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New York Post
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00:00:14welcome back to another edition of new york got game we are breaking down the nba finals we are
00:00:20here knicks versus spurs feels like it's 1999 all over again some of us remember that brian
00:00:28you do not i do if you want to say that makes me feel old it's whatever dexter henry brian
00:00:33fonseca
00:00:33here we're going to preview the finals like i said we have a pretty fun show for you we are
00:00:39going to
00:00:40look at some film but first before we get to the film we have to bring in our guy he
00:00:45is the fantastic
00:00:46beat writer covering the knicks for us here at the new york post he is already in san antonio in
00:00:5290
00:00:52degree weather it's my guy stephan bondi join me now steph what's going on man what's up man
00:00:58yes not only it's higher than 90 i mean like mid 90s right now midnight crazy geez that makes me
00:01:05that makes me ready for summer but i like that we're ready for summer i like i like 90 degree
00:01:09weather there's somebody in this room our technical director who hates 90 degree weather but 90 is a
00:01:14little much it's a little much kind of depends on the humidity i don't know what do you say what
00:01:18do
00:01:18you say stuff you like the 90 degree weather yeah i'm a summer guy like you know send me to
00:01:22a beach
00:01:23send me to island somewhere and i'll sit there and i'll get really burned for the first day and
00:01:27then after that i'll feel better so sounds good i'm all about it i'm i'm with that man it's it's
00:01:33definitely better than uh yeah you'll definitely get sunburned you didn't even see one of the last
00:01:37watch parties we did i had a sunburn on my head because i didn't sunscreen my head because i had
00:01:41gotten a haircut i got that problem that's it i got that you feel me you know oh stephan you
00:01:46told me
00:01:46one time about a bad sunburn situation it's happened to be twice it's happened to be twice
00:01:50uh i now that now that i'm in the bald company with our friend stephan bondi i have to worry
00:01:56about
00:01:56that more in the summer so like last summer i had to gotta worry about it less than me bro
00:02:02come on
00:02:03no no he's right the melanin matters here that's what he's saying i'm not i'm not fair i gotta be
00:02:09fair bondi's right i can't even i gotta just be like noted get get it still gotta put on the
00:02:15sunscreen not trying to say our brothers and sisters out there to not put on the sunscreen but
00:02:19i wouldn't even i wouldn't even at a beach i was doing an interview by city field the sun was
00:02:23just
00:02:23everywhere though that's that's a rough one that's a rough one all right we're not here to talk about
00:02:26sunscreen uh steph we've talked about this next team all year and now that we're here in the finals
00:02:33i guess how surprising is it to you that the knicks are actually four wins away from a title
00:02:39considering where we started talking about this team at the start of the season well from the start of
00:02:44the season i'm not totally shocked i think when you looked at it from the very beginning it was
00:02:50the knicks and the calves and um but as the season progressed the detroit pistons obviously took a huge
00:02:57step forward the boston celtics became a big problem even when they didn't have jason tatum for most of the
00:03:03season and the knicks were a roller coaster um you know if you go back to that stretch in january
00:03:09where
00:03:09they were just they looked like they weren't going to get out of the first round so if i take
00:03:13it from
00:03:13the very beginning of the season i'm not i wouldn't be totally shocked that they're in the finals but
00:03:18you know if you take the totality of the season and up to this point uh it is a little
00:03:23surprising
00:03:24and it's more surprising how they got here i mean they just steamrolled the eastern conference like
00:03:29they are head and shoulders above everybody else in their conference um and they don't know they've
00:03:36they've done it in record-breaking historic fashion just in terms of the point differential
00:03:40and stuff like that so the whole thing to me is surprising steph how much are you taking from the
00:03:48regular season matchups that we saw uh as you're factoring in like what to expect for these playoffs
00:03:53because it feels like both teams have grown significantly since even their march matchup
00:03:57with the knicks going on their run of dominance and then the spurs knocking off okc and actually having
00:04:03more playoff lumps or playoff lumps period you know having playoff experience now because last time we
00:04:08saw them they didn't have any and now they've gotten that experience of winning three rounds since
00:04:14yeah no um i usually as a as a rule don't factor in regular season results too much into the
00:04:20postseason
00:04:20as everybody tells me the people who have competed in this stuff the people have coached this stuff
00:04:25there's really there's really not much you can glean from the regular season
00:04:29um as a projection of playoffs but for me like you know as a human i will if i'm the
00:04:35knicks i have
00:04:35confidence that you can crack that defense that vaunted defense of the san antonio spurs just because
00:04:42they did it before um and if you look at the you know how they beat them in the regular
00:04:47season and in
00:04:48the nba cup finals they put up some pretty high scoring numbers so i you know just from a confidence
00:04:53standpoint i think that that can that might project into the postseason but if you look at the schemes
00:04:59and the different stuff like that it's a totally different team on both sides of the on both sides
00:05:04of the ball yeah there's no doubt that these teams are very different than what we saw from them in
00:05:08the
00:05:08regular season i you got to look at the both of the players here uh steph the spurs obviously with
00:05:15their star in wemby the knicks with their star in jalen brunson both guys trying to win who would you
00:05:21say who do you think is more pressure is it is it wemby to win in the series is it
00:05:25wemby trying to
00:05:26get his first is it brunson also trying to get his first and then the heaviness of the knicks 53
00:05:31year
00:05:31drought who do you think is more pressure to win in the series i think jalen has more pressure i
00:05:35don't
00:05:35think there's much of a question on that just because you know he's a pretty he's going to be 30
00:05:39years old this summer um you know the team that has constructed you don't know if you're going to be
00:05:46back right um and you know i know that they're all under contract and stuff like that but
00:05:51every single player on this roster is approaching or is past 30 years old and this is their first
00:05:56time in the finals whereas you look on the other side wemby's what 23 yeah um stefan castle's young
