Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray and Coach Brown Post-Practice Media Availability | 3.15.24

Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray and Coach Brown Post-Practice Media Availability | 3.15.24

Uh no not really I mean just take every game as it is and um you can get hot and cold real quick in this league so yeah I know you guys were trying to carry over that effort from the walking to the Lakers I mean do you feel like you can

Kind of see positive signs and maybe doing so against to the Knicks tomorrow night as well uh yeah I mean we played good basketball the last couple games um so we’re just trying to keep that going as long as possible hopefully till the end of the year and what do you think

Obviously you know Keon is obviously added to this starting rotation obviously undefeated as a starter has that been a spark for you guys uh he’s been playing good whenever he gets minutes I think he’s done a really good job of trying to maximize those minutes um so his confidence is high right now

And we just want to keep it that way how do you feel like your guys’ physicality factored into those good defensive performances uh I think we’re just helping one another um and that’s obviously helping our over overall defense so uh just trying uh limit um easy shots for the opposing team that’s

Our goal um every single game what stands out to you with the Knicks coming in town they’re super physical team as well uh they’ve been playing uh good basketball um especially last game against Portland um and recently so we just know that we just have to match their physicality and um hopefully get

Out with a win what’s maybe the most encouraging thing you’ve seen over this past week for you guys uh I think just our commitment to being done defensively um we’ve increased our our spray attempts offensively and that’s helped us get a lot of open looks so just

Trying to get those two going and then we’re a pretty good team I know you guys are such a day-to-day operation don’t look too far ahead but was this kind of a focal point in terms of how you guys have played on the home court and trying

To make maximize the most of this home stretch that you have uh I mean yeah every team plays their best at home but we haven’t done that the last couple years so uh just trying to end this home stretch the right way um and just try and out a few more wins you

Inating for team uh we’re in a good spot we try and get 20 a game so um we’ve got close to 20 the last couple games and um that’s generated a lot of open looks and we shoot a high percentage and we get those looks you guys are one of the

League leaders in points scored off the dble hand off action a big part of that is Dom’s ability to screen what do you think makes him such a dynamic screener um in freeing Guys open creating those kind of open look for guys uh I mean he’s just a he’s a physical

Body um so whenever he can uh get someone on a screen um it not only creates an open look for the guy coming off the dribble hand off but him too so um it goes both ways to play this way the way you guys have had um maybe not

Turn the corner but in the face of adversity you got guys that are kind of baked up a little bit um how impressive is that for you guys as you kind of like you said close out the home stretch pretty strong yeah it’s just a next man

Up mentality um feel like we have one of the deeper teams in the league um when it comes to Talent so everyone’s ready at all times and guys have like maximize um their their time on the court how are you feeling physically right now coming

Off I mean I’m fine if I can play I’m fine so um I’m feel like I’m in a good place right now um going into the last stretch on your ankle the other night was that more of them telling you give a day with the back to back or was it not

Being able to really free up the way you want it uh just not being able to play how wanted um it probably wouldn’t have been great if I played that game so just try to give it another day see how that would go thank you apprciate

It yeah I thought it came in well would you uh how’ you react to maybe some the teammates had to say about that unsurprising fox was unsurprising uh everybody else played nice but we have fun with it it’s uh it was fun it was glad they did the video when they

Approached you with the idea when you first heard about it what kind of goes to your mind that uh I don’t think I’ve ever had a bhead before so that was a pretty easy yes for me they uh you guys would know this better but they told me

They do one a year I think last year was domas I think before like Harrison got one and so probably fox has been at some point so uh I know how it came to be they just asked if I wanted to do it this year I was like what you think it

Would turn out out at West sa it was cool it was uh pulled up there’s like a line around the corner uh just kind of another example like our fans are great uh at this point what what’s today know what day it is that was that would have been a I know Monday

Afternoon but I mean for that day like I said pulling up and it’s you lying around the corner and bunch of people waiting it was great to see anybody show up with cakes again like we had some presents people bringing me some presents uh always always well received

Always appreciate them so next time we do an appearance I’ll uh take some more cake cool just how are you feeling overall saw you had the leg injury one of you could talk about like when when that happened and just how it’s going yeah I’m doing good um optimistic about

Tomorrow for sure just little beat up you know took a knee to the to the quad and that Milwaukee game and you know back to back just kind of stiffened up on me and so I think if we had a day in between if we had played yesterday or or

Today I think you the the result could have been different so I think it was just the back to back and not being able to fully recover in about 18 hours to get ready for the next one we so you were only out there for that Milwaukee

One but how much do you feel like that back to back you guys were getting to play your style of basketball yeah it’s something we’ve talked about I think uh people talk about at length in both games just defensively I think our intensity and physicality has has gone

Up uh across the league honestly I think I think the the physicality and and uh you all that has gone up I thought the Houston game we we were pretty good defensively and it was a really physical game even though we didn’t get the result we wanted so uh we put together a

Lot better defensive performances at home and got to continue to do it you know the Knicks are arguably the most physical team in the league and defensively one of the best and it’s kind of their Brandon basketball everyone knows and so we got to be ready

