The Knicks can punch the Celtics in their mouth and their tickets to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The moment has arrived. It’s been 25 years, nearly to the freaking day.

New York hosts Boston—how about that—in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, aiming at punching their tickets for the ECF once and for all, at home, inside Madison Square Garden of all places.

Here’s what Coach Thibs and other Knicks and Celtics have said ahead of tonight’s mammoth affair.

Tom Thibodeau

On the Knicks’ defensive lapses in transition leading to the Game 5 loss:

“I think it’s two-fold. The commitment to sprint back and then communicate to make sure that we understand what’s going on. You can’t have any personal dilemmas of, if you’re missing a shot or if it’s not going well for you offensively, that you’re jogging back. You’ve got to sprint back. You’ve got to communicate. And we’ve got to be matched up. If one guy is slow, you’re gonna give them an open shot. You can’t do that against this team.”

On defensive breakdowns in Game 5:

“I think the big thing is we’ve gotta get stops. The first half, we scored fine. KAT was in foul trouble for a good chunk of it. But we scored 59. That wasn’t the issue, the issue was the defense. The start of the third, we got in a hole, we were trying to get on track. But you’ve got to get some stops so you can get it to the open floor. So I thought that probably hurt us as well.”

On the Game 5 officiating and sky-high foul counts:

“No, it’s one of those games where we had 40, they had a lot as well. It was a choppy game. I think that was also reflective of the aggression. I think that you saw, Josh’s layup — we knew it was going to be that type of game.”

On Jalen Brunson’s fouling out:

“I just felt that the game—if we were going to have a chance—it was going to be right there [before Brunson fouled out].”

Josh Hart

On the Knicks’ Game 5 struggles:

“I don’t know. I wish I could tell you, I wish I could pinpoint it because if we did we could address it. So I think that third quarter we just — there was a lot of frustration and that seeped into everything that we were doing. We’ve got to make sure that we control what we can control. That’s our communication and that’s our effort, that’s our intensity. Let everything else fall by the wayside. I feel like that’s not what we did today. We’ve got to learn from it and execute and be better Friday.”

On his confrontation with Jaylen Brown:

“It was just two guys that are extremely competitive. He’s a passionate, competitive player. We were tied at halftime, he’s trying to give their team a spark and momentum and the same thing with me.

“I got nothing but respect for him. It’s just two competitive dudes going out there and competing at the highest level. Sometimes, tempers flare and those kinds of things. But there’s always respect.”

On his good shooting performance in Game 5:

“I just shot the ball with confidence. Should’ve shot more.”

On the need to increase Karl-Anthony Towns’ involvement on offense:

“I think we can run actions that get him open more. We’re running a lot of ball-screen actions. And they’re in a drop [coverage], but we can figure out ways to get him going — whether it’s transition or flares or quick screens. Ball screens that are wide. We have to figure out ways to help him. Obviously he’s a hell of a shooter. But if he was a guard, we’d be in a different situation, because he’d have the ball in his hands and be able to create [for himself]. We’ve got to help him get in positions for that.

On what went wrong in Game 5:

“Third quarter was terrible, offensively, defensively. Watch film and figure it out.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On his three-point shooting struggles and doing what he’s asked for:

“I haven’t really been out there really. Haven’t had the chance to shoot. We’ve just been trying to do our game plan and I’m just trying to execute at the highest level. So I’m trying to do most of my damage inside and do whatever my team asks of me.”

On the disappointment of losing Game 5 and clinching home or away from MSG:

“I’d like to win a closeout game anywhere, it doesn’t matter if it’s home or away. I love our fans, but I know our fans would appreciate it if it was done on the road as much as if it was done at home. It’s about winning every single game possible, putting ourselves in position to win, and I think that’s what’s more disappointing is tonight we didn’t put ourselves in position to win.”

Jalen Brunson

On adjusting to matchups and involving Towns more:

“I need to trust everyone out there and knowing who to attack and when to set the table. I think the biggest part of that is knowing how they are defending. If they are going to put a small guy on him, and then they put a bigger guy on him — him being aggressive gives us a big advantage.”