00:06:02um you know they got just a young nucleus across the board and you know you look at that team
00:06:09and
00:06:09you say they're going to be back um and they they basically i know they're going to say that
00:06:16all right you know we're we're still focused on winning the championship we're not worried about
00:06:21winning the east western conference title but beating okc was like their holy grail like they've
00:06:27been focused on that for so long um and they did it they did it well during the regular season
00:06:32and
00:06:32then to accomplish that in the postseason i do wonder whether there's some sort of letdown after
00:06:38that whether there's some complacency because you know like i said that that was kind of like their
00:06:43holy grail all season long and and they accomplished it and they accomplished it in a grueling
00:06:48physical entertaining series while the knicks were just sitting home watching it happen um and they're
00:06:54rested and fully loaded and so you're like everything is falling into place for the knicks to win this
00:06:59championship so they better do it now well stef can you can you expand on that thought a little bit
00:07:04because we actually did see this with minnesota a couple years ago where they built their team to beat
00:07:10denver they beat denver but then dallas got them in the next round and similarly with the knicks even
00:07:15last year they built their team to beat the celtics they finally did in the playoffs then they ran into
00:07:19indiana and people thought that they were just going to take care of that series and we saw what
00:07:23happened so could you expand on the thought of hey maybe this could be an emotional like a little
00:07:28bit of a come down for the spurs if they're not careful because now they beat the team that they've
00:07:33were built to beat so to speak in okc but now you're facing a different challenge in the knicks in
00:07:37the
00:07:37finals yeah i mean you just you kind of just explained it really well as there's as you look
00:07:42historically this this tends to happen um now with that said um you know everybody knows how
00:07:49wimby's wired um and you know he's shooting to be the greatest of all time already you know there's
00:07:56there was a part of me watching all that shallon monk stuff and playing chess in the park i'm like
00:08:00how much of this is like performative like is this real and then i i talked to a couple people
00:08:06that
00:08:06knew him they were like yeah that's real like that's really how he thinks like he is ultra
00:08:12competitive um and he's striving to be the best he can be like for instance that matchup against chet
00:08:18hongren i mean he took that there's a beef there like i don't know how many people know but there's
00:08:24a beef there like i think it was in 2021 during the when france u19 played against usa u19 chet
00:08:31won
00:08:31that game and was named the mvp and then there must have been some trash talking back and forth
00:08:36and stuff like that and ever since then wimby hates him and wants to get and he like he like
00:08:42legitimately punk that dude you know what i mean like i i have i have not seen a dude get
00:08:47that like
00:08:47you know jittery and and and scared since like ben simmons in the in the playoffs you know what i
00:08:53mean
00:08:53so um yeah so like he takes this stuff seriously he's ultra competitive and um you know so a lot
00:09:00of
00:09:00that stuff is just real i love the i love the ben simmons cop there because that's that's spot on
00:09:06i
00:09:07chet did not want to shoot man that man he was always worried where's wimby where's when you see it
00:09:12and when he would get the ball on the block and wimby would be there and he'd just be like
00:09:16nope i'm
00:09:17gonna pass that out we would we're not even we're not even going up here speaking of wimby
00:09:21and i think we all would agree here that he's unlike any player that we've ever seen
00:09:24uh steph if you're mike brown you're not going to stop him but how do you slow him down what
00:09:31do
00:09:31what do the knicks have to do to try to slow down wimby well i mean you got to look
00:09:35at it on both sides
00:09:36of the court because obviously on defense he's a weapon unlike we've ever seen um i think the most
00:09:43first unanimous defensive player of the year and deserving of it um and so what the spurs are going to
00:09:47try
00:09:47to do on that end is they're probably gonna put them on josh hart and then you're gonna dare josh
00:09:53hart to make those corner threes which you can do but even beyond that it's a lot more complicated than
00:09:57just saying that because the spurs aren't the calves the spurs are athletic and fast as hell
00:10:03like they're gonna rotate and they're gonna make life very difficult for the knicks even if even if
00:10:09they're open like even if wimby leaves them open like josh hart so listen i think the best way to
00:10:14counter
00:10:16um when binyama is to get him involved in pick and roll somehow um try to get him away from
00:10:22the
00:10:22basket as much as possible um i you know get jalen brunson involved in actions and pulling up for
00:10:28mid-range jumpers because you know you're not going to be able to drive on them um and you know
00:10:33pray and
00:10:34here's another one the if i'm the knicks like if you look at the numbers when wimby's not on the
00:10:41court
00:10:41the spurs are way worse so you know he's gonna get tired he's a big man he's seven foot four
00:10:47uh he
00:10:48might get in foul trouble if cornet is on the court i got jalen in the court all the time
00:10:54you you jalen
00:10:55is on the court every single minute that luke cornet is off is on the court and you gotta you
00:11:01don't just
00:11:01gotta win those minutes you gotta kick their ass in that in those minutes so one way of beating wimby
00:11:07is
00:11:07just playing really well when he's not on the court yeah and on the other hand you obviously got
00:11:12to put og on um on wimby um and you know try to figure out how to put i even
00:11:20in my head i'm like
00:11:21when i do that who do i put where do i put jalen probably on the cell and then where
00:11:27do i put cat
00:11:28maybe on champagne yeah it just doesn't you know what i mean like it just doesn't it's hard to find
00:11:34the right matchups if you put og on on wimby which i think the knicks should and should do because
00:11:41wimby has problems for people that size um i think that's the best kind of defender against wimby you
00:11:48even saw wimby have some of those issues in the western conference finals even against someone like
00:11:52alex caruso who just had a little bit of strength on him there so that could be interesting i just
00:11:56want to
00:11:57hit back on something that you said too that i think is really important i think brian would
00:12:00agree with me on this too i totally agree with you steph the minutes where wimby's not on the court
