Knicks Bulletin: ‘We should have fouled. I should’ve done the foul’

New York is one game away from making history for all the wrong reasons…

The Knicks had a chance to serve the Celtics a meaningless vengeance, but all they did was drop the opportunity, literally and figuratively, falling 119-117 in an overtime loss in Boston.

New York fumbled the rock and only have one game left against a bonafide contender to save their historically bad all-nil record against such teams. Before that, a tilt against their most probable first-round opponent on Thursday. Sheesh…

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

Tom Thibodeau

On learning from games against top teams:

“I think each game tells you something. It tells you the things you are doing well and the things you need to work on. And then you just try for that improvement each and every day and you want to take it all the way through. You don’t want to let up and keep improving. Whoever is available just get in there and get the job done and keep improving.”

On Boston’s offense:

“Well they’ve got guys that can go off the dribble. Porzingis can spread you out. They make the extra pass. It requires you to contain dribble penetration. And then read the ball, and then you gotta fly out, challenge the ball. The rebounding is also a huge factor.”

On a defensive breakdown in overtime:

“The thing is, when you go back in the game, that’s why you have to fight to win every possession — because, oftentimes, these games end up being a one-possession game. You go back and look, and that was off a dead-ball play. That’s miscommunication, right? We can be better with that. You don’t want to gift a great team points. Those things … we have to be better.”

On Boston being the No. 1 team to beat:

“They’re the defending champion. Until someone proves they can beat them, they’re defending their championship. We know that there’s a lot of work for us to do.”

On the importance of winning regardless of opponent:

“Winning always matters. It’s the next game and that’s what you have to focus in on. What goes into winning, prepare yourself for the game and then be ready to go. Everything does matter. Whatever your circumstances are you want to take advantage of that. I think the way everything is structured now in terms of the play-in and the seeding that you are fighting for.… When you go into the games, you don’t know who’s playing and not playing so you have to prepare for everybody. I think it’s you want to go through [to] the finish line whatever that is. You want to play your best going in.”

On Michael Malone’s firing:

“It’s an unfortunate part of the business. He had a long run there and he did a great job and won a championship. The record speaks for itself. Sometimes — there’s challenges.”

On Anunoby’s impact and the need for building some rhythm with everybody available before the playoffs:

“It’s good to have everyone back and it gives us a chance to build some rhythm. That’s the challenge of every season for every team. You don’t know how it unfolds with injuries and things of that nature, so when one guy goes out, it’s an opportunity for another guy to get in there and get the job done. But it also gives you time to build chemistry with those guys.”

Jalen Brunson

On learning from the Celtics game:

“I think it’s something we can build off of. There’s a lot of positives we can take from this game, and there’s some negatives we can take. But yeah: it’s a little disappointing, knowing that we fought back and had a chance [to win].”

On the lack of execution on Tuesday:

“We just have to execute better. It’s as simple as that. We shouldn’t have been in that position anyway, to be in overtime.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On the loss to Boston:

“We don’t take moral victories. I thought we did a good job meeting their aggression.

“Just an all-around better game, execution, it gave us a chance to win, but they’re a great team. Give them credit where credit is due. Defending champions did exactly what defending champions do.”

Josh Hart

On the team’s mentality after the loss to Boston:

“I don’t think there’s anything really positive about it.

“I think we’re playing good basketball, and that’s where we want to be toward the end of the year going into the playoffs.”

OG Anunoby

On Tatum’s game-tying three:

“We should have fouled. I should’ve done the foul.”