New York hosts an Eastern Conference Semi-Finals game, being two away from the ECF.

The Knicks have a chance to wrap up their second-round series tonight, inside MSG of all places, in front of a deafening crowd full of New Yorkers.

Best of all? The tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET, which means I will, once and for all, be watching live at 9:30 p.m. in my timezone, not losing sleep nor having to sit alone overnight. Shout-out Adam Silver!

Here’s what Coach Thibs and a few other people have said leading up to Game 3.

Tom Thibodeau

On Mitchell Robinson’s impact:

“He’s got great feet and anticipation. Not only his defense, but he’s very disciplined, learning how to become the second jumper. I think all those things helped eliminate the reckless fouls. He’s a hard guy to score over. Even if you score over him, it’s going to be a tough shot. I think he’s learned that. He doesn’t back down and those cheap fouls are gone.”

On Boston’s five-out offense and strong rebounding:

“I think they’ve always been real good at reacting to the ball. They’re quick to the ball, so you have to anticipate. Because of the five-out [spacing] you have to make sure you’re getting to bodies. If they get a running start, their smalls are great rebounders.”

On responding to Boston’s runs:

“I think the way they’re built they can go on runs. Obviously, we prefer not to do that. We also understand that it’s a 48 minute game and you’ve got to fight to win every possession. And I think that’s important to understand, it’s play after play. Sometimes if you fall short, the next one you’ve got to come back and do better. Just have the mentality of you’re going to keep going forward.”

On the Game 3 preparation and need for better execution:

“We know the strengths and weaknesses of their team. And they’re the defending champions, so we understand we have to bring it for 48 minutes. There has to be urgency, there has to be force, there has to be intensity, there has to [be] concentration. Right? And that’s the way we’re approaching it.”

“I’ve said this many times, we have great fans and we certainly appreciate the fans, the arena and all that. But what we have to understand is what goes into winning Game 3. You have to earn it. It’s not given to you. There’s no guarantees because you’re up in a series. There’s no guarantees because you’re at home. You have to earn it, and you have to earn it play after play.”

“You go on the road, you have a close-knit group, you understand that it’s you against the crowd, you against the atmosphere. Calls are probably not going to go your way so you have to make things go your way. We have to have that understanding, and then the same thing, it’s the playoffs so there’s urgency to it. Whether you’re home, road, there has to be urgency in every game. We have to understand what’s at stake. You have to earn your wins.”

“I think every game is different. Sometimes it ends up — you anticipate high-scoring and it ends up low-scoring. And I think the big thing is have the understanding that you have to win games different ways. Whether it’s a high-scoring, low-scoring, medium-scoring, just find a way to win the games.”

On having Pope Leo XIV on the Knicks side:

“Yeah, now they (former Villanova players) can be forgiven for their sins.”

Jalen Brunson

On Boston’s rebounding and shot volume:

“I feel like they’ve been getting to the offensive boards quick, and so we are aware of that, but it’s a different thing in-game when in-game they are taking a lot of long shots and [get] a lot of long rebounds. The natural thing to do is to go in around the restricted area, but with long shots we have to not be as far in the restricted area.”

On limiting Boston’s runs:

“Just making sure we are coming out ready from the jump. Limit their runs and make sure we are not having long lapses. There will be times in a game when they go on a run, but you have to snap out of it quickly. Focus on our defense and rebounding and making sure that we are running. Just focusing on each other.”

On Pope Leo XIV being a Villanova alum:

“Real cool. I’m just happy that we’re getting noticed for being a good school.

“It’s really cool for [Pope Leo] and I’m happy for him. But I’m a little focused right now.”

On Kristaps Porzingis’ impact:

“He’s obviously a big difference just because of what he’s able to do for their team. Regardless of what happens, we’ve gotta be ready to go and be locked in together. We can’t leave anyone on an island, having each other’s backs for every situation, attack it together.”

On ignoring praise and criticism:

“I see it. Whenever I see stuff like that—positive or negative—I flush it. I can’t have a reaction to it. You can’t react to the positive stuff and think you are not going to react to negative stuff. You have to exclude everything.”

On playing for New York:

“I’m just happy that I have an opportunity to play for a great organization and a great city. It’s just an opportunity I don’t want to take for granted.”

On tuning out distractions:

“Whenever you get inside those lines, you have to block out everything regardless of what is going on. You have to focus on the little things, being out there with your teammates and covering for each other. You have to have a certain level of focus.”

On the Knicks’ mentality entering Game 3 two games up:

“The mentality is 0–0. Don’t even focus on [the series lead]. Focus on the next play, the next quarter. Don’t look ahead, don’t look into anything. Just focus on the task at hand and be present… The game is unpredictable. No matter what you prepare for, there’s going to be things that happen that you’re not really ready for… We’ve got to be locked-in together.”

On the unpredictability of any particular game:

“I feel like it’s a mixture of a lot of things. But the game of basketball is unpredictable, and no matter what you prepare for, there’s gonna be things that happen that you’re not really ready for, so you’ve just got to go out there and figure out how to attack it as best you can regardless of what the situation is.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On believing in the Knicks’ 2-0 lead:

“Yeah, how would I not? We know we put the work in. We know what we have in this locker room, and we know we deserve to be in this moment.”

On what he expects as Boston’s response and the Knicks’ mindset to handle it:

“A lot more desperation, and I think they’re gonna execute at a higher level. We have to do our jobs. Control the controllables. Game plan. Offensive and defensive execution. Game-plan discipline. Those are the things we can control. We gotta do what we talk about or game plan for, and we gotta execute at a high level. They’re one of the best teams in the NBA and they’re the defending champions. So we expect nothing but their best every single night, and nothing should change.”

On the need to earn everything:

“But we also know we don’t deserve any of it yet. We haven’t earned the right to capture the moment. We have to do a lot more work playing one of the best teams in the NBA, and we know we can’t relax at any point.”

On rebounding and repetition:

“Doing those things that can become monotonous, just finding a body and boxing-out, something that we have to be willing to do for 48 minutes if we want to put ourselves in position to win against a team like this. I think that we’ve watched the film, we’ve seen our mistakes and we’re just trying to clean it up as much as possible so we can be a better version of ourselves than we were in the first two games.”

On the ridiculous second-half execution in Games 1 and 2:

“The way we’ve been playing in second halves, just kind of executing at an even higher level than those. You’re playing a defending champion. You know you’re playing one of the best teams in the NBA, so you know you’ve gotta bring your A-game. We just had a good two days, recalibrate, watch some film, get some practices in, so hope we can bring that kind of basketball team that’s in the second half that’s been playing.”

On Porzingis’ threat:

“He’s one of the more talented big men in the NBA. When you have someone who’s at that size who can shoot the basketball the way he does, obviously presents a ton of problems. Like I said, we had two days with game-planning. We’ve been able to look at the film to try to rectify the mistakes we’ve made in the first two games. Just want to present the best version of ourselves tomorrow.”

On representing New York:

“We know we’re repping the city anywhere we at with that jersey, so we always want to make our city proud. We want to make the fans proud. Give them something to cheer for. At the end of the day, most importantly, we want to make sure that the fans know that we gave everything we had that night and we had that New York mentality — win or loss. Just doing everything we can to, like I said, rep the city.”

On the MSG crowd energy:

“The fans here have been amazing for us all year so you expect nothing less from them. They’ve been bringing us energy and that support that’s needed all year for us to be at this point. So shoutouts to our fans. They really push us to new heights when they come out and support us like that.”

On the mindset entering Game 3:

“Control the controllables, and do everything we can to put ourselves in a position to win. If we can do that, we’ll live with the results. Don’t take it for granted, don’t get comfortable. You’ve got to be as desperate as we’ve been these last two games, in Game 3 and on. Never get comfortable with any success. Never too high, never too low.”

On game intensity and defense:

“I think both teams have made each other miss shots. Defense has been played at a high level. The intensity is at a high level. It’s just one of those things where both teams were very locked in trying to get a W, rep their city. The game goes that way sometimes. It’s not gonna always be 120, 125. The game just naturally plays itself out. Both teams are trying to win, so maybe it’s a 90-point win. Maybe it’s an over-100 game. You never know.”

On taking nothing for granted:

“We left home 2-2. We can’t take anything for granted. We’ve got to … [execute] at a high level, can’t keep doing these 20-point leads for Boston and hope to come back and win the game. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to shoot better. We’ve got to execute better.”

Cameron Payne

On the Knicks’ postseason run:

“Thank God for Detroit.”

Miles McBride

On the Knicks’ resilience:

“We’ve gone through a lot of fire. And we’re gonna walk through it together.”

Mikal Bridges

On team confidence under pressure:

“You can look in everybody’s eyes and it’s kinda not a stressed look. It’s kinda like a confident look, knowing, all right, let’s see how much time is left and just take it one play at a time.”

P.J. Tucker

On OG Anunoby’s two-way dominance:

“OG’s been off the charts. I don’t know how he didn’t win Defensive Player of the Year. I don’t think it’s even close. I think he’s the best two-way player in the league. He’s always played defense, but this year offensively he’s taken it up another notch. I don’t think we ran one play for him (in Game 1) and he had 30 points. I’m telling you, it’s incredible. He’s amazed me this year and he’s the Defensive Player of the Year, no doubt.”

