Knicks Bulletin: “A win’s a win.“

The Knicks welcomed Indiana to New York hosting Game 1 inside MSG and the locals snatched a win from the jaws of defeat late in the game thanks to a couple of lucky bounces and another hellacious effort from the shortened Thibs rotation.

The Pacers did all they could but that was not close to being enough to stop a Knicks team that keeps riding the Jalen Brunson wave as best as one could possibly imagine.

Here is Knicks and Hoosiers said after Monday’s affair.

Tom Thibodeau

On the Game 1 victory over Indy...

“This is a group that wants to win. Tonight, we just found a way.”

On how the Knicks earned a win in the final moments of the game...

“The big thing I thought was the fourth quarter, we made some hustle plays and made some big shots off those hustle plays. Whatever we have to do at the end, find a way to win. Whether it’s taking a charge, diving on the floor, coming up with a loose ball. Getting a deflection, getting a blocked shot, pushing it up the floor. It was a choppy game for us.”

On his thoughts following the Game 1 win...

“We’re going to have to do a lot better than we did tonight. The big thing was in the fourth quarter we made some hustle plays and then made some shots off those hustle plays. We found a way for us to win at the end, but there’s a lot for us to clean up.”

On Isaiah Hartenstein’s midcourt 3-pointers and how it helped ignite the second-half performance of New York...

“These players, it doesn’t surprise, but it surprises you, wherever they shoot it from they can make it. You see it all the time, whether it’s half-court, three-quarter court, oftentimes it misses on the back rim. But we had nothing going for us, and that sort of gave us a little hope. And we had a chance to regroup at the half and started the third quarter pretty good.”

On Brunson’s 43-point outing and his contributions all across the stat sheet...

“They’re not empty stats. They’re stats that are impacting winning.”

On Brunson’s ability to find the right play every time and the rest of the squad helping him...

“That’s what you love about Jalen. You could go on and on every night. The thing I love about him is he’s all about the team. All he cares about is winning. And he cares about his teammates.”

“If he gets double-teamed, he doesn’t fight it, he gets off it. If he gets into the paint and they collapse, or they overcommit, it also opens up second-shot opportunities for us. We want to take advantage of it that way.”

“We’ve got some great guys at offensive rebounding, making a second and third effort. So we can get shots that way as well. The overall leadership of all those guys, giving everything they have to the team and putting the team first.”

On Josh Hart’s heavy playing time after another 48-minute performance...

“If he needs to come out, he’ll come out. Right now, we’re shorthanded. That gives us our best chance of winning. If that means we’ll cut back in practice, we’ll cut back in practice. But he’ll do a good job of getting himself ready, his recovery, and then out there, we find a way to win. If a guy has to play more minutes, he’ll play more minutes.”

On trusting his eight-man rotation while navigating the playoffs...

“I just think the way they work, they’ve invested a lot into this season and they put a lot into each and every day. So, when you make that commitment to each other, you’re not going to give in, you’re going to keep fighting. And that’s the great fight. We know we’re short-handed. So, that’s our way.”

Jalen Brunson

On his 43-point outing helping the Knicks start the second round with a win...

“The little things can go a long way, so yeah, the 40 points are cool and all, but it’s the little things that help us win games like that. I’m not going in thinking I have to score 40. So I’m just happy to have the group of guys that I do.”

“We just find a way. No matter what it is. We just give each other confidence to make sure we can get the job done.”

On the Knicks having to improve their game if they want to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals...

“We knew we could have played better tonight. They had our number for most of the night. We just made a couple more plays down the stretch.”

On how Josh Hart can keep running non-stop for 48 minutes...

“I would say it’s because he saves it from not practicing. He competes during the games. So yeah, I don’t know, man. The dude’s crazy. It’s how he’s wired.”

Donte DiVincenzo

On the 3-point make that put the Knicks ahead late in the game and what happened next...

“It was a little bit of like Game 2 of the last series.”

“Honestly, I didn’t know how much time was left on the clock. I wasn’t that aware that there was only 40 seconds. I was just letting it fly, being aggressive, trying to make the right play. I had no idea there was only 40 seconds.”

