If you thought Friday’s trouncing was the worst moment of the week you were dead wrong.
The Celtics play the Knicks this afternoon, which means you will have to—let’s be honest here—endure another beating at the hands of a contender handling New York with gusto. I only hope that jinxed Boston, folks...
Here’s the latest from Coach Thibs and a few other Knickerbockers as we all collectively mourn Friday’s loss.
Tom Thibodeau
On the need for mental toughness after a loss like Friday’s:
“You can’t let anything break you. You got to have the mental toughness to get through things. And so, there’s got to be a lot more resolve, particularly on the road against a team that is this good.”
On defending high-volume three-point teams:
“I think for teams that are high-volume three-point shooting, there’s going to be variances where the score can go quick. But you can also get back quick. You just can’t give in. And that’s the biggest thing.”
On his player rotations and minute allocation:
“We’ve got to [have lineups that are] strong on both sides of the ball, and then, ‘Can your guys handle minutes?’ There’s different minutes in the course of the game.
“If you look at Jalen [Brunson] and [Karl-Anthony Towns], their minutes are what other the main players are. The wings are different. OG [Anunoby] is at 36 [minutes]. Mikal [Bridges] is the highest, and Josh [Hart’s] are high as well. Both of those guys can handle minutes, and they want the minutes.
“If they can handle the minutes, give it to them. If they can’t, cut it back.”
On how every team and coach handles rotations differently:
“I think every team is different. If you have young guys or if your depth is different, you do [play with a deeper rotation]. I think you always begin with the end [the playoffs] in mind—what are you going to need in the end? There are different schools of thought on that.
“The [Cavs] are running their race, we’re going to run our race and every team is different. So there’s a lot of different ways to do it—what fits your team best? Whatever the strengths of the club are, you want to give your team the best chance to win.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On team belief in themselves and having a bounce-back mentality:
“I don’t think that we lack a belief in (their chances of beating top NBA teams). The belief is high in this locker room. We just got to continue to work. We’ve got to continue to get better.
“(Friday) we may not have made that step forward that we talk about every day and I like to talk about every day, that we need to get that one percent better.
“We didn’t do that. But we get another chance quickly with Boston to show how resilient we are and what grit we really have to bounce back from a game like this.”
Jalen Brunson
On the team’s performance and accountability:
“We’ve got to turn the page but we’ve got to understand where we are. It’s not like, we can’t just turn the page and forget about it. We’ve got to turn the page and realize what has happened here.”
On not making excuses based on missing this or that player:
“This goes back to the Chicago game. The Chicago game was not our best play, but we masked it with a win. We’ve just got to be better. Simple as that.
“Can’t keep pointing fingers making excuses, saying what if this, what if that, if we had this person? No, we’ve got to go out there and play how we’re supposed to play with what we have.”
On Hart’s importance to the team:
“I mean, obviously he’s—no pun intended—the heart of our team, really. We can’t just say, ‘Oh we don’t have him tonight, let’s chalk it up to an L.’ That’s not how stuff should go.”
Miles McBride
On feeling Josh Hart’s absence:
“He’s been the heart and soul of our team over the last few years. Obviously missing a guy like that coming out of All-Star break is tough.
“But you know, we have to step up. You can’t replace one guy individually. You have to do it as a team and we didn’t do it tonight.”
On having the chance for a quick turnaround after Friday’s loss:
“I love it. I feel like you want to play best at all times. We have to bounce back and have our heads right.”
On taking the season day by day:
“We can’t get caught up in it. Everybody knows in this locker room it’s a long season and a lot of things change throughout the course of the season as well as going into the playoffs. Our heads are, ‘take it a day at a time.’”
OG Anunoby
On his health and recovery making a comeback on Friday’s loss:
“It felt good to get back. Feeling better and better as the season goes on.”
On the injury scare against the Cavs:
“It was just a misstep.”