Joe Mazzulla

On Mitchell Robinson’s impact:

“He was a plus-19. All their starters were in the negative. He’s good on both ends of the floor. He’s able to play by himself. He’s able to play double-big with [Karl-Anthony] Towns on the defensive end. His ability to protect the rim, his ability to get extra possessions, his screening, he was able to get [Mikal] Bridges some open looks last night with his ability to screen. He’s a huge factor to what they do. We gotta find ways to negate that.”

On the reasons behind the blown leads:

“I think any time you blow two 20-point leads you can always go to a bunch of things as to why that happens within a game. I think there are so many factors that go into it and each game was different. I thought in (Game 2), you start the second quarter, to me you can even take it a step further. To me, the bonus foul we had when it was 46-30 is just as impactful as getting it from 16 (points) to nine ending the first half. But then again, we got it to 20 (later) but just those types of plays are what give teams life, whether it’s malicious from the standpoint of, you know, did we have good intentions and not execute or did we have poor intentions. And I think more along the lines of Game 2 we had good intentions, we just didn’t execute.”

On the need for better execution in key moments:

“You go up 20 and we have a transition turnover, we have a tip dunk that we don’t get and then we miss two open looks. So we just have to be better at executing in those situations when we’re in that moment and having an understanding that we’re playing against a great team and they’re obviously going to make their runs. We need to manage those with proper execution, proper situational defense throughout the entire game.”

On the need to eliminate some pride in order to improve:

“I think there’s actually a sense of you could be very prideful in thinking of like, ‘Oh, who are we that we’re not allowed to be down 0-2?’ And so I think you have to eliminate that pride and have an understanding of, this is the way that it is. At the same time, people don’t become who they say they want to become unless they transition these moments into greater moments. And that may not be this year, it could be just in life itself, but you can’t just have a pride and entitlement that we’re holier than thou, that we’re not allowed to be down 0-2. This is the situation that we’re in, so we have to have an understanding of why we’re in it and we got to fix it. And we have an opportunity to fix that. So yeah, I do relish that because these moments are all forgotten if you transition them into taking advantage of the opportunity that you have.”

On Kristaps Porzingis’ status and Game 2 performance:

“We do know [what it is]. He has an illness. He has the effects of that illness — fatigue and breathing — and he’s doing everything he can to give us what he has. We hope he continues to get better and better with these two days off. We hope that it will be better. We need him for us to be at our best. He’s in there every day, doing what he can, and I thought he gave us those 13 or 14 minutes were good and hopefully we can build on that with a couple of these days off.”

Payton Pritchard

On Boston’s mindset before Game 2:

“Especially after watching the Pacers-Cleveland game, it’s a full 48-minute fight tonight. We let off the throttle last game up 20 (points) so we let that one slip. So we can’t let stuff like that happen.”

David Lee

On Boston’s psychological challenge facing a possible 2-0 deficit:

“I think there was definitely a mental aspect to what happened (Wednesday) in Game 2. If you’re the Celtics, you either have to say ‘Ok, we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and have the confidence that we are going to shoot our way out of it.’ Or you have to try to change your whole game plan. I just think they will stick with exactly what they are doing and they’re going to have confidence that their shots will eventually go in.”

On Porzingis and Boston’s identity:

“It helps [the Knicks] that [Kristaps] Porzingis isn’t at full strength. I think he’s the guy that I look at that probably hasn’t given them as much as he normally does when healthy. But I think the rest of [the issues] is you kind of live by the 3, die by the 3.”

On Boston’s three-point strategy:

“If you all of a sudden say ‘OK, we’re going to shoot less 3’s and we’re going to attack the rim and we’re going to change our lineups,’ then I think you’re going away from what has been the strength of your team that won the championship last year and has been one of the best teams all season long. But if you keep shooting 3’s and they keep not going in, now you’re putting more pressure on yourself to make 3’s. Because don’t think that (Wednesday) when they go up 20, that they didn’t think in the back of their minds they weren’t saying, ‘This is where we were in Game 1’ and then the Knicks start making a couple of shots and the Celtics start thinking, ‘OK, here we go again.’

Rev. Robert P. Hagan

On expecting Pope Leo XIV to keep watching the Villanova Knicks:

“We’ve had a lot of fun watching the Knicks because Jalen (Brunson) and Josh (Hart) and Donte (DiVincenzo) was there and now Mikal (Bridges) is there. I think that Pope Leo will still keep an eye on the Nova Knicks. I think he’ll still keep an eye on the Wildcats, and I think he’ll be very proud of not just who they are but the way that they play with a certain spirit and unselfishness.”