00:12:05that's going to be really important we were at that i believe you were there at that sunday
00:12:09game march 1st where the knicks they fell behind 19 to 7 at the garden and then he came back
00:12:14and part of
00:12:15that was they killed them they that game really changed when we got off the court and the knicks killed
00:12:19him there how do you think the chess match could go between mike brown and mitch johnson if you know
00:12:26brunson is on the floor when wimby's off do you think he'll maybe force to put wimby on the floor
00:12:32is that advantage knicks because wimby hasn't played that amount of minutes thus far this is
00:12:37the longest run he's played of basketball on any level so how do you think that chess match goes back
00:12:43and forth because mike brown has been really good at making these adjustments and will continue to make
00:12:47that but do you see that being a chess match that we should keep our eye on throughout this series
00:12:51yeah and even more so than the chess match between coaches i think you have to look at
00:12:55is wimby getting tired like you mentioned um and is he in foul trouble and that's going to dictate
00:13:02obviously how much he plays because yeah wimby's wimby's obviously great and they're way way better
00:13:07when he's on the court but you don't want to totally exhaust him so you know i don't know what
00:13:12the
00:13:12spurs are thinking just in terms of how many minutes they want to play them during what stretches
00:13:16when they want to hold them back i don't know but they can't play them 48 minutes you know what
00:13:21i mean so um when he's not in the game if i'm mike brown i say all right let's go
00:13:26starters in let's do
00:13:28this that's fair i'll be intrigued to see see that see that happen if the luke cornet minutes are so
00:13:33bad
00:13:34and the spurs decide to shelf him and maybe go like kelden johnson at the five now this would be
00:13:40with
00:13:41a car anthony towns lineup specifically because they're gonna try to put wings on car anthony towns we just
00:13:46mentioned but if they put like kelden at the five harrison barnes maybe at the four if they're
00:13:50using their backups or somebody else and then stagger some of the guards do you think that's a matchup
00:13:55that the knicks could take advantage of because that's one way that the spurs can five out with
00:13:59luke cornet off the floor but then the knicks could also five out around carl and the towns there
00:14:04yeah i mean kelden johnson's not kelden johnson what's his three-point proficiency i'm trying to think
00:14:10i want to say he's around 35 he's okay he's he's not he's not terrible he's not awesome um he
00:14:17also
00:14:17does uh often slash but for the regular season he was 36 which is you know pretty good and so
00:14:25far
00:14:26and so far for the playoffs this year he is at 36 also so you think yeah well i i
00:14:34don't know how you
00:14:35would deal with that if i'm the knicks defensively but if you know offensively i would still attack
00:14:40kelden johnson the same way i was attacking luke cornet um you know and get him in pick and rolls
00:14:45as much as possible because i don't think you know he's not wimby um i think the knicks could just
00:14:50take
00:14:50advantage of that matchup as well as they you know maybe you know he's he's not as slow-footed as
00:14:55luke
00:14:55cornet obviously but he can't keep up with jalen brunson and pick and rolls yeah that's not happening
00:15:01there uh steph we got to talk about mitchell robinson um he's been a huge talking point
00:15:06among the fan base you know and us in the media as well too how concerned should the knicks fan
00:15:13base
00:15:13be about his hand injury and then does this matchup look any different in your eyes if he's not a
00:15:20hundred
00:15:20percent on on the court he's not going to be a hundred percent obviously but if he's not able to
00:15:24give you competent minutes how do you think this matchup looks differently yeah um well i don't know
00:15:30how listen i'm not a doctor so i'm not going to speculate what i do know is that um it
00:15:36was a
00:15:38met uh fifth metacarpal fracture sound like a doctor there stuff that's pretty good there you go
00:15:44um and you know those things keep you out a while now i also heard that there's hope that he's
00:15:53going to
00:15:53play um and you know the the other part element of this is is mike brown confirmed to the media
00:16:02was
00:16:02this did not happen during practice or in a game so you know there's a lot going on with that
00:16:09uh
00:16:10including mitchell robinson is going to be a free agent after the season um he might have cost himself a
00:16:15lot of money uh we'll see but um you know as far as how it's going to impact the series
00:16:25um you know if he's not able to catch lobs if he's not able to do putbacks um you know
00:16:32that's a problem
00:16:33now i still think that even if he's not able to do those things i you still need them like
00:16:39you know cat
00:16:40cat cat is not going to play the whole game you need the 15 minutes where he can 12 to
00:16:4715 minutes
00:16:47where mitchell robinson would be better more impactful even at 50 percent than zarek jeremy
00:16:53sohan or ariel hook porty and you need that backup center minutes because cats gonna you know he might
00:16:59be in foul trouble he might get tired um you need somebody to absorb those fouls you need somebody in
00:17:05that position and mitchell robinson even if he can't do those things i still i would still play him
00:17:11yeah how real is the chance that he doesn't play game one i don't all i know is that there's
00:17:18all i
00:17:19know is that there's hope that he's gonna play that's all i know and i know that's not telling
00:17:23you much but i don't know anything else all right knicks hope they play the fans hope they play do
00:17:29you
00:17:30think that the knicks because they've been dominant stuff you you taught you hit on this before just how
00:17:36dominant they've been in this run and you'll have the people to say the knicks have had an easy path
00:17:40although
00:17:40i don't think people were saying that when they broke and got the hawks before the start of the
00:17:44playoffs but they haven't been dominant but they've shown they could win in different ways do you think
00:17:49the knicks versatility that we've seen from them here in the postseason is an advantage for them going
00:17:54into the series yeah i mean they you're talking about the cat at the elbow stuff yeah just just
00:18:02the ways they've shown um to be versatile offensively and then the defense has been together in the
00:18:06string the way they can score very different ways in transition all of that just combining everything
00:18:11we've seen from them and how they've been able to win yeah i mean um they've been able to show
00:18:16that
00:18:17they have depth too i think that helps when you can bring in a guy like landry shaman who can
00:18:20win
00:18:20you a game out of nowhere um you know miles mcbride had a big game against philly um they've that