Is that a special match up for you even given your history with New York and all that not too much to be honest uh I think when I go back and I play in New York it feels a little bit different just with all the friends and family

That come out but you when we’re out here in sack and you know just another team that comes through that we’re trying to beat individually for yourself through the ups and downs of this season just where do you feel you’re kind of at mentally headwise obviously the team has

Success here just how are you feeling I just think with everybody just continuing to try to be the best that can defensively I think people know what I’m capable of on the offens side of the Court uh you know there’s been a lot of you know ups and downs obviously

Throughout the year and trying different people in different lineups and uh you know guys in out of the lineup and so continuing to figure out where where I where I place myself in the offensive side of the court but just no one I can control the defensive effort and

Physicality on that side and just you know knowing that the offensive side will come how do you keep it from becoming overly frustrated on you I imagine was kind of looking back and trying to remember if you even had a a stretch like this ever before and how

You dealt with it in the past not talking about it just continuing to work uh you guys have seen one capable of in certain stretches and uh gone through a couple of these so far this year and trying to limit these as much as I can

And like I said just trying to control what I can control and it’s being good on the defensive side of the Court my understanding is you and Andre Jackson Jr from a similar area if you see some people responses to your reaction yeah that was uh that was a moment of brief

Loss of composure uh you know he’s someone uh you a couple years younger than me but you know from a similar town over someone I’ve I followed as he’s gotten older and someone I work out with in the Summers and trying to get him to come work out with me and just getting

To compete against each other and so me and Andre have known each other for years and uh you know love seeing him start to establish himself in this league I’m always going to root for him and that was a moment I think when he’s on the court I’m I’m rooting for him to

Have success and forgot that that was against our team and so uh SLO I apologize to SLO and you know after the game and enough guys gave me but uh it was a crazy dunk it was fre said you wored catch you off guard no he’s you

Guys seen his high school he’s got no bias like one of the craziest High School MCT tapes so if you guys go watch it he’s always had stupid bounce like we were at summer camp in seventh grade and there’s a skinny kid coming in and he’s he’s dunking I think in seventh eth

Grade like easily I was kind like who’s who’s and uh figured out who he was shortly after and kind of follow him the rest of the way do do you feel like you handle struggles better than maybe you have in the past mentally like I know that’s always a challenge when you’re you’re

Going through stuff as a player do you feel like you handle it better uh I still think I’m working on it uh know different things I don’t think I’ve handled well I think earlier in the season some of those downs and figuring out ways to come out of them quickly uh

I again I just think it goes to trying to control what I can control and not getting so caught up in in factors that I can and uh continuing to just focus on me and when I’m on the court being the best version that I can be of myself and

How I can help this team win at a high level because I know I’ve helped this team win at a high level so uh just continue to try to do that you know positive mental mindset continue to get my work in every day and we got 82 of

These things they going to go through a lot of them and it’s going to be a lot of ups and downs throughout the season thank you guys thank you yeah I mean anytime you anytime you can win especially during this time of the year uh it’s uplifting you know and

It kind of breathes confidence into the things that you’ve been trying to get across and the things that you’ve been working on and so um any win right now is a good win that will definitely Lift Us you we see it with the fans in the roller coaster that they’re on do you

Feel like sometimes the players can be on that same roller coaster with them yeah I mean they’re they’re human and so uh they they want it I mean people don’t understand how bad we want to win and how bad uh or how much we want to do

This thing and uh not just for ourselves but for families and friends and and uh and the fans how about in terms of his participation today I know you got some guys banged up and I saw Trey out there trying to shoot looked like really just

Doing flat footed work for him yeah I don’t know what Trey did I was upstairs but he he did not participate in practice today uh Sasha did not participate in practice today but I think everybody else did participate in practice yeah how how encouraged are you

By the the recently not just coming from Fox Malik and domas but guys attacking close outs or offensive rebounds uh very very encouraged that’s we have to play that way you know I’ve said that before we got to be able to touch the paint spray the basketball we can touch the

Paint in a lot of different ways it’s not just off the dribble drive it’s offensive rebound it’s a cut you know getting a nice scoring cut that collapses the defense because you got to help from the weak side uh it’s a roll a hard roll off the pick and roll there’s

A lot of different ways that we can uh impact that paint and the ball get sprayed and uh for us to get up around 20 a game is something that we’re looking for and these last two games we’ve been right where we we need to be

And it’s it’s evident with the way that we’re shooting from the three-point line and on the other end you guys had that physicality but a decent amount of fouls these last two games so what’s the balance for you of being encouraged but also trying to clean that up well I I’d

Rather be more physical and and and try to uh scale back then to be the other way with it and so I you know the game is called physical on both ends of the floor we just hope that we get the benefit of the doubt just like the other

Team does when it comes to calling the game because uh our physicality is in my opinion in the same realm as everybody else’s so I want our guys to stay aggressive keep lead trying to lead with their chest and and see what happens at the end of the day your guys defense the

