Knicks Bulletin: ‘It’s your shell. Your shell really applies to everything’

New York Thibs goes philosophical amid the Knicks’ defensive struggles.

A weekend off for the Knicks means the team will have plenty of time to regroup and reflect on the silly loss at the hands of the Timberwolves.

This period should also allow the squad to come up with a solid plan to avenge the NBA Cup defeat against the Hawks in the rematch set for MLK Day tomorrow inside the Garden as New York welcomes its favorite villain back to town.

Here’s the latest we’ve heard from Coach Thibs and a few Knicks in the past few hours.

Tom Thibodeau

On the defensive breakdowns against the Wolves:

“It’s two-fold. It’s containment and the dribble penetration. And there’s so many different aspects of you’re in defensive transition, individual defense, and then it’s your shell. Your shell really applies to everything.

“So that’s why I’m saying when you’re guarding the ball, there needs to be communication: You can’t get beat with a penetrating drive on the first drive.

“Maybe our physicality could have been better there. So that’s a big part of it. And then are we caught in-between [a rotation]? You want to be in already, so when the ball is being picked up, you’re starting your recovery. A step makes a big difference.”

On failing to spot Anthony Edwards:

“[Edwards] was very, very aggressive throughout, and the one thing is his volume of 3s has gone way up this year, so I knew he would keep shooting, and he made a number of good plays as well.

“But he’s a tough cover, and you need all 5 working together and you’ve gotta try to make him work, and that’s probably the biggest thing is to make him work.

“He’s gonna get some, but you’ve gotta make him work for those points, and that requires everyone working together.”

On the supposedly easy home-heavy schedule doing the Knicks no favors:

“It’s just the way the schedule goes and at the end—you play 41 at home, 41 away.

“We’ve had a long stretch now where we haven’t had any breaks, but we’ve got a bunch of breaks coming up. But just lock in every day and that’s what we try to do.

“This time of year practice is important, but you have periods in your schedule where it’s dense and you’re traveling.

“You have to maximize all the time that you do have. Whether it’s a ballroom walk-through or a film session, team meeting, whatever it may be. You go into the season with that understanding.

“There’s going to be ebbs and flows to the season, the schedule, and how we manage it is important.”

Jalen Brunson

On defensive struggles and his problems defending at the point of attack after getting screened:

“There’s always room for improvement in every single aspect of our game and we’re not going to just single [defensive rotations] out. It may have looked like that tonight but as a team, we just need to be locked in.

“For me, I have to be locked in as well. It starts with me.”

OG Anunoby

On the need for a big defensive improvement:

“There’s always room for improvement. We can always get better.

“Sometimes we were there and they made the shots. Sometimes we weren’t there and they didn’t make the shot. That’s just how it went. But they made more shots than missed.

“I guess they’re just making shots so I guess we’re not doing a good job of closing out. We got to improve on that.”