00:18:27was
00:18:27one thing they were obviously missing last season is that depth and it might be compromised a little
00:18:32bit if mitchell robinson isn't playing but um you know i think those are all big elements to winning
00:18:38championship and um when you you know the other team can't scheme for just one thing
00:18:44that really helps and we all knew from the beginning that guys like mikhail bridges and
00:18:50og and anobi are better off offensively in a fast-paced um you know transition game so the
00:18:57knicks have been able to do that they were able to run a lot on cleveland i don't think it's
00:19:01gonna
00:19:02they're gonna be able to do that against um against san antonio i the big difference between san
00:19:08antonio and every other team that the knicks played so far is just the level of athleticism and speed
00:19:13from their perimeter players like stefan castle is like supreme athlete like we know how fast dearon
00:19:19fox is um you know up and down they're just they're athletes and um they have that event the spurs
00:19:28have
00:19:28that advantage in this series so um you know it'll be interesting to see what the knicks do because
00:19:35they're also going to have problems scoring in the paint because wendy's down there uh it's going to be a
00:19:39lot of jump shooting and they better hit their three pointers gotta hit your shots uh steph as
00:19:46someone covering them on a day-to-day basis how much do you buy into the mentality shift like
00:19:52dexter's talked about this and them being so like focused in a different way now how much do you
00:19:56actually buy into that as as part of this turnaround and how much do you think that matters or is
00:20:01it just
00:20:02hey they're figuring things out on the court and they're taking advantage of some maybe matchup
00:20:06favoritism if you will like what what what is it in your mind that led to this turnaround um
00:20:14i don't know i don't think are you saying like did they focus more like i guess i guess i
00:20:19would
00:20:20i would ask what do you think is the biggest difference that that led to this like what
00:20:24can you explain the transformation to us over the last month and a half where now they look like one
00:20:29of
00:20:29the best teams ever on this playoff run yeah i mean i i don't i wish i could tell you
00:20:34i don't know
00:20:35what exactly i mean other than you know incorporating cat at the elbow and new elements of the offense
00:20:42in the middle of the first round series um there hasn't been much of a difference i think that
00:20:49what it is is you just really had a group of players who were really good and they're clicking
00:20:54and they're catching fire at the exact right time and you know part of this is you build towards
00:21:01something and for years they've been building towards us like you know we we know that the core
00:21:06of josh hart um jalen brunson um and carl anthony towns and mikhail bridges um have been together now
00:21:15for two full years and some of them have been together since college some of them together for
00:21:18more than you know four years or whatever in the nba so it's been um this is a culmination of
00:21:24a group
00:21:25that has been together for a long time and you can't like you can't replicate chemistry that's why
00:21:31you know i know you're gonna ask me my for my prediction but i'll give it to you right now
00:21:35that's
00:21:35why i'm picking the nixon six because um you know there is the element with the spurs of they're just
00:21:41too young they're not ready to do this and you gotta lose before you can win and i think that
00:21:46the nicks
00:21:47have been have shown um that they're ready that they've gone through everything they needed to go
00:21:53through to reach this point yeah do you think that victor women yama
00:22:01is like the antidote to that though potentially like do you think because you know typically you
00:22:07don't win when you're young except if you're magic johnson and you go to an already loaded team and
00:22:11then you add to that you know whatever magic johnson does and he's one of the best ever but
00:22:15do you think victor women it happened one other time it happened one other time you want to get
00:22:20well not maybe not one other time but it happened one time that's coming to my mind
00:22:23do you know who won the nba final the mvp when he was super young like this
00:22:27moses malone no but after that bill russell after that no way after that yeah after
00:22:36now you got me thinking yeah when 1999 1999 right right right but he had david robinson but i think
00:22:44that i think i'm not saying you're wrong there stuff because i don't think you are but but is victor
00:22:49women yama transcendent enough to where we have to reevaluate that a little bit just because of
00:22:55what they did against the thunder and they're i mean they're favorites in this series whether it's
00:22:59fair or not yeah no um i don't know i mean maybe we have to re i mean he's just
00:23:08a completely different
00:23:08player than any anybody that i've ever seen before and i think you guys can say the same thing when
00:23:12you're seven foot four you can have handles and dribble past people you can shoot a three-pointer
00:23:18you can dunk without jumping you have an eight-foot wingspan it's like yeah this is we have we have
00:23:24to
00:23:24reevaluate everything we think about basketball because of this guy with him you know it's always
00:23:29been with me i'm always worried he was going to get injured i'm like that body doesn't make sense like
00:23:35like you can't walk and run around because you're gonna get hurt it's it's like that people were not
00:23:40made to be we're not made to be built like that but he's been healthy so um you know it's
00:23:47he's healthy
00:23:49he has the right mindset as we went over and yeah he's raising bars all over the place i think
00:23:54steph
00:23:55i think you and i have a very similar perspective on why our predictions for the series are the same
00:24:01the knicks i just think they understand the moment and how they've been clicking together
00:24:05and coming through all this time i think all that stuff matters when sometimes when you're
00:24:08building a championship team and it might be i i'm not saying brian that i'd be shocked about
00:24:12what you're saying if victor wambiyama and the spurs become an anomaly here although i do think
00:24:16steph's tim duncan points a good one um i just think the knicks are just the way they've been playing
00:24:23i just sometimes look i i quoted this on the show it doesn't take a whole day you know the
00:24:27common
00:24:27line doesn't take a whole day to recognize sunshine right i think we've seen the knicks play really
00:24:32really good basketball here at a high level and i think we all have watched basketball we know it
00:24:36when we see it now that doesn't mean they're going to win here um and that kind of brings me
