Latest / Bleacher Report / Jalen Brunson & Karl-Anthony Towns Talk Knicks Game 3 Comeback vs. Pacers _ 2025 NBA Playoffs
Transcript
- 0:03Speaker 1: Cato cat Nicks Pacers has one of the most emotional
- 0:19Speaker 1: rivalry histories in the league, and now you're a part
- 0:23Speaker 1: of it. In a series like this, after a performance
- 0:26Speaker 1: like tonight, Dominican Mother's Day, what part of your game
- 0:30Speaker 1: or your mindset do you think just as your name
- 0:33Speaker 1: to it.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Just I'm just happy our team was able to be
- 0:38Speaker 2: one in the left column to get a win tonight
- 0:40Speaker 2: is h is big for our team and in the
- 0:43Speaker 2: series as well. You know, looking at a two o deficit,
- 0:47Speaker 2: possibly three zero deficit, it was just important for us
- 0:51Speaker 2: to uh find a way to win, and as a team,
- 0:53Speaker 2: we found a way to do that tonight.
- 0:55Speaker 3: K Cat, that eight minute stretched to start the fourth quarter.
- 0:59Speaker 3: Uh what did you would you have going there? And
- 1:01Speaker 3: you know, what did you see there that made you
- 1:03Speaker 3: so successful?
- 1:06Speaker 2: Just you know, teammates put me in g in great
- 1:10Speaker 2: spots to succeed, and I just wanted to capitalize on
- 1:13Speaker 2: an opportunity. And you know, just all of us were
- 1:19Speaker 2: just doing whatever it takes to uh win and put
- 1:21Speaker 2: ourselves in a position to get back in the game
- 1:24Speaker 2: one and to uh put ourselves in a position where
- 1:26Speaker 2: you know, at the end of the game we could Uh,
- 1:28Speaker 2: find ourselves with a chance to win. So it's a
- 1:32Speaker 2: shout out to the locker room, you know, all of
- 1:35Speaker 2: us finding a way.
- 1:37Speaker 4: Uh, this one's for either one of you.
- 1:39Speaker 1: Uh.
- 1:39Speaker 4: Obviously Landry and Delon both came in and give you
- 1:42Speaker 4: guys big minutes that helped you guys propel the lead.
- 1:45Speaker 4: Josh had a role change and still played strong down
- 1:48Speaker 4: the stretch. I guess what did it say about some
- 1:50Speaker 4: of the veterans on this team and the importance of
- 1:52Speaker 4: having vets like that and guys who can be ready
- 1:55Speaker 4: when they're numbers called.
- 1:57Speaker 5: Yeah, it says a lot the professionalism they have and
- 2:01Speaker 5: uh do whatever it takes to win. And we have
- 2:04Speaker 5: a close knint locker room. And uh, just the way
- 2:07Speaker 5: that now the guys prepared and were ready to go
- 2:09Speaker 5: tonight and uh not being discouraged and with our deficit
- 2:13Speaker 5: and continue to fight back speaks volumes for what those
- 2:16Speaker 5: guys did tonight.
- 2:17Speaker 2: Jailing, you gotten foul trouble again.
- 2:20Speaker 5: You struggled with your shot a little bit early. What
- 2:22Speaker 5: does it say about your mentality that, you know, you
- 2:25Speaker 5: come back in the game way in the fourth court
- 2:26Speaker 5: and you hit one of you know, the one of
- 2:27Speaker 5: the biggest shots.
- 2:28Speaker 6: Of the game.
- 2:31Speaker 5: Honestly, just just focusing on the moment and in my
- 2:34Speaker 5: mind and not really worry about what's happened previously. And yeah, for.
- 2:46Speaker 7: For either of you guys, obviously big win tonight could
- 2:50Speaker 7: have had Game one or Game two, so you're down
- 2:52Speaker 7: to one in this series. I just I'd love to
- 2:54Speaker 7: know what you make of this series so far.
- 3:00Speaker 5: It's a serious unpredictable I mean, obviously no leads safe
- 3:08Speaker 5: and both teams are going to continue to fight to
- 3:12Speaker 5: the buzzer and got a lot of respect from over
- 3:16Speaker 5: there and be continue to keep playing or started basketball,
- 3:21Speaker 5: keep grinding it out.
