Knicks Bulletin: ‘The NBA needs to drug test them’

An embarrassing opener has New York wondering what’s powering the Boston Celtics.

The New York Knicks couldn’t have had a worse start to the regular season, visiting the reigning champions in Boston and dropping a no-contest affair they could very well have skipped entirely, final score of 132-109.

Again, those were the reigning champions Celtics with the exact same roster they had last year against a Knicks mob that featured two entirely new starters—playing their first real game in Orange & Blue threads—and a depleted bench.

Anyway, and as Mikal Bridges said after the game, 1 down, 81 to go. Here’s what your coach, players, and other folks said before and after yesterday’s season-opening game.

Tom Thibodeau

On the Knicks having to play better after Boston’s massacre:

“We have to play better, but I’m not disappointed in our team.”

On the defensive pressure from the Celtics:

“They put a lot of pressure on you, and you got to be able to close.

“Sometimes, the initial shot we were able to get to, then we ran in, then the ball went long, over our heads.

“There was indecision—communication, indecision. There was (lack of) second and third effort. When you play a team like that, you have to scramble and you have to fly around. One effort isn’t going to be enough. There has to be a second, third, and fourth effort.

“You have to have high hands, you have to be into the ball pretty good and you have to be moving on the flight of the ball. If you do that, then they still have the ability to make. Some of the shots they made were tough makes. They have that capability.”

On the difficulty of winning when the Celtics made a record-tying 29 threes:

“Mathematically, it’s hard to win that game. They made 29 3s, shot 60.

“We shot a high percentage, but the 3-point game, mathematically, we’re not getting that.”

On needing more and better defensive effort:

“One effort is not going to be enough.”

On Deuce McBride’s performance:

“He’s a great worker. He continues to get better.”

On dealing with Jayson Tatum:

“Tatum is going to be a problem. He’s a great player. You have to guard him with your team.”

On subpar Karl-Anthony Towns’ debut:

“It’s not one guy. Obviously we have to be better. So we’ll look at the film and the adjustments we have to make.”

On how to approach games against high-volume shooting teams like the Celtics:

“I think when you shoot the way they shoot, the numbers tell you how great their offense is. And so you have to go into the game with the awareness—it’s going to create great effort on every play, great concentration. We knew that going in.

“You have to be strong defensively and we have to be strong offensively.”

On the starters still having to build chemistry through practice:

“They’re getting a lot of good, valuable time together in practice and then the games reveal exactly where you are. And then there’s things that we can do either before practice and after practice to help build chemistry.”

Jalen Brunson

On whether or not familiarity was the difference between the Celtics and the Knicks:

“Yeah, that’s an easy way out. We still got our ass kicked.

“We need to come back out and see what we can do better. They’ve been together a long time and we’re a fairly new team, but that’s no excuse.”

On his own performance in New York’s loss:

“Personally, I got to be better.”

Josh Hart

On the Celtics’ shooting performance:

“The NBA needs to drug test them dudes. I ain’t ever seen anything like that.”

On defending the Celtics’ switches and defensive schemes:

“You got to give them credit. (Defending like that) really junks the game up, right?

“You try to find the mismatch with KAT down low, you try to get me in action with Horford or get me in a position to play off the catch and attack his feet. Sometimes you’re trying to get someone into that action and they switch it and switch it and guys are running back and forth making us look stupid trying to get the guy we want into the ball screen, and the next thing you know we spend eight seconds trying to do that and then we’re in a scramble.

“They junk the game up. That is something they’ve been doing for the last year or so. To their credit, it benefits them and their style of defense. It makes the offensive team stagnant at times.”

On the reasons behind the Knicks’ season-opening loss:

“They tied an NBA record in 3s. I mean, you always have about three to four games a year where a team just shoots the ball at an absurd clip and sometimes there’s not much you can do about it. We shot 58 percent.

“There was some bad defensive breakdowns and lack of communication. You’ve just got to give them credit. Man, they had amazing energy, ring night, and they came out and shot the ball at a clip that I think we’ve only seen once before.”

On the preseason criticism of Mikal Bridges’ shooting form:

“Mikal don’t care about anything else, we don’t care about all that background noise about Mikal, his shot, all that other [stuff]. We don’t care about it.

“He puts the work in every day. He’s going to be good. The talk around it is stupid and there is stupidity to it because at the end of the day he’s been almost a 40 percent 3-point shooter.

“The talk is stupid and we’re not really going to entertain it.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On the Celtics’ shooting:

“You’ve gotta give credit where credit is due. They hit a lot of 3s, they hit a lot of shots.

“You take 61 threes in a game, they definitely shoot the ball, so we gotta be better defensively.

“I just think that we just didn’t do enough defensively to give ourselves a chance to win the game.”

On the Knicks’ poor defensive effort against Boston:

“We’ve just gotta do a better job of executing on that end. Our defensive identity is what’s gonna give us a chance to do something great.

“Offensively, I think we showed tonight we can score, we’ve just gotta play defense.”