“It felt good. I believe every shot that I take is going in.”

On beating Indiana in Game 1...

“It felt good. You’re going to take the win every single time.”

On coach Tom Thibodeau playing a short rotation for heavy minutes nightly...

“It sounds like a line, but it really doesn’t [matter]. I think Thibs does a good job of staggering timeouts and doing certain things where you kind of forget the minutes sometimes.”

Josh Hart

On the overall performance by the Knicks in Game 1...

“It wasn’t a good win for us. But a win’s a win, and we’d always rather learn off a win than a loss. You’re going to take the win every single time.”

On going for 48 minutes in the Game 1 victory over Indy...

“It felt good. You’re going to take the win every single time. I think it starts with [Tom Thibodeau]. Thibs is never satisfied.”

“I’m sure he’s going to probably watch the game film tonight, probably wake up at 6 and go to the facility and watch more film, get us ready [for Game 2] and us as a team, we continue to want more.”

On what allows Thibs to use a short rotation...

“I think the conditioning—we played a full season-plus, so the conditioning is there, but we’ve gotta make sure we give our bodies every chance to operate at a high level as much as we can.”

On DiVincenzo’s game-leading 3-point shot...

“I knew [DiVincenzo’s shot] better have gone in because I was wide the f–k open.”

Isaiah Hartenstein

On DiVincenzo’s defense on Tyrese Haliburton and his contributions outside of scoring...

“He’s been doing that for us all year. I think now during the playoffs, it’s big for us. Those plays, I think without it, we don’t know what was gonna happen. So it was big.”

On his 3-point heave...

“Not from half-court, that was my first.”

“Maybe it was a little bit of [a boost]. I feel like they went on a little run at the end of the half, and that one, getting that down, I think we were down nine before the shot, and getting it to six, it’s still a big difference. But maybe a little bit [of a boost].”

Rick Carlisle (Indiana Pacers Head Coach)

On the second-round series against New York...

“This is going to be a highly competitive series. No one knows what’s going to happen. there are unknowns. We haven’t seen [Mitchell] Robinson since December [because of his ankle surgery]. We haven’t seen Anunoby at all. We didn’t see [Isaiah] Hartenstein the last time we played. Our team has changed some since we played last time. Once you jump the ball up, you just start going.”

On the fourth-quarter calls...

“I don’t want to talk about the officiating. We’re not expecting to get calls in here. It would be nice if they laid off [the illegal screen], but that’s just the way it goes. We challenged it, they reviewed it. They’ve got a bunch of people in New Jersey that agreed with it, that’s just the way it goes. We gotta learn from that, too. That’s a timing play, both guys are involved. We’ll have to execute that better next time.”

Myles Turner (Indiana Pacers Player)

On the Knicks getting the benefit of the refs in the fourth quarter...

“Just in my experience in this league, I think it’s best when the players decide the outcome of the game. I think it’s unfortunate what happened. We were given a so-called illegal screen, but it’s the playoffs. I feel like DiVinenzo did a good job of selling it. And for the most part, you can’t leave the game to be decided by the refs. So we have to take accountability as well. It’s right after the game. I’m a little fresh and open with my emotions about it. But we know at the end of the day that we can’t get into that position.”

“I think the Last 2 Minute Report, we’re all looking forward to that coming out. There was two controversial calls. … So like I said, it’s unfortunate, but we can’t put ourselves in that position.”

Aaron Nesmith (Indiana Pacers Player)

On the kicked-ball call...

“You can clearly see [I didn’t kick it]. It is what it is.”

T.J. McConnell (Indiana Pacers Player)

On the Pacers’ need to do more and having no excuses for the Game 1 loss...

“I mean, I think he’s been a focal point for everyone’s defensive game plan all year. He gets trapped every time he comes off the pick-and-roll. And the best thing about Tyrese is he won’t force a bad shot. He gets others involved and we trust him wholeheartedly with the ball in his hands every single time.”