- 3:22Speaker 8: I guess for either one of you, you guys have
- 3:25Speaker 8: done this before down twenty, but down twenty a lot
- 3:27Speaker 8: of things foul, trouble, things aren't going right. Just kind
- 3:30Speaker 8: of what does it say about the mental toughness of
- 3:32Speaker 8: this team.
- 3:33Speaker 5: It says a lot. In the locker room, we talked
- 3:35Speaker 5: about the biggest the biggest part of our comeback and
- 3:40Speaker 5: everything was, you know, we could quickly start the point
- 3:43Speaker 5: of fingers where we can quickly start to just turn
- 3:48Speaker 5: on each other, but we got together as a team
- 3:51Speaker 5: and we made sure that everyone was encouraging each other
- 3:53Speaker 5: to making sure that it's not over. We keep fighting,
- 3:56Speaker 5: keep chipping away. And we did that, and just probably
- 4:00Speaker 5: from the way we uh responded, h yeah, we needed
- 4:05Speaker 5: we needed it cross that.
- 4:08Speaker 6: In that fourth quarter, you just seemed to be extremely
- 4:12Speaker 6: locked into game time situation at kind of every possession
- 4:17Speaker 6: even you know, we needed have an outlet bringing the
- 4:19Speaker 6: ball up a few times and play making from there
- 4:22Speaker 6: or going straight to the hoop. It's what what inspired
- 4:25Speaker 6: you to kind of pursue that quarter with that level
- 4:29Speaker 6: of aggression and intensity.
- 4:32Speaker 2: Uh, it's just it's an opportunity, so opportunity to uh
- 4:38Speaker 2: utilize all those hours I'll put into the gym and
- 4:42Speaker 2: game wasn't looking great for me as well, but for
- 4:44Speaker 2: all of us, and I just wanted to do whatever
- 4:47Speaker 2: it takes to uh help put us in a position
- 4:49Speaker 2: to win. And Uh, like I said, it's just it's
- 4:52Speaker 2: a testament to my teammates, you know, having trusted me
- 4:54Speaker 2: and giving me, you know, putting me in spots where
- 4:56Speaker 2: I could succeed and and and utilize my talent. So
- 5:01Speaker 2: it's just testing, you know, shout out to the guys
- 5:03Speaker 2: in the locker room. You know, this is a great
- 5:05Speaker 2: team win, but we got we know, we gotta be
- 5:07Speaker 2: better than we were tonight if we expect to find
- 5:09Speaker 2: a way to get another win.
- 5:12Speaker 6: Hey, Jalen, what do you think what's going on first
- 5:16Speaker 6: three or fourth court or most of the fourth quarter
- 5:18Speaker 6: that kind of got in your way?
- 5:19Speaker 1: Was it the defense?
- 5:21Speaker 4: Was you seem really frustrated?
- 5:22Speaker 5: Sorry when I would say most of the game up
- 5:27Speaker 5: until you Yeah, Yeah, it's a It's an emotional game,
- 5:35Speaker 5: is a long game. Things canna happen, Things can not
- 5:39Speaker 5: go your way, and you can easily obviously crash out,
- 5:43Speaker 5: or you can respond the right way.
- 5:45Speaker 2: And crash out.
- 5:47Speaker 5: I love that. That's what came to mind. But I
- 5:52Speaker 5: got people in my corner, people on this team who
- 5:55Speaker 5: believe in me, and UH believe in us, and so
- 5:58Speaker 5: just the conversation that we have as a team and
- 6:01Speaker 5: the encouragement everything we do is important, and especially throughout
- 6:04Speaker 5: a forty eight minute game, and so so I continue
- 6:08Speaker 5: to believe.
- 6:10Speaker 9: Carl, just following up on that emotional game kind of conversation,
- 6:13Speaker 9: wondering what was the last you know, they like for you,
- 6:16Speaker 9: you know, frustrating fourth quarter, frustrating you mentioned that the
- 6:19Speaker 9: game wasn't looking so great the first three quarters? How
- 6:21Speaker 9: do you are you able to compartmentalize put those things
- 6:23Speaker 9: behind you? What was your thought process like as you
- 6:26Speaker 9: moved from New York to Indiana?