On the Game 5 disappointment:

“A lot. A lot. I’m not going to explain it. Just a lot.”

Joe Mazzulla

On the team’s response in Game 5:

“This team has been around a long time. They’ve done stuff together. I think it was just we did what was necessary to do what we needed to do to get back to New York. So we made winning plays on both ends of the floor. Each guy, everybody in that locker room has another layer that they can get to. And they did that as the game went on, and we just have to continue to do that. But it’s a credit to the guys in the locker room that we get another shot to play.”

On Luke Kornet’s impact:

“He was great on both ends of the floor. Did a great job protecting the rim, did a great job defending without fouling. I just thought his presence was good, especially on the rebounding end — nine rebounds, two offensive ones. He made some big-time plays for us.”

Payton Pritchard

On the Celtics’ adapted playing style in Game 5:

“Obviously, we played a little bit different. A lot faster tonight. That’s what this group is capable of, especially with the three guards. So that’s what we’ve gotta do.”

On Tatum’s motivational message ahead of Game 5:

“It was just motivating. He was saying to go out and compete hard and that he’ll be watching and supporting us.”

On the team’s mentality with Tatum out:

“When you see your teammate come down with an injury like that, and it’s obviously devastating for everything he’s put into the game, that can be emotional. But for us, we had to quickly change and try to take care of home court and force it to Game 6. We know our backs are against the wall, so we’re going to lay it all out for ourselves but also him.”

Sam Hauser

On Tatum’s support:

“Obviously, he’s here for us. But he just wanted to see us win.”

Jaylen Brown

On his belief in the Celtics advancing:

“I know it’s easy to kind of write things off. Obviously, unfortunate what happened to JT, but we still got basketball to be played. I believe in this group, so don’t count us out just yet.”

On Luke Kornet’s performance:

“Luke was huge. Defensively and offensively, he was stellar. That’s the types of performances we need in the playoffs. Defensively, getting stops, making plays, big finishes — he got that backwards lob. Luke was great.”

Charles Oakley

On the need for tighter playoff rotations:

“You want to win, you [have to] put the best guys out there [that] give you a chance to win. Yeah, you gotta make a sub here and there, but in the playoffs you should be playing 38–42 minutes because you’ve got a system you’re trying to run and you want to make sure that all [the] guys know their roles and where to rotate to and help to get back.”

On Thibodeau’s knowledge of the game:

“Thibs’ been around for a while. He understands that you gotta stay engaged. You gotta know what’s going on at all times.

“Nah, you gotta play the guys you know that got your back and know that can do their job. So Thibs is one of them coaches I like how he coach because you’re getting paid a lot of money. You can only take the five guys every night who you have on the bench to perform and that’s what should be going on.”

Gilbert Arenas

On Brunson’s fourth-quarter mentality:

“As a talent, Allen Iverson was more talented, more dangerous, but Brunson has a skillset that is only given to a certain type of man. Jordan had it. Kobe had it. I think Brunson is mentally the closest thing to what Kobe was in the fourth quarter. No matter what happens, he can be 0–20, but in the last five minutes, everything is out of the window; it is different. He’s gonna go 4–5, he’s gonna put the team on his back, and it’s hard to find that skill. And he has it.”

On comparing Brunson to Lillard:

“He is like what Dame was them years when Dame was a fourth quarter bandit and hitting them big shots. That’s Brunson, every (night), It’s like every game, he does not fail. He’s never disappointed in the fourth quarter. No big game. No matter what happens in the first three (quarters), them last five (minutes), that man shows up.”

On the Iverson-Brunson comparison:

“Iverson, all five players were trying to guard him. We knew the zipper, we knew what he was going to do, the Iverson cut, going go around the double, and we don’t care who he had, like if you think about a team, none of them can shoot outside of 10 foot. So for the most part, you wasn’t spreading our team out, and he was still getting to where he wanted to. That’s how good he was.”