Mikal Bridges

On how the team will bounce back from the loss:

“It’s early, game one. That’s why we’ve got 82 of them. We’re just going to learn from this one.”

On the challenge of defending Jayson Tatum:

“He’s just a really tough player. He’s going to go out there, be strong, guard, and not foul. Those type of guys, you don’t want to put them on the free throw line cause they get more of a rhythm and more opportunities. So you want to limit them—especially free throws.”

On his poor defensive performance against Tatum:

“I definitely could have done better.

“I think my performance at the defensive end wasn’t that [good] for me personally, as well as our team. Me personally, I think I just could have been better, especially [against] a guy getting it and having that rhythm from the three, just getting up a little bit more [on Tatum]. He had a nice move on me in the paint, as well.

“Just gotta be better. I mean, Game 1, just gotta learn from it, and just get better from it.”

On lacking offensive rhythm early but eventually finding it:

“Man, my teammates keep finding me, and just making one [shot]. I think that’s pretty much it. Just making one was just like letting the lid off.”

OG Anunoby

On defending Jayson Tatum:

“I don’t know, just trying to make it difficult for him. He’s a great player.

“Just trying to make it as difficult as possible for him. Just to play hard. Make sure you get a contest and then just try to force him, make him as uncomfortable as possible.”

Deuce McBride

On the Knicks’ performance compared to the Celtics’:

“That’s championship-level basketball.

“For us, it was a punch in the mouth and we got to respond. Obviously, it’s a long year. Can’t overreact to one game but I don’t think that’s how you go into a year and set the tone.”

On the Knicks’ bad defense:

“I think it just comes down to effort on defense.

“I feel like we could’ve just made more effort plays. I feel like our first effort was there, but the second and third has to get better.”

Joe Mazzulla (Boston Celtics Head Coach)

On the Knicks’ improvements after their trades:

“They made the trade, and when you see it, you’re like, ‘Damn, our enemies got better.’”

On competing with the Knicks:

“So what are we gonna do about it? They made trades to get better, and we believe in the roster that we have. And it’s about us finding internal ways to get better every single day.

“They’re a great team, and we think we are too, so it’s a great first test for us, and there will be a lot more on the way, but they’re obviously a great team with a lot of good players, and yeah—we’re gonna see.”

Al Horford (Boston Celtics Player)

On playing against Karl-Anthony Towns:

“It’s always fun to go against KAT. One of the best players in this league.

“Now he’s in New York. Both of us from Dominican… Those moments are always special to me.”

Kenny Smith (Former NBA Player)

On the Knicks becoming championship contenders with KAT:

“I think for the Knicks, it makes them contenders instead of playoff contenders. They become championship contenders. What KAT does, he puts everyone in their natural position. I thought they were a great team last year — but they were undersized.”

On how KAT changes the Knicks’ lineup:

“Their best small forward was playing power forward. Their best two-guard was playing small forward. At times, Brunson had to move to the two guard. I just thought that they were undersized, whereas with KAT you’re not undersized anymore. Now you can compete with the teams that have natural position players. You become a contender.”

On how the Knicks’ individual players can win matchups:

“You go position by position, player by player, they can arguably say they can win three out of five positions against every team they play. That is new for them in New York. They haven’t been able to say that in two decades. Patrick Ewing was probably the only person that could say that — I can win my position and the other guys haven’t been able to say that in a long time.”

On the Knicks’ new championship expectations:

“That would be the goal. Whereas the goal was to make it to the playoffs and now the goal is to not get beat in the playoffs. That’s different. I think they have a great opportunity this year and in many years to come.”

Vince Carter (Former NBA Player)

On KAT’s role in the Knicks’ success:

“I for sure think they’re the most talented. I know we’re talking about playing them at the center position, I like KAT at the 4 where you can use him for your advantages. You can use different lineups and use him in small ball.”

On balancing the Knicks’ rotation with Josh Hart:

“I heard you guys talking about it earlier, about Josh Hart and him not being happy.

“You’ve got to look at your squad, and you’ve got to have somebody come off the bench. I like big guards, big defends, big wing defenders that can run, score in transition, shoot the ball.

“KAT unlocks that so I’m okay with bringing Josh Hart off the bench because you’re bringing energy, effort, we know what he can do, you know what he can bring.”

Austin Rivers (Former NBA Player)

On Bridges’ shot mechanics and his ever-changing form:

“Interested to know why Bridges changes his shot and what’s the end goal with his mechanics.

“Usually when a jump shot changes, we remove certain movements to simplify it. Easier to make your form more consistent that way.

“Why there is an added hitch is bewildering. Hopefully, he crushes it still. Love his game, just confused.”

“You look at some of the greatest shooters of all time; Ray Allen, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, all these guys. It’s a very simple form.”

Skip Bayless (TV Personality)

On Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks:

“As I predicted, the Knicks are just going to be one of four pretty good teams fighting for 3rd in the East. Kitty KAT will soften them up.”