If you were surprised watching the Celtics demolish the Knicks on Sunday’s matinee, with a final score of 118-105, then you must be new around these places.
New York visited Boston, lost for the third time in as many games against the reigning champions, and is now looking at an extraordinary 0-7 record against the top 3 NBA teams. Sheesh…
Here are the excuses Coach Thibs and a few other Knickerbockers threw out.
Thibs on KAT coming back late in 4th after getting hurt: “He said he was fine” pic.twitter.com/NPjwytEdom
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) February 23, 2025
Tom Thibodeau
On the Knicks’ struggles against elite teams:
“It’s obviously an ongoing process [trying to close the gap on the Celtics]. Their team is a well-oiled machine. They’ve been together for a while and so we have to keep learning and getting better.
“I think the fact that we were able to close that gap to get it to 89–85 in the fourth quarter, that’s where we gotta be better. When we’re in that position, that’s when we gotta be at our best.”
On the team’s defensive issues against top-tier opponents:
“It’s probably a combination of things. One, they’re elite, and I think the volume-3 shooting teams, you can do a good job, but it just takes two or three minutes of not getting it right and they can go on a run on you.
“So it’s something that we got to continue to work on and that’s the test of the league. So learn from each game, get ready for the next one. And that’s where we want to focus on.”
On bringing Karl-Anthony Towns back to the court after his injury scare:
“He said he was fine. His rebounding was terrific.”
Karl-Anthony Towns dunk attempt gets rejected by Kristaps Porzingis. Jaylen Brown with the lefty layup at the other end.
KAT hubbles to the bench. pic.twitter.com/eSELmgeRvs— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) February 23, 2025
Karl-Anthony Towns
On the team’s second-half push against Boston:
“It just looked like the other games and then we finally came in at halftime and decided to be the team we needed to be against this team. I thought we put ourselves in a good position to get back in the game to win. We just came up short.”
On the Knicks’ progress and their standing against elite teams:
“Where I said from the beginning of the season: We’re a work in progress. We’re going to be a work in progress all year until the day we step into the postseason. Every team in the NBA will tell you the same thing. We’re all a work in progress until the postseason, when you put all the chips and cards and see what the season taught you.”
On defensive mistakes against the Celtics:
“Just mistakes we made that we can’t make. We’ve just got to clean it up.”
On his knee injury and his availability going forward:
“We’ll just see how the next couple days go. Time will tell. It’s a long season. It has peaks and valleys. It is what it is.”
Jalen Brunson on Knicks 3d quarter run in Boston: “We just had a level of not really caring anymore…don’t care about, like, ‘me’––we all went there, just try & find a way to win…We’ve done it in past…1st time we did it vs this team…We can do it, just gotta do it 4 quarters” pic.twitter.com/OJgsa9DnEB
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) February 23, 2025
Jalen Brunson
On the Knicks’ lack of consistency against top teams, including Boston:
“Whatever we did in the first, second and fourth quarter doesn’t really matter. The third quarter, what we showed was how we can play and how we can compete and how we can—I don’t really care what’s going on, the way we stepped up in the third is how we should play.”
On the mindset needed to beat top teams:
“We just had a level of not really caring anymore. Just all right, we’ve got to go somehow. I mean, from my point of view, that’s what it felt like.
“Don’t care about, like, me. Just try to find a way to win. We’ve done it in the past against other teams, but it’s the first time we did it against this team. We can do it, but we have to do it for four quarters.”
On finding positives from the loss to Boston:
“You’ve got to take something positive out of something. I think the positive from this game is that third quarter and how we played. But I mean, I can keep saying all this stuff, but we’ve got to go out there and do it. That’s all.”
On his leadership and knowing when to speak up:
“I think there’s always going to be times where there’s a lot of voices, a lot of people being vocal. So it’s a matter of when and where to say something.
“When we have a lot of guys in here talking and trying to voice their opinion, for everyone to get on the same page is just knowing when to say something, because I think the more times you hear different voices, it can seem like too many cooks in the kitchen.
“So for me, it’s just knowing when to say something. And making sure I’m saying it early and often. I’ve got to be better at that because I’m not doing my job leading, just based on the way we’ve been playing. It falls on my shoulders, and I’m okay with that.
“I’ve got to be ready to step up and be better.”
Josh Hart to me on why the #Celtics have challenged the #Knicks so much: “It’s tough. They have three-level scorers at every single position. They got the length defensively to make us get into tough shots.”
Also rattled off how many players you need to account for. pic.twitter.com/FJuwTb5DG1
— Bobby Manning (@RealBobManning) February 23, 2025
Josh Hart
On the Knicks’ real goal this season:
“We’re not trying to close a gap with the Boston Celtics. They’re the champs for a reason. They got All-NBA guys, they got All-Stars, they got a heck of a team. So we’re not trying to close the gap on them.
“We’re trying to make sure we get ourselves to where we need to be at the end of the year, and right now, we’re not there.”
On his knee injury and decision to take time off sandwiching the All-Star break:
“I just felt that there was a couple, you know, couple more days of rest obviously would benefit my knee. So that’s something that we all came to an agreement on. Now it’s back to the regular scheduled program.”
On playing through his knee issue since first arriving in the league:
“It’s something that comes and goes, something that I’ve managed for a long—one time I was in the bubble [during the pandemic] with New Orleans, I would play and the next day really I couldn’t even get to half-court.
“It was a pain, it was a struggle for me to even jog to half-court, and now I’m playing 48 minutes for Tom Thibodeau. So there’s peaks and valleys with it.
“Not really worried about it. All the time I pray for it before every game. By his grace I’m healed so I go out there and play my game.”
On the reasons for his delayed return after the knee injury:
“I was trying to make sure communications were back up [between] MSG and Optimum. I saw what was going on the last couple of days. Now that we good, it’s green-lit, I’m back and ready to go.
“Negotiations are solid, so I left on good terms.”
Mikal Bridges
On learning from the loss to Boston and his putrid performance:
“Just learning. I think learning from the third quarter and learn from the other games as well.”
Pacome Dadiet
On his development and learning habits from veterans:
“I try to be focused and watch what others are doing, guys that have been in the league for like 10 years.
“Having a routine is very important. Watching [Karl-Anthony Towns] and [Cameron Payne] doing the same thing every day. And it’s working for them.”
Reporting for NBA Countdown on ABC — New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson is closing in on his season debut: pic.twitter.com/iFJYjIriPe
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 23, 2025
Shams Charania (NBA Scooper)
On Mitchell Robinson’s injury recovery and return timeline:
“I’m here to report that Mitchell Robinson is closing on his season debut.
“Sources tell me his goal is to make his return to the lineup at some point over the next week. Robinson will make a determination on when that target date could be.”