s it.”

On debating whether to leave Towns in the game as he got into foul trouble:

“Once you get three, the way we were matching up with them, I didn’t want him to get that fourth one. Because I knew we needed his offense, and so sometimes you roll the dice on that.”

On learning to win without Jalen Brunson:

“We’re learning. As I said when Jalen went down, you’re not replacing Jalen individually. We have to do it collectively.”

On the challenge of building chemistry with a near-new team following last offseason moves:

“I think everyone’s race is different. So everyone has to run their own race. You look at your team and you have to analyze what the strengths and weaknesses are, and then you build your plan around that.

“I think going into the season, if you have a new team, the challenge is how quickly can you get everyone onto the same team. If you’re in [Golden State’s] position where you’ve had the core of the team together, there’s different challenges with that as well.

“Whatever your race is, study it, prepare for it.”

On Karl-Anthony Towns’ career and fit with the Knicks:

“I think when you look at his career, he’s had a terrific career. He was winning at a high level. I think as a league, everyone was moving to the skilled five at that position.

“There’s not, I don’t think, in my opinion, a more skilled center than he is, in terms of his ability to score at all three levels. And then his passing ability on top of that, and he’s always been an elite rebounder.

“I think along with his experience, each year in Minnesota he got better. And he sacrificed a lot. When they traded for Rudy [Gobert], he moved to the power forward position and then they got Anthony Edwards, he adapted to that as well. They got to the Western Conference Finals because of his willingness to sacrifice and put the team first, so I thought that would be a good fit for us.”

On Jimmy Butler’s impact on the Warriors’ season outlook:

“I don’t know if it’s the playoffs or, I think that’s who Jimmy is. Jimmy is a fierce competitor. I always felt that was his biggest strength was his competitiveness and his brain.

“And obviously you can’t do the things that he’s done without a lot of talent. But I think that drive, and he’s got great balance to his game, but he reads the game extremely well.

“I think any time you have a player like that, that’s what the playoffs are. You have to have the ability to think on your feet. You’re playing the same opponent, oftentimes, seven-straight times, so you have to be able to make adjustments and read. That’s what I think he’s great at.”

Josh Hart

On the importance of patience and continuity:

“I think (teams need time to build chemistry). Obviously, there’s been teams where they’ve been together a while.

“Boston, they’ve been together for several years. They’ve made a couple of trades, but they were in their window the last couple of years. They made progress, obviously small tweaks to add to the roster.

“Sometimes it takes time. We’re in a generation now where everybody wants it now, now, now.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On setting the tone against Draymond Green:

“Hell yeah, [I wanted to set the tone]. You want to help your team win. So wanted to bring that energy to the team, especially early in the game. Just was trying to do that to impact winning.”

On keeping focus amidst off-court distractions following Green’s comments:

“Nah, I’m keeping it about the New York Knicks. It’s not about anything off the court. It’s about the Knicks.”

On the Knicks’ roster depth and having enough to contend:

“I think we have a lot of talent on this team from top to bottom, not just the starting five but all the way to—we would like to say the deep bench, but I don’t look at us like that.

“So we got a bunch of talent. We got a great bunch of [guys]. So we have an opportunity to do something special, and it’s up to us to grasp that opportunity, take it and run with it.”

Shams Charania (NBA Insider)

On Brunson’s expected return:

“Sources tell me that it’s more of a three-to-four week minimum return timeline for Jalen Brunson. That sidelines him through late March or early April.

“The key for the Knicks and Jalen Brunson is keeping that swelling down in that ankle, getting it lower, and increasing the mobility in that ankle.”

Draymond Green (Golden State Warriors Player)

On Towns’ fourth-quarter performance:

“He had everything going inside. Missed a couple jumpers. I think I got away with a couple cause I left him open. Thank God he missed them.”

On Towns’ physicality:

“It was good to see KAT show up and play like that. Physical. Probably the most physical I’ve seen him play.”

On enjoying the battle with Towns on Saturday:

“I like battles. I’ve never seen him willing to talk. So I enjoyed that. That was fun. He had a really good game.”

Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors Player)

On Draymond Green’s reinterpretation of the night-night celebration:

“He’s evolved his version of it. He’s softened it a little bit. He’s brought it down to where a pillow’s supposed to be. I’m giving that a solid A– effort on the night night tonight.

“That was beautiful.”