Of course, Indiana had to mess with New York.

Of course, the Knicks beat the Pacers.

Here’s the latest from those who did and did not play on Friday.

Mike Brown

On Mitchell Robinson’s load management paying off:

“It’s obviously shown that it’s paid off, because of his ability to, knock on wood, stay on the floor and play in games and play the minutes he played tonight.”

On balancing the bench guards’ minutes:

“It’s great, depending on what you need that night, you can go to this guy or that guy. The tough part about it is, the guys who are playing in front of them, you don’t want to give them a quick hook, so it’s hard to get them on the floor. There was some room for Jordan to play in the last game, keeping himself ready and it showed during the game. Tyler has to make sure that he does the same.”

On OG Anunoby’s fourth-quarter impact against Indiana:

“OG was huge for us. His ability to attack the rim tonight was big time, especially with the force that he did to get the nine free throws. He was a man on a mission.”

On not having a problem using early timeouts to prevent slow starts:

“I’ve just seen too many times when I don’t, where it seems like it gets worse and the next thing you know, we’re down 16–4. I’m going to do whatever I can to not let that happen. The tough part about it is if I do that, I’m down timeouts. So I don’t like doing it. But if I have to, I will try to wake them up.”

On the team’s poor starts lately:

“We’re turning it over to start. And our opponents are not feeling us. And if they do feel us, it’s because we’re reaching and sending them to the free-throw line. We have to take away the 3 to start the game. The last three games, teams are bang, bang, bang. Hit two or three 3s like the first 1 ½ minutes. We’re not getting to shooters and they’re not feeling us on our closeouts. If we do that and we’re taking care of the ball so we’re not fueling their transition, we should start games better. But we’re not giving ourselves a chance and we’re letting our opponents feel good about the way the game is starting. It’s been addressed. It will continue to be addressed and we will continue to keep scrambling until we can find a way to slow that area down.”

Mitchell Robinson

On playing 30-plus minutes for the first time this season:

“It definitely feels good. First time playing 30 minutes. Just getting out there and playing like that, to see the buildup, all the hard work I put in with this plan.”

On stepping up with Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart out:

“We had some guys out, so I had to step up. Basically, I had to step up.”

On his conditioning after a season-high workload:

“That was the first time this year. I’m a little bit worn out, but I’ve gotta work on my conditioning so I can actually play these types of minutes.”

On earning more trust offensively:

“They’re starting to trust me a little bit more each and every game offensively. And they see me putting in the work in the gym, so the trust is getting there.”

On the Knicks’ home-stretch mindset:

“Stay connected, stay conditioned and be ready to go.”

Jalen Brunson

On potentially representing Jamaica instead of the USA in the 2028 Olympics:

“I don’t know. I could play somewhere else.”

On Rick Carlisle’s coaching impact:

“Coach Carlisle does a great job, he’s been doing a great job his entire career. He’s gonna have them ready to play, regardless.”

On his teammates stepping up late vs. Indiana:

“Big time. That’s what they do, that’s what they’re capable of. I have the utmost confidence in those guys, regardless of any situation.”

Josh Hart

On playing for Germany in the World Cup and Olympics:

“You know I’m part German? I might try to get my German citizenship and play for the national team.”

Jose Alvarado

On whether he prefers playing for New York or Puerto Rico:

“Tough question. We had Guadalajara bumping for sure, but probably for my city. I was raised in New York. I don’t know. That’s probably what I’m gonna go with: playing for my city is definitely a dream, but doing what I did for the national team was dope, too, though, like amazing. Never really thought I would do that and I did.”

On his recent 3-point shooting woes:

“Terrible. I f–king suck, put that in the story. It f–king sucks right now. I just gotta continue to trust in my work. I’ve been a good shooter my whole career. It’s a different road, a different situation here. You asked me how my 3-point shooting is, it sucks, so I gotta get better at it.”

On navigating the shooting slump:

“It’s just basketball, that’s just part of basketball. The best of the best go through it, so imagine a role player. You just gotta figure it out, continue growing. This league is a make-or-miss league, so you gotta make shots to stay here. They gotta go in eventually to stay on the court.”