New York enters the most important week in the last 25 years of Knicks franchise history.

It’s ECF Week.

The Knicks are part of it.

Believe that.

Tom Thibodeau

On the Pacers’ strengths and upcoming series:

“Style of play—and they’re an excellent basketball team. Strong on both sides of the ball. Their ability to push it in transition, that’s key. You’ve got to be great in defensive transition.

“When you look at the guard play—with [Tyrese] Haliburton, Nembhard, [T.J.] McConnell—they can all push and break you down off the dribble. So you’ve got to be very disciplined in your approach. They can spread you out. [Pascal] Siakam and [Myles] Turner are very talented bigs.

“We understand what the challenge is.”

Miles McBride

On the Pacers’ offensive threat:

“With a team like them, they get out in transition, they get a lot of threes up, and they play well together as a team. So we just want to make sure we’re locked in, communicating, and understanding that we have to set a defensive presence.”

Rick Carlisle

On the matchup with the Knicks:

“It’s a different team at a different time with different dynamics. There are a lot of new elements to it.”

On New York’s offensive rebounding and second-chance scoring:

“They have a real system for doing it. (And) when they get second-chance points, their efficiency levels are unprecedentedly high. That’s going to be an enormous key to the series.”

Tyrese Haliburton

On the new-look Knicks:

“Obviously, they’ve added Mikal from last season. Mitchell Robinson’s health. He wasn’t healthy last year. KAT’s obviously a huge addition.”

Myles Turner

On the Knicks’ rebounding and physical style of play:

“You can’t overstate the importance of rebounding.

“It’s a hard-nosed team. They dictate the pace of the game and are going to play a half-court style. They have Hart and all those guys who do the dirty work.

“We have our work cut out for us.”

Fat Joe

On the Knicks’ current success:

“Right now, it’s an incredible time in New York City and the best time ever to be a New Yorker. When the Knicks are winning and thriving, it’s like a feeling of euphoria and magic.”

On the years of struggle in New York:

“But from 2001 to 2020, those were some painful memories. The Knicks would be competitive at times, but they would always lose games in the clutch and just break your heart.”

On the ongoing payoff run:

“They would raise your blood pressure too high sometimes, but that’s what makes you appreciate the last couple years of greatness.”

Spike Lee

On his Knicks fandom and trying to relive those games:

“That’s it, that’s all I’ve got to say. I was at Game 7, May 8, 1970, the Willis Reed game. Also, the Walt Frazier game. I was 13 years old.”

Kevin Garnett

On Jalen Brunson’s playoff chops:

“Man, he’s top five. He’s gonna go down as one of the best in the playoffs… When the playoffs come, he steps his game up. When playoffs come, Brunson steps his game up. If you gotta take somebody out of the game, you gotta take the ball out of his hands. If you don’t do that, then he’s too good to go one-on-one. He’s in the zone, bro.”

Paul Pierce

On the Knicks beating a depleted Celtics team and the next series outlook:

“Pacers ‘gon pop ya’ll, though. Ya’ll know that, right? Ya’ll know that the Pacers is gonna get ya’ll. So I don’t even want hear all that, like, ya’ll feeling good, ya’ll beat an injured Celtics team. Ya’ll beat a Celtics injured team. We didn’t have our All-NBA player, First Team, MVP candidate, who led us in all these categories. Ya know, whatever. But shoutout to New York.”

Larry Brown

On Tom Thibodeau and coaching standards:

“Tom’s a great coach. A lot of people that are doing this are really good coaches that haven’t won it all. When you have the better team, you are generally capable of winning. He has a team that is capable of winning.”

On the Minutes Police narrative:

“People are always saying Tom wears his players out, but your best players want to be on the court. When I coached Allen Iverson, he averaged well over 40 minutes a game and he was mad every time I took him out. The great players I’ve been around don’t want to be sitting on the bench. He’s had kids that have played a lot of minutes during the year and now they are in the finals of the Eastern Conference and healthy right now. That’s a real positive for them.”

On the Knicks-Pacers matchup pitting two great coaches against each other:

“What I like is both teams are healthy right now and in the finals of the Eastern Conference. That’s a real positive for me. I think both can win it. I hope they don’t define how a coach does based on the championships. You should be judged on if you get the most out of the talent you’ve been given. They’ve both done an amazing job.”