Knicks Bulletin: “Dirty.”

The Knicks couldn’t do anything against the Sixers on Thursday once they realized the NBA had decided to forget about the rulebook and turn a basketball game into an MMA affair that saw no players ejected and helped Philly earn their first win of the series.

New York kept things tight until the reigning MVP was allowed to play during the final 24 minutes instead of getting removed for purposefully injuring an opponent.

Here is what the protagonists of Game 3 had to say after the game.

Tom Thibodeau

On the first three contests of the first-round series and the Game 3 loss...

“Each game is gonna be different, so you just gotta respond. This is playoff basketball. It’s gonna go up. It’s gonna escalate, and we gotta bring it. We gotta bring it.”

”My thing is, there’s two teams and they responded and now we gotta respond. We gotta do a lot better. We gotta fix it.”

On Joel Embiid going to the line 21 times through Game 3...

“What did they have, 33 free throws? This is the playoffs. I’ll send my clips in like I do every game. They’ll say marginal contact. Then they’ll say marginal contact on Embiid and he’ll be at the line 21 times. That’s just the way it works.”

On Mitchell Robinson’s status after he left Game 3 with an ankle injury...

“Haven’t talked to medical yet.”

On his thoughts about Embiid’s flagrant foul...

“Which flagrant? The one they called or the one they didn’t call?”

On the physicality of the series and what to expect going forward...

“Well, I just think that that’s sort of the nature of the playoffs. You’re playing the same opponent over and over again. So it heightens with each game.”

“We have to play with discipline, don’t whack down. We’ve got to do better.”

On Jalen Brunson and how he’s navigating Philly’s defensive schemes...

“I think he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing. They overload, just make the play. Getting a lot of offensive rebounds because of that. Their zone principles are overloaded to the strong side. I thought he made a lot of good plays to Isaiah. And we’re scoring at a high clip, and that’s good.”

Josh Hart

On the borderline-illegal physicality of Philadelphia Game 3...

“We knew what Game 3 was going to be, come on. Especially after how Game 2 ended.”

On Robinson’s injury following Embiid’s MMA move...

“We’re just happy Mitch didn’t get a serious injury on that. I’m all for tough fouls, tough, playoff fouls, but that’s something that can put a guy out for a significant amount of time. So we’re lucky he didn’t get seriously hurt during that play. It’s extremely tough. Obviously, he’s someone that’s a big part of this team and a big part of our team identity. So it’s a bummer to see. We hope he’s good, but we have the next-man-up mentality.”

On Jalen Brunson’s improvement in Game 3 but ultimately failing to get the win...

“Yeah, he had a good game and that’s something we know he’s capable of. He knows he can make shots and that’s good in terms of confidence for him going into Sunday. We gotta make sure we’re focused and ready for Sunday.”

On not worrying about whatever defense the Sixers try to use to stop the Knicks and focusing on what he can control...

“I don’t know. We ain’t worried about: We’re not focused on whatever they do or who’s playing or not playing. We keep the focus on playing our game and if you start focusing on what the other team is doing or what they can and can’t do, then you kind of lose yourself.”

On what he’s done to adapt to Philadelphia’s defensive schemes...

“Just getting up a lot of shots. Kind of working on the mechanics. I knew they were going to sag off me, which is kind of the way they played the last two games of the regular season against us. I knew I’d have the opportunity to shoot 6–7-plus threes a game. I just wanted to make sure I was ready for that and I’ve been putting the work in.”

On what he did to improve his 3-point shooting...

“I don’t know. I was just watching Donte this whole year, seeing how he shot the ball. Donte’s actually been rebounding for me at nights, talking to me about my mechanics, making sure I’m ready. Nah, what’d I shoot — a career-low 30 percent from three this season? When you do that you’ve got to fix it, got to tweak some things, fix some things. So that’s what I was doing.”

On whether or not he expects the Sixers to change how their approach to defend him...

“I think you’ve gotta ask Nick Nurse. For me, it’s: You’ve got to continue to be aggressive, continue to take my shots when I’m open, continue to get out in transition, do a better job in transition of either at least getting a shot up. Yeah. Just playing my game. Whatever they do, they do.”

On not getting drafted by the Sixers...

“Yeah, I wanted to go here. They were at pick No. 25.”

“They were at 25 and did a draft and stash, some European guy that I can’t pronounce the name. But nah: Yeah, this is the place I wanted to go. It was right down the street. But unfortunately they felt the need to do a draft and stash. Draft night I was a little bummed that 25 came and I wasn’t there.”

Donte DiVincenzo

On Joel Embiid’s game...

“Dirty.”

On leveling up when Brunson is having tough nights...

“Absolutely. Me, Josh and OG need just to be aggressive—Bojan, when he checks in. We need everybody to be aggressive because they play so aggressively on defense. You have to be aggressive. You can’t just rely on one or two people to score.”

On the Sixers passing on him on draft night...

“Yeah, of course I wanted to get drafted by the 76ers. You’re going through the process. You go to school here — or in a suburb of Philly or whatever. But when you’re going to school here, grew up in Delaware, half hour away, obviously that’s kinda where you wanted to go. Then you go through the whole process. You meet with different teams. I’m thankful where I started my career. I think God has a plan, and I’m on the exact plan that he has for me.”

Isaiah Hartenstein

On what to do to stop Embiid...

“Just playing more team defense. He made six 3s. Most of them were contested. So sometimes you got to live with that. But just playing more team defense and being more physical and not let him get to the foul line where he can catch rhythm.”

“The biggest thing is the free throws. That gets him in rhythm.”

On Mitchell Robinson leaving the game after Embiid grabbed and injured him...

“It’s always difficult when he’s out. I think together we’re probably the best center duo in the league right now. So when he’s out it’s a little frustrating, especially because I was in foul trouble.

I think Precious came in and did a good job. We just have to do a better job and be more physical.”

Deuce McBride

On Thursday’s loss...

“We didn’t have a lot of answers.”

Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers Player)

On injuring Mitchell Robinson...

“I was trying to make sure he doesn’t land on me. It’s unfortunate because I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. It’s just in those situations where I have to protect myself because I’ve been in way too many situations where I’m always at the bad end of it.”

On playing through Bell’s palsy...

“I don’t know exactly what happened but I guess it’s a normal thing. I think it started a game or two before the Miami game. I had bad migraines and I thought it was nothing. Usually I don’t like to check it out but for some reason I ended up having to tell somebody. That’s why that Miami game, my body was just — I was just not feeling it. Then I noticed it lately. I’m sure if you Google the symptoms you’ll know what it is. It’s pretty annoying with my left side of my face, my mouth and my eye. It’s been tough but I’m not a quitter. I gotta keep fighting through anything.”

“It could be weeks. It could be months. I just hope it stays like this. It’s unfortunate, that’s the way I look at it. But that’s not an excuse. You gotta keep pushing.”