Knicks Bulletin: “Maybe he’ll pass a little bit more next game.”

The Knicks faced a tough start to the month of March going against the Cavaliers on the road, playing the Sixers two times in three days, and then going on a West Coast trip for their next four games but so far, so good for New York as the Knicks have amassed a 5-2 record in their last seven matchups.

On Saturday, in their second game away from Manhattan, New York beat Sacramento 98-91 and with that dub, they put together a three-game winning streak while limiting each of their last five opponents to 93 points at most.

Here is what the protagonists from both sides of the affair had to say about Saturday’s game.

Tom Thibodeau

On Jalen Brunson’s 42-point performance...

“You almost come to expect what Jalen did. It’s every night and it’s big play after big play. Every time we need a big bucket he comes up with it.”

“He’s such a gifted shotmaker. He knows he’s on the road. It’s going to be tough, and that doesn’t slow him down.”

On Brunson’s overall skill set and talents...

“The one thing about Jalen—he just wants to win. You can double him the whole game to get the ball out of his hands, he’s not going to fight it. He’ll make the right play. That’s who he is.”

“He’s going to make the right play. He’s not going to fight a double team. The game will tell him what to do. And obviously, when teams are loaded up, we want to play more out of transition. And when we do that, we’re hard to guard.”

On OG Anunoby, who was “questionable” entering Saturday’s matchup...

“OG’s a basketball player. He does a bit of everything.”

“Each game, as he goes through this just coming back in, there’s gonna be soreness involved and just see where it is. He went through shootaround (Saturday morning), so that was good.”

”It’s just day by day. There’s going to be some days where there’s soreness involved.”

On Alec Burks (18 minutes) and Bojan Bogdanovic (24) increased playing time...

“We were just buying time. The group that was in there (with Bogdanovic and Burks) was going pretty good, so I thought to give (Brunson) an extra minute here, minute-and-a-half. I knew they’d be loaded up on him pretty good so I wanted to make sure that he had the energy to finish.”

“[They were] huge for us. We know both guys are gifted shotmakers. Each day is a little bit better. I think it’s hard, in-season trades. But you know what they’ve done throughout their careers. We’re fortunate to have gotten them.”

“Today was a good day because those are timely shots. And they’re big shots. Getting better each day, great minutes from our bench today”

Jalen Brunson

On beating rookie Keon Ellis one-on-one taking advantage of the rookie looking away for a second...

“I saw him kinda looking before. He turned his head one time or twice and then I just told Isaiah (Hartenstein) to come up, set the screen. He looked, and as soon as he turned, I went.”

“If he comes (to) set the screen, he comes to do it. I just read it. I’m just surveying the court and kinda just reacting. Once he turned his head, there’s no way he could (see)—unless he’s a magician.”

On joining Patrick Ewing, Bernard King, and Carmelo Anthony as the fourth Knick with back-to-back 40+ point games...

“Grateful, honored... Those guys have a bigger resume than I ever will. I’m just tryna help my team win that’s all.”

Josh Hart

On Jalen Brunson’s 42-point performance...

“He’s our go-to guy. Great that he was able to kinda get into that company (Melo, King, and Ewing). That’s elite company.”

“Maybe he’ll pass a little bit more next game.”

“It’s something that we know, like, ‘Alright, if we’re not making shots, we can still rely on him to start the engine up and keep going.’”

On the Knicks’ team defense against De’Aaron Fox...

“I was about to say, ‘Not me.’ That boy spun me around like a top.”

On people overlooking the banged-up Knicks and only giving them chances once/if everybody gets healthy...

“Every now and then, I go down Knicks Twitter and they’re always popping with what people are saying. At the end of the day, we can’t listen to it. A lot of [experts] are saying these guys can make the Eastern Conference finals, do this, do that, but only if they’re healthy. Only if they have Julius, only if they have Mitch [Robinson], or whatever it is.”

“Right now we don’t have those guys. We don’t know when those guys are going to come back. So we can’t think of it like, ‘Oh, let’s just keep it afloat.’”

“I think it’s like we’ve got to take care of our business that’s in front of us. And if they get back before the end of the year, perfect. If they don’t we’ll rock it with the guys we have and we have the confidence.”

On fighting for good seeding ahead of the playoffs and not taking them for granted...

“You don’t get those opportunities often. This is my seventh year in the league and hopefully this is going to be my second year in the playoffs. You don’t want to waste any of those opportunities because they don’t come around often.”

OG Anunoby

On a random Saturday in Cali...

“I didn’t even know I was questionable.”

Isaiah Hartenstein

On how the Knicks planned to stop a young and fast Kings team...

“We know they’re going to push the ball a lot. So we just have to make sure we get back on defense, that’s the biggest thing. Just making sure after missed shots or turnovers, try to keep our turnovers low. Just get back on defense, that’s the biggest thing.”

On slowly but surely regaining his confidence and fitness and increasing his playing time...

“I mean, it’s a process. I think the Knicks organization does a good job—not rushing things, making sure we feel right. Everything’s been going good. I’ve been good. OG’s been good. We’re going on a good progress now.”

De’Aaron Fox (Sacramento Kings Player)

On the Kings’ defensive effort on Saturday...

“Outside of [Jalen Brunson], we did a great job. But he had almost half their points...”

Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento Kings Player)

On the loss to the Knicks on Saturday...

“They kinda punched us in the mouth in the third quarter. We came back, we fought back... it’s something that—I’m happy for our team being physical.”

“We’ll see this team again in a couple weeks in New York and I think it’s great that we get this kind of matchup before the playoffs.”

“I feel like we did a great job today as well (on defense), we just couldn’t score as much as we usually do and stop Brunson. He’s a top-tier player.”

Mike Brown (Sacramento Kings Head Coach)

On Jalen Brunson’s performance...

“Man, he’s a helluva player. (Aside from) Steph (Curry) maybe, I don’t know if we blitzed anybody as much as we did Jalen tonight, tried to send two (defenders) at him, and he still scored 42 points. … We sent the double-team at him every single time he came off the pick-and-roll in the second half and probably half the time in the first half. He’s a hell of a player.”