Knicks Bulletin: “We give the teams the game plan”

The New York Knickerbockers did not return to Manhattan for Thanksgiving and had to schedule the holiday between games in Dallas and Charlotte.

However, the Knickerbocker traveling mob spent the day off enjoying a monster dinner together in Charlotte before tonight’s matinee match against the Hornets. Unfortunately, the game will not include AirPods LaMelo.

Here’s some content we missed after Dallas’ loss and before the Knicks beat the Bobcats on Friday at noon.

Tom Thibodeau

Here’s how to stay mentally strong through adversity and on road trips:

“We have been traveling for a long time. Be ready to play. You have to play 48 minutes. Whatever happened yesterday won’t matter tomorrow. Whether it’s a loss or a win, you just have to make sure you’re mentally ready to play.

“You have to be mentally strong. You have to be able to deal with adversity. That’s part of it. Things aren’t going the way we want them to, we need to stick together and continue to work through things together.”

Josh Hart

To adapt to the defensive change:

“We give the teams the game plan. I’m not sure what our record is against teams that only play traditionally, one-on-one, five-on-five, etc., or teams that switch, teams that blow the game.

“We know Houston did it. You did it. If we go to Charlotte for an early game, we know they will make it. Boston does it.

“We have to adapt accordingly, whether it’s me including myself in the actions and still involving the (center) and doing that. Or play faster, play with more thrust. And that leads to teams making mistakes on the counters.

“We have a talented team. Guys who can shoot the ball. So if we play slowly we are easy to guard. Because we’re going up against a solid defense.”

On offensive stagnation through defensive changes:

“It causes us to stagnate. When the teams change, we have to play faster. We have to empower them to make mistakes off the ball, off screen, miscommunication and things like that.

“When we play slow, we know they’re switching and we just try to find a mismatch. And then it doesn’t matter if we have an imbalance, if you go on the defensive with a set deficit.

“So we had to play faster, let them make mistakes and capitalize that way.”

Jalen Brunson

On the need to attack changing defense mechanisms more quickly:

“Obviously they changed. When it comes to transition, you probably need to attack a little quicker. But it’s a mixture of the ball not coming in and looking good and also defending well at times.

“It honestly shouldn’t have happened the way it did.”