Last couple games looked pretty good I’m I’m curious what’s you know going back and watching tape what’s popped out to you with the defense uh our physicality uh first of all and I I think our players understand that and feel that our pick and roll defense has been a lot

Better these last couple of games uh our communication level has been at a at a pretty high uh uh level since I’ve been here I mean we we communicated uh very well especially in the Milwaukee game like I said usually when you’re not communicating well guys are getting open

Shots or you’re committing two guys to the ball and we didn’t have much of that in either of these last two games and then lastly is our ability to get the three-point Shooters you know uh Austin Reed was obviously started the game hot last uh last two nights ago and he was

The reason why they shot a pretty high percentage if you take his threes out which obviously you can’t but uh they were they the rest of the team shot around 34 at best 35% from the three-point line so um we let him get loose a little early but but but after

That I felt our contest especially on everybody else were at a pretty high level the Knicks play with a lot of physic what what do you expect from from uh this Knicks team like what what are you preparing your guys for what you said the level of

Physicality is at a high level and uh so we have to match end or exceed that on on both ends of the floor and then you know they they they they like to get out and run now and they’ll let that thing fly behind the three-point line so uh

You know we we do too so we think that’s that’s going to be great for us you know to play a fast-paced game and and hopefully to shoot a lot of Threes we we’re going to need to get to their three-point Shooters get them off the

Line while making sure that we we Pro protect the paint at the end of the day uh but the most important thing is uh taking care of the ball uh because they’re going to be slapping down at the ball quite a bit whether it’s off of

Dhos or or digging in the post or off of somebody driving in terms of helping and then making sure that uh we just hit the open man and sometimes it’s a short drive to push ahead and let that guy make the play uh we do those things and

And uh I feel we’ll have a chance what do you think has allowed your team to be good at keeping keeping opponents off the offensive class and how important will that be against New Yorks uh our guys are doing a pretty good job of keeping bodies on bodies you know we we

Always tell our guys hey check your man to see if he’s coming in and if he is box him out if it’s a long shot then instead of taking a step towards the glass take a step towards your guy because long shots usually equate to Long rebounds and and then again you

Have to have a level of physicality when it comes to rebounding and our guys are are bringing that to the table uh obviously when you have a guy like domas he’d clean up a lot for you uh but we just don’t want to rely on him to get it

Done are you saying anything about I mean I remember you know the evolution of this team as a physical team and sometimes when the other team is a little bit more physical they can tend to go the other way a little bit what are you seeing in terms of strides made

And are there things that you emphasize on your team to make them be a hit first team or something like that no we’re we’re making strides and we’re making strides in the right direction and that’s something that you know shortterm obviously help us out but longterm uh

That’s where we need to be as an organization we need to be a team an organization however you want to call it that hits first and that does not back down or shy away from contact and it’s something that uh that I tried to emphasize from day one you know uh this

Year our identity we’d love it to be playing fast playing physical and playing together at the end of the day and and and those three things can take you a long way whether you’re making shots or missing shots and and our guys uh I feel that they’re really starting

To understand that and bring that to the table uh on a regular basis and the more consistent we can get with it uh the better we’re going to beach long term and short term coach you guys have been one of the best teams scoring off the DL action obviously this season and going

Back to last season as well and a big part of that has been Dom’s ability to set you know very very effective screens what does he kind of bring to the table as a screen Setter that makes him so effective in that action and make you guys so effective with that action well

I tell you what he understands angles very well and he understands pace and so getting in and out of uh the dho at the right time knowing that game’s more physical guys are allowed to push a little bit more guys are allowed to slap down a little bit more and so so having

The ability to handle the ball while getting in and out of the screen at the right time when you get when you uh do a dho is is huge it it it’s it’s hard to teach uh especially at the level that domas can do it at uh but he’s been

Gifted uh probably inherited a lot from his dad you know or got a lot of those jeans passed down from his dad but he’s been gifted with uh that ability and he’s taking it for us as a as a team to another level coach what’s kind of the

Vibe of the team right now um kind of an up and down season with some off generly wish you could get back and now coming off two really impressive wins against some really good teams what’s kind of the back down final yeah you know like I

Said I I I think guys understand that we have to be physical we have to play fast we have to continue spraying the basketball you know we have to talk we just uh need to do all those things that I mentioned especially what our identity

Is at a high level on a consistent basis and you know every win no matter who it is who it’s against uh is a good win for us at this point in the year and and you know if you want to start um you know a trajectory at this point in the season

You hope it goes this way so going through the ups and downs that’s part of the Season you don’t like it uh you don’t necessarily like to go through it but sometimes it’s necessary I’m a firm believer that um in life if you ever want to have success very seldom do you

Have success without any uh without hitting any speed pumps or without hitting any adversity you you learn best when you hit adversity or you learn best when you hit those speed bumps and so for us it was much you needed and hopefully we’ve learned uh a lot from it

And now it can show a little bit with our consistency down the stretch and going into the playoffs anything coach than everyone very much

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Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray and Coach Brown speak to the media following the conclusion of practice Friday, March 15, 2024 at Golden 1 Center
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