00:24:41to another
00:24:42question and steph thank you for getting the prediction out the way because i knew you you knew
00:24:45i was going to ask you um if i said to you right now that one knicks role player will
00:24:52definitively
00:24:52change this series who do you think who would you say that role player is because we know in
00:24:57these big time series the finals somebody's going to be an x-factor but who do you think that role
00:25:01player is that could be you got it in you got it in you disguise the x-factor question but
00:25:06you got
00:25:06it in yo so for me ryan you don't know this right you don't know this but the round about
00:25:12way but you
00:25:13got it in the last time steph and i did what was that the uh i think that was the
00:25:17i don't remember
00:25:17the cabs or the sixers it was one of the it was one of these times and me and steph
00:25:20were on doing
00:25:21the preview it's just me and steph and i i he's like tex you always got to ask me the
00:25:25x-factor
00:25:26and you always got to ask me the prediction to be fair to steph steph always puts it back on
00:25:30me
00:25:30he's like what you got what what you got yeah who's your x-factor who you got see i told
00:25:35you
00:25:35stuff but steph knows i'm going to be prepared he knows this so steph i i think you asked me
00:25:40this
00:25:40last time and i will say the same thing i've been riding with this the whole playoffs i'm going with
00:25:44josh hart yeah i think josh hart's the x-factor here man i think he's got to be decisive i
00:25:48think
00:25:48he has to um obviously you want to see him shoot the ball well but i think it's about attacking
00:25:53making
00:25:54decisions putting pressure on wendy he's got to do that even if it's not just shooting the ball from
00:25:58three i think he's got to put pressure on him he's got to bring the intensity in terms of rebounding
00:26:02and do all the little things he does that part i don't worry about him it's just if he loses
00:26:06confidence
00:26:07in the shot then i think that really swings things for the knicks so for me he's the guy that
00:26:12can really change this change the series for the next that's that's me all right i'm not gonna go
00:26:16i'm gonna go a little unconventional i'm not gonna go with a player i'm just gonna go as a team
00:26:20with
00:26:21one specific angle which is how are they going to respond like game one to me is huge i agree
00:26:27when you
00:26:27have when you have a series like this you know it's gonna come down to like one you know one
00:26:32possession
00:26:32here and there and that's gonna determine who's the champion um the knicks obviously did not look good
00:26:38in game one against the cleveland cavaliers in the beginning uh after that long layoff we know this
00:26:45is a totally different situation though too they're going to be on the road for game one for the first
00:26:49time in the playoffs the knicks fans are not going to be able to take over san antonio the way
00:26:53they
00:26:54took over philadelphia the way they took over cleveland and the way they even took over atlanta
00:26:59and part of that is well you got to fly across the country the other part is you know when
00:27:04the knicks
00:27:05um went to those cities well specifically philly and cleveland they were already up too well so the
00:27:12fan base was juiced and the fan bases for the other team were kind of like all right to take
00:27:16our
00:27:16tickets like i don't blame you like take as much you know i mean like give me all your money
00:27:20so right
00:27:21now the cleveland i mean the the san antonio fans think they can win a championship and they're
00:27:27going to be juiced up and it's going to be game one and i think the knicks cannot leave san
00:27:33antonio
00:27:33without a split you know they can't they can't go to back to madison square garden down two oh
00:27:38because then you're going to have to win i agree my math is terrible how many of you got to
00:27:42win four
00:27:43out of five four out of five against the spurs just did against it's gonna happen yeah so i mean
00:27:48but
00:27:48so yeah i mean so that's my x factor does that make any sense yeah spurs won three out of
00:27:55four
00:27:55against the thunder i like even that was unprecedented i like that i like that x factor
00:27:59because i do think i even will take it a step further on you steph i do think game one's
00:28:04important
00:28:04but i do think i think it's almost imperative to go up 1-0 that it is to be down
00:28:090-1 and have to win
00:28:10that second game i because because i agree with what steph's saying there i don't think you can have
00:28:15a repeat of what happened against the calves i think it's so imperative the knicks come out strong
00:28:19in game one and if the knicks win game one i even feel better about them winning those i think
00:28:25mitch
00:28:25johnson would use his timeouts maybe maybe well you can't look bad that's what i'm saying they're
00:28:31like you play the spur if you have that first three quarters the first half especially that you had
00:28:36against cleveland you're not coming back against the first you're losing that game yeah 100 100 100
00:28:42percent percent agree um i guess one of the last things for me is what do you think the biggest
00:28:48advantage is for the knicks in this series over the spurs what do you think the thing is that's
00:28:52keeping the spurs up at night right now they're thinking about with this next team is it the
00:28:56momentum is it the experience they have what do you think is the biggest advantage for the knicks in
00:28:59this series yeah the the experience the rest and the momentum i mean right now the team the
00:29:04knicks look like a team of destiny and when you have that type of confidence and you're just
00:29:09blowing teams out what is their point differential it is outrageous i don't even know what a million
00:29:13232 something like that a million plus a million yeah um you know if i'm if i'm the spurs and
00:29:20i'm
00:29:20staring down that other team that's doing that to whomever and i realize the spurs like ah you're in the
00:29:25eastern conference this and that um i'm like damn all right this they're coming in with a lot of
00:29:31confidence and you know i don't they're not mike tyson but imagine like lining up against mike tyson
00:29:37in his prime where he's just knocking dudes out in the first round there's an intimidation factor
00:29:41um and you know that's what i'm looking at if i'm the spurs thinking like well maybe these guys
00:29:48really think they're unbeatable and the way they're playing right now maybe they are so um
00:29:53that's why i'm also looking at game one like if if the spurs come out and they take you know
00:29:57they win
00:29:58that first game then all of a sudden that confidence and stuff like that and that intimidation factor just
00:30:03goes away but if the nicks win game one you know they still carry that i agree 100 100 100
00:30:12percent
