Knicks 121, Wizards 105
Q. You guys made a strong push during the third quarter and they seemed to recapture the momentum. How did they turn it back around?
WES UNSELD JR.: Well, I think they got some run-outs, transition, offensive rebounds in that stretch. Down 20 is never ideal. It's taxing to claw your way back into a game.
Able to cut it to a two-possession game within about five and a half minutes to play, so you're within striking distance. I think they hit a top-of-the-key three and I think they got another possession again all of a sudden and kind of stretched it again on us, so couldn't recover from that.
Q. That push was made by the starters; what was holding back the bench tonight?
WES UNSELD JR.: I don't think anything in particular. We had a handful of turnovers in that first run, I believe six in that quarter. Cut into those turnovers a little bit the second half, but they were blowing up some actions. Had a hard time with dribble handoffs, I think just making auto passes, and I think they were able to jump the lanes and get out and convert.
Q. What did you see in the first half particularly, what seemed like your team not ready for their aggression?
WES UNSELD JR.: Yeah, I think that's kind of a lesson for us all is we knew going in that they're a very aggressive, very physical team, and I don't think we came out anticipating that amount of force. They played last night just like we did, so to show a little more resilience in that second half was positive, but we've got to make sure we're ready to go at the start of the game.
Q. Jordan had 10 shot attempts last night, only four last night. What's holding him back? He's a volume shooter. What's holding him back?
WES UNSELD JR.: Some of it is really the defense. He's got the primary defender on him at all times. Last night it was Okoro. Obviously tonight you saw a number of bodies, but he's the priority most often on the scouting report, and teams are, for good reason, trying to put their best defender on him.
Q. Can you talk about New York's offensive versatility; what did they do off the ball tonight to challenge you guys?
WES UNSELD JR.: Well, those two garner so much attention, and they put so much pressure on you, they're obviously able to stretch you from three. Their high-volume usage obviously in the post for Randle, isos, put Brunson in pick-and-roll, and he just puts so much pressure on you with his ability to shoot the pull-up three, play in the pocket. He's got a very slow pace but efficient floor game. Uses his fakes and so forth, gets you off balance. He makes those push shots in between shots at a high clip.
It's just that balance of getting back in front of the ball, and sometimes he's going to make tough shots versus really good defense, but he's a tough cover.
Q. Deni and Kuz both had big nights. A lot of it was coming in transition. What did you see from those two?
WES UNSELD JR.: Well, I think the tempo. Obviously in that third quarter we were able to get stops, and that helped us, able to get out and run. We've been really good when we're able to do that. I think mixing in more zone helped us. Still had some issues at times with rebounding, but overall just breaks up the rhythm, takes them out of what kind of the primary offensive flow, so that was helpful. But I think once we got those stops, those two a great job of pushing, spacing the floor. Guys know when they run, they're going to get opportunities.
Q. You mentioned going into zone a little bit. What goes into your decision making? Is it more personnel based, is it your personnel, their personnel?
WES UNSELD JR.: Yeah, it's both. The flow. We're having a hard time with certain actions. We're having a hard time -- the other team has got a flow or a rhythm, maybe want to try and break it up a little bit. Also depending on who they have on the floor, if they've got a lot of shooting on the floor, maybe not the best idea, but once again, it forces them to do something outside of the norm, and I think at times it works. Tonight I think it did. It helped. Obviously they got a little bit of a beat on it, started to adjust and ran some different stuff to kind of stretch our zone a bit, overload the strong side, and that's going to happen. But I thought it was good that we were able to mix it in and create a little indecision.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports