‘You can’t look at the negatives consistently’

The Knicks rested Thursday after playing back-to-back games in Philadelphia and New York, splitting them for a 1-1 record so far this week.

Tonight, New York will host the Brooklyn Nets in the first matchup of the season between the neighbor franchises. Especially newsworthy: this will also mark Mikal Bridges’ first time battling his former squad since he moved across the bridge.

Here’s a little bit of what we’ve been able to fetch ahead of today’s game.

Mikal Bridges
On facing his former team as a member of the Knicks:

“I think it’s good to see my guys. I’ve got a lot of good friends over there.

“Even the coaching staff that is there, all the way up to Sean Marks, Andy. I’m real close with all those guys.

“It’s gonna be good to see them.”

Jalen Brunson

On the team’s resilience throughout Wednesday’s loss:

“Just proving to us in this locker room that we don’t stop fighting. That’s a takeaway we can take from this game.

“Obviously, the way it turned out was not the way we wanted, but there were a lot of positives. You can’t look at the negatives consistently. You can learn from stuff.

“You have to see what we can work on and go from there.”

Donte DiVincenzo (Minnesota Timberwolves Player)
On Tom Thibodeau’s tough reputation in league circles:

“Tibs gets his rap of ‘practice, practice, practice, practice’ but we’re playing, then a day off, playing, come and watch film, and playing. There’s only so much you can do.

“I will say he tries to get the most out of you every single day but it’s not running up and down, and then go and play 40 (minutes).

“If we were doing that, I wouldn’t be able to, there’s no way you can.”

On playing increased minutes under Thibodeau last season:

“With Tibs, you trust in whatever his decision is and we were winning. You can’t knock it, we were winning.

“I think you get to the point where, like after the season, I felt that my body felt really good. It wasn’t at the end of the year where I was like ‘damn, I’ve got nothing left.’

“I know a lot of guys got hurt and everything but me personally afterward, I was like ‘damn, we were one game away.’”