00:30:12agree i'm a little bit disappointed stuff you know i did kind of go around with the x factor question
00:30:17and you got the prediction early but i thought you might predict the next sweep i thought that's what
00:30:21you might have done but you might have said well i'll tell you this yeah i predicted accurately the
00:30:27nicks would win beat the hawks in six you did correct i'm like the only dude who was like yo
00:30:32they're gonna beat the crap out of the sixers that's not really that's true you were the only
00:30:36person that said that this is true i believe you said five but you were close enough i thought i
00:30:40said
00:30:41five but i i was giving him way too much respect but and then after that i said everybody was
00:30:47like oh
00:30:47cleveland like they're they're this and that you know donovan mitchell james harden i was like james
00:30:53hard and can't move nixon five and i was wrong about that just because they were worse than i
00:30:59thought but i was like the only person that picked nixon in that short of a series so um i've
00:31:04been hot
00:31:04i'm on a hot streak like the mix i thought you'd be hotter and go with nixon four i'm just
00:31:08saying you
00:31:08you've been a little bit giving a little bit too much maybe you should shave again but as i said
00:31:13like
00:31:13the spurs are like we're talking like a whole different class yeah i know i know we're we're we i
00:31:18have the same pick as you and we are respecting the spurs i think it's a it's a different i'm
00:31:21on a heater just
00:31:22like the knicks hey man well hey you got to be on top of your game in game one you
00:31:26can't be like
00:31:26messing up any articles or anything then i'll have to be like yo steph lost his confidence we can't
00:31:31have that i know the only difference is if i miss a deadline i could get fired the next one
00:31:35they'll
00:31:36make their millions they'll be fine fair fair point fair point that is our great stephan bondy
00:31:41steph i will see you when you return to new york i'll be in the building with you for game
00:31:45three
00:31:45appreciate you joining us on this preview thank you man all right man thanks for having me thanks
00:31:50steph we're here now finals times knicks are in the nba finals you know how we do with new york
00:31:54god game we have the live watch parties going on with myself and brian fonseca and we're bringing it
00:32:01live and direct to you we're going to be for the first two games of the nba finals so games
00:32:06one and
00:32:06two we're going to be at magic hour rooftop lounge and bar in manhattan that's 485 7th avenue come
00:32:13tapping with us for the first two games we'll be around other nick fans we're going to be watching the
00:32:17game live we're still going to be interacting with our viewers online taking your comments taking
00:32:22your questions doing our post game show it's all going to be at magic hour so it's really going to
00:32:28be fun i'm excited for this we're doing something a little bit different but it's a way for us to
00:32:32connect with some of the fans of new york got game and the diehard nicks fans that we know
00:32:36represent this city in person so come in tapping with us if you can't make it out to magic hour
00:32:42you
00:32:42still can tap with us the same way live online watching us on the new york post sports youtube
00:32:47channel but we'd love to see you all out there at magic hour four games one and two we're going
00:32:52to
00:32:52have some good guests we're going to watch some nicks basketball we're going to react we're going
00:32:55to analyze we're going to talk all about it it's going to be a fun time we're in the finals
00:33:00so you
00:33:00know we got to do a big here on new york got game tap in come join with us at
00:33:05magic hour all right
00:33:06heard from stephan bondy there now we're going to do what we like to do whenever we got a preview
00:33:10that's break down some film so i think brian there's a lot of interesting things to look at
00:33:16when it comes to breaking down this finals matchup there's so much you can talk about look a lot of
00:33:21the focus we know from fans are going to be on wemby i think this personally is a very good
00:33:26matchup
00:33:27for the knicks i've liked this match i've talked about it all year long that doesn't mean that i
00:33:30think it's an easy matchup i just think it's a good matchup in areas that the knicks can exploit
00:33:35some things do some things i also want to be very clear i also think the spurs can exploit
00:33:40some things on the knicks but this is why playoff basketball is amazing it is a chess match
00:33:46there are adjustments you got to have counters to the counters all that good stuff so we're going to
00:33:51look at that and what we're going to do today is we're going to look at three different things we
00:33:56like to always break these film breakdowns into sections so we're going to look at how the knicks
00:34:01can attack wemby now i'm going to be very clear because that's the first i'm going to go into when
00:34:06we
00:34:07say attack and i was like brian brought this up to me we are not talking about just offensively right
00:34:12also how can they attack them defensively i understand when you hear attack you generally
00:34:16think offense but there are ways to attack a player defensively and so we're also going to
00:34:20talk a little bit about that too the other thing we're going to do is how can the knicks attack
00:34:23the
00:34:24spurs guards we know the guards are quick we know they will look to put pressure on the knicks
00:34:28defensively but how do the knicks try to attack them when they have the ball on offense and then the
00:34:32last thing is the knicks have been really good at this throughout the playoffs is how can the knicks
00:34:36effectively get transition buckets against the spurs now what i'll find interesting before we get
00:34:41into that just to say these are the top two teams in points in transition in the nba playoffs knicks
00:34:49are
00:34:49number one spurs number two they are separated by just a little bit over a half a point uh so
00:34:53this is
00:34:54that that looms big for me in terms of like x factors in this but let's get right into it
00:34:59yep let's
00:34:59start with how the knicks can attack wendy i i find this rather fascinating because brian can we tell
00:35:08people something because you and i have texted about this a lot during the oklahoma city thunder
00:35:12series and one day you texted me you were like yo man why don't people just at least challenge
00:35:18wendy because we've been talking about this you'll see guys get to the paint they see when
00:35:21me they're like this decision nope they we call it we call it the nope of buckets that actually
00:35:25network um and here's the thing i don't blame them per se but you feel like people should try
00:35:32something a little bit different every now and then mike brown has already openly talked about
00:35:36hey they want to find ways to make him work because that's really all you can say right right