- 6:27Speaker 2: Here, just you know, fourth quarter is different. It feels
- 6:32Speaker 2: like a whole other game. So just let you know
- 6:35Speaker 2: last game, those three quarters a go, and just focus
- 6:37Speaker 2: on giving yourself a chance to win the game. You know,
- 6:41Speaker 2: I just like I said, I just my teammates put
- 6:44Speaker 2: me in the spots to succeed and to big back
- 6:47Speaker 2: on the question earlier, what did you expect anything less
- 6:50Speaker 2: from JB? I mean, you got that award for a reason.
- 6:52Speaker 2: So we knew when we got in that fourth quarter,
- 6:54Speaker 2: we got lay in the game, we came back in
- 6:55Speaker 2: the game. I think we all felt very confident if
- 6:58Speaker 2: we could get them the ball, we would we would
- 7:01Speaker 2: see some buckets open.
- 7:02Speaker 10: Uh, this this is for either one of you guys.
- 7:04Speaker 10: But then this might be the third or fourth time
- 7:06Speaker 10: where you guys have seen a twenty point deficit and
- 7:08Speaker 10: then just raced it.
- 7:10Speaker 2: We're not proud of that.
- 7:11Speaker 10: I I know, I know you guys would rather not
- 7:13Speaker 10: be down twenty, but the facts are, when you are
- 7:15Speaker 10: down twenty, you come back to win. Just w what
- 7:17Speaker 10: happens in those moments where you're staying a deep deficit
- 7:19Speaker 10: down that allows you guys to rally together and find
- 7:22Speaker 10: a way to win, where.
- 7:23Speaker 2: Other things like what JB said, you know, just that
- 7:25Speaker 2: locker room, you know it it it's a true test
- 7:28Speaker 2: of we're actually that close in that locker room. If
- 7:30Speaker 2: that unity, that continuity is truly there when you're down,
- 7:34Speaker 2: like you said twenty plus, you know, it tests the
- 7:36Speaker 2: character of everyone in that locker room and our willingness
- 7:39Speaker 2: to not give up and continue to fight. So, like
- 7:44Speaker 2: I've said before, I think this team has shown grittiness
- 7:47Speaker 2: all year Detroit Series, Boston series, Tonight was the night
- 7:52Speaker 2: we have to show that kind of that it never
- 7:56Speaker 2: say quit attitude, and uh, it's a testament to everyone
- 7:59Speaker 2: in that locker room.
- 8:00Speaker 4: Jalen. And in the first half, there were a couple
- 8:02Speaker 4: of moments where when you guys came out of a
- 8:04Speaker 4: time out, it looked like you would huddle the guys
- 8:06Speaker 4: up after that. I don't know if I've seen that
- 8:09Speaker 4: at at least as much as you did it today.
- 8:11Speaker 4: Maybe I'm wrong. I just kind of what was your
- 8:13Speaker 4: thought processing making sure you guys talked again before you
- 8:16Speaker 4: went back out there, and and and taking that approach
- 8:19Speaker 4: at that point in the game, just.
- 8:20Speaker 5: Making sure we're on the same pitch. Simple as that.
- 8:25Speaker 8: Chilean Jo Josh was saying, was that talking about the
- 8:27Speaker 8: decision to come off the bench, said that he had
- 8:30Speaker 8: had a conversation with Tibbs for a couple days now,
- 8:33Speaker 8: since I guess after Game five of Boston yup, just
- 8:35Speaker 8: kind of what does that say about him? That this
- 8:38Speaker 8: is the guy who's gonna start all your very productive
- 8:40Speaker 8: and his suggesting that.
- 8:42Speaker 5: Yeah, uh, he wants to win, and it just it
- 8:49Speaker 5: just shows who he is as a person, as a player,
- 8:51Speaker 5: as a teammate. Doesn't care for anything individual, just wants
- 8:57Speaker 5: to win. And so that's a true TRUSTM have a
- 9:01Speaker 5: great teamate