00:35:41you know what i mean that's really all you can say in terms of trying to stop him or limit
00:35:44him because of how transcendent he appears to be so in order to do that you have to make him
00:35:49work
00:35:50and the more you drive and just nope and turn around or just keep dribbling and you kind of just
00:35:56bail him out then he's he's able to just rest and he's able to know hey i altered that potential
00:36:02opportunity not even altering a shot i just altered your thought your thought process and that can
00:36:07break down your offense because all of a sudden you're putting up a shot with six seconds left on
00:36:12the shot clock where you could have had maybe a decent look or maybe just an attempt like we saw
00:36:17even shed gilders alexander like have some success attacking him even jerry mccain uh in that last
00:36:23series but collectively i mean this is kind of what we saw with chet holmgren where he would get the
00:36:28ball he would look at wendy look at the rim and just be like nah i'm giving this back up
00:36:32and you see
00:36:33what can happen psychologically to a team when that happens so you have to be able to be willing to
00:36:38make
00:36:38him work like even if you fail you have to at least try and i think where cat is right
00:36:44now up here
00:36:45he'll try where mikhail bridges has been lately he'll try like that that's really all you could
00:36:50ask right and i think i love that you made that point i wanted to say that before we look
00:36:54at the
00:36:54film because having guys actually make him work matters so much yeah you gotta you gotta try to
00:37:03make him work you really got to so let's look at some film uh in this and how the knicks
00:37:06this season
00:37:07make it work now look we have three games to choose from knicks at two regular season games they
00:37:11also had the nba cup game the knicks split with the uh spurs in the regular season they had a
00:37:16great
00:37:16win i was in person for the one um at the garden in early march and they lost to the
00:37:22spurs in san
00:37:23antonio on new year's eve and then obviously won the nba cup so you will see video film from all
00:37:31of
00:37:31these games we have mixed in here but first good piece of video we're going to look at is from
00:37:35that
00:37:35fantastic knicks win in march uh fantastic game by mikhail bridges in that one 25 points five steals
00:37:41in that one as well so let's look at let's look at the film here and let's see what we
00:37:45see about
00:37:45how the knicks attack wimby we got bridges with the ball here ghost screen from cat we'll look at
00:37:52the result for this but i'm going to go back right away because you got to pay attention to cat
00:37:56here
00:37:57not you obviously we've we've seen this play already but people at home so we're going to slow this up
00:38:02og comes and sets the high screen on devin vassell you bring champagne into the action now watch cat
00:38:08here with stefan castle as jaylen brunson's trying to space here with the aaron fox on this side
00:38:13wimby is way out here in the paint i want to pause you right there i think what people are
00:38:20looking at
00:38:21all of this should be noted what you're seeing right here i this is the cross match you're going to
00:38:25get
00:38:26wimby is going to be guarding josh hart i'm pretty confident that is how the spurs are going to start
00:38:31this but if you're the spurs you love this because wimby's your last line of defense here
00:38:36that's what you want depending on what happens in the action i just want to say people please
00:38:40pay attention to the matchups here because i do think there's some importance to what you will
00:38:44see here dear and fox is on jaylen brunson you do not ideally want castle on towns but please
00:38:51consider the time but teams and teams will do this right teams you'll see kelden johnson on towns
00:38:56you'll see like smaller guys on towns not that kelden johnson's like small but he's a good deal of
00:39:01smaller than carl anthony towns go ahead so here we go so here's the screen from carl anthony towns
00:39:05on champagne boom good screen and gets him off his spot so now free roller there's a bounce pass to
00:39:12josh hart wimby has to help because josh hart flashed from the corner over here and carl anthony towns
00:39:18this is a runway and you have to challenge wimby you make him work and it's like can you can
00:39:22you even
00:39:23get to this shot right here perfect bounce pass just late champagne tries to recover but it's a
00:39:28great dunk and carl anthony towns very animated uh after that one that's also fantastic two things
00:39:33that things that made that play happen the screen from towns the cut from towns the flash to the
00:39:38high post from josh hart it all worked it was a way to get memby memby to move just a
00:39:43little bit off
00:39:43of where he was not able to recover it's a great play of attacking just just so people can understand
00:39:48like attacking is not like doesn't mean always directly going at somebody but it's what brian said
00:39:53can you make them work and wimby yes he couldn't even it was too much ground from the cover and
00:39:58listen he's the best defensive player in basketball but too much ground for him to cover there that's
00:40:03because everything was quick also quick like you didn't just dilly dally with the ball whatever like
00:40:07everything was quick and that's the thing if you're going to make these decisions when attacking wimby
00:40:12they have to be quick decisions because nobody and i mean nobody can recover the way he does
00:40:17yes and it's not even just cover that much ground right and it's not just the length because other guys
00:40:22have had not quite that but right other guys have physical advantages too but he knows how to use
00:40:28them and he's to some people the best defender ever already when you think about it i don't know i
00:40:34won't
00:40:34say that i won't say that yet but i don't know if i've seen better yeah i could cover that
00:40:39much ground
00:40:39and do what he does i'm not there yet either but i feel like we will be pretty soon yeah
00:40:43all right next
00:40:45play all right next play we're gonna see and see here and you're gonna watch it this is from the
00:40:50new
00:40:50year's eve game down in san antonio uh i know a tough one for knicks fans because they lost this
00:40:54one uh eventually but the knicks had some good things going offensively particularly early in
00:40:58this game and so now you've got a situation where jalen brunson has the ball here uh this is coming
00:41:04off of a screen set by towns right and so one stop it right here one of the things i
00:41:10like and i've
00:41:11always liked for carl d towns and you if you've watched the show you've heard me say it if you
00:41:15can get
00:41:16him the ball this works for jalen brunson too if you get him the ball with some momentum i think
00:41:19it's good the thing about going downhill the thing about cat is will he stay under control now if you're
00:41:26watching in this freeze frame right here wendy has got to commit because he's respecting cat's three
00:41:33point shot right you know he could pull up and hit this so he's respecting that but cat also is
00:41:38respecting his length the fact he could block the shot and so he gets the ball and gathers he walks
00:41:44right into the bounce pass from jalen brunson and now he can make a move what does he do
00:41:48by the way wendy is playing the drive to the left side and cat is like nope i'm gonna actually
00:41:55take
00:41:55this right take the contact work through it and now this is a challenge right at the rim that's great
00:42:02made him switch position you're taught that middle school high school wendy here he's not square
00:42:11nope and cat's able to take advantage this is great stuff for him it's funny had wendy got square
00:42:16but he was trying to close out so hard it might have made it it might have forced cat to
00:42:20pass maybe
00:42:20he puts the ball on the floor with his left hand which is going to be a tougher drive for
00:42:24him but it
00:42:25forced him a fast it's a great take by cat he's under control he absorbed the contact he did not
00:42:29we
00:42:29saw no chicken wing elbows and one also right one it's a great play you want to be to again
00:42:36this goes
00:42:36to the point you made before brian what do you see by cat off the pass right it's a quick
00:42:41decision
00:42:41he walks right into the gather right gets the ball and then quick decision to put the ball on the
00:42:47floor
00:42:47there was no overthinking there and it made wendy have to work quickly as great as the defensive
00:42:52player is you have to make him work if he's going to close that hard in the perimeter and you
00:42:55know
00:42:56you're a shooting threat wendy's a smart player so he knows that cat's a shooting threat and cats like
00:43:01okay i can beat him this also aligns more this is new year's eve this aligns a lot more with
00:43:06the cat
00:43:06we have been seeing you weren't seeing a lot of it at this point in the season but this is
00:43:11more of
00:43:11the cat that you have been seeing through the playoffs and cats been making good decisions
00:43:16like that so to brian's point which i agree with 100 if you're going to attack wendy you got to
00:43:21be
00:43:22quick yeah and you can you have success with a player like cat putting the ball on the floor and
00:43:26finishing this way you can do that so there we go good play by cat nice finish there and then
00:43:32we go
00:43:32back to the march first march first game um which is fantastic let's see how the nicks looked in now
00:43:40watch again wendy he's just when he's just sagging off because josh hart i believe is in the corner on
00:43:47this play we'll see as we move forward here josh hart's in the corner landry shamit landry shamit so
00:43:51shamit's here mikhail's here he's gonna get the ball actually yep and cat is screening looks like
00:43:57the aaron fox not really a screen harrison barnes is here harrison barnes i who i think we'll see in
00:44:03this series i don't know if the spurs are going to run a real rotation beyond eight we'll see but
00:44:09the
00:44:109 10 will be some combination of harrison barnes carter bryant one of those two maybe both of those
00:44:16for like short spurts i can see short spurts for harrison barnes you may need his his body size a
00:44:20little bit well and so matt moore and i talked about this on my show where one of the things
00:44:25the
00:44:25spurs can potentially do is play five out but with a small lineup to try to counterbalance the five out
00:44:32that the knicks have which would make luke cornett somebody you maybe sit and you have like kellen
00:44:37johnson harrison barnes and three guards to try to space out the shooters so it's space out four shooters
00:44:42so interesting wrinkle but neither here nor there so here's mikhail speaking of getting the ball to
00:44:48somebody who's going to go downhill now this looks like we weren't getting this a lot at this point
00:44:53of the year no this this was an anomaly this this looks like the playoff mikhail i guess if we
00:44:58want
00:44:58to call it that so here we go there's the attack on wemby but see here's the thing and you
00:45:05know
00:45:05mikhail mikhail loves his mid-range right here's this i will i'm glad you brought that up the mid-range
00:45:11areas of area in this series i think the knicks can actually cook in and i think it's also a
00:45:15way to
00:45:15challenge wemby which is one of the reasons i like this play right we know mikhail is elite here
00:45:21but mikhail gets to his spot wemby almost thought he was going to drive so he's back and he's on
00:45:25his
00:45:25heels now and then and he's able to go up it's a great recognition by mikhail get to a spot
00:45:29a place
00:45:29where i can cook when he's got to work because look he's now he's on the back foot and he
00:45:33has to
00:45:34account for towns who's rolling to the rim at this point he's trying he's on the back foot worrying
00:45:38about the guy rolling to the rim right and that just gives him enough space by mikhail to get it
00:45:42up and
00:45:42over this is a good attack man in the mid-range with a really good shot that's a really good
00:45:47shot
00:45:47for mikhail bridges is a good shot i know sometimes we don't like the fading away but him just getting
00:45:52to his spot and being able to attack is huge and i think there are going to be plenty of
00:45:58chances like
00:45:59this for the knicks they're going to have to cook in the mid-range i think it's one of the
00:46:02advantages the knicks have they have some good mid-range shooters they've got mikhail they've got
00:46:06brunson who can shoot in the mid-range you got og sometimes not as good as those two but can
00:46:10hit
00:46:11hit a shot cat if need be can hit the shot in the mid-range i think that part of
00:46:15the court is
00:46:15going to be very open you want to see can you bring wendy to come out and challenge more
00:46:20then can you blow past him is he going to be over aggressive this all comes down to you got
00:46:24to make
00:46:24him work you've got to make him work and you might have to do it in the mid-range because
00:46:28it's going to be difficult to finish in the paint when he's there so this is why mid-range versus
00:46:34floater
00:46:34it's going to be important because the floater you typically need two or at least one foot in the
00:46:40paint and if you're in the paint when we might already be there so that has to be a quick
00:46:44just
00:46:44push shot i mean you saw you saw isaiah hartenstein do it again and again and again and really san
00:46:49antonio was is like okay if you're going to hit 10 floaters like fine but what does that mean for
00:46:56the
00:46:56rest of your offense so like they'll live with that if you have guys that are going to hit mid
00:47:00-range
00:47:00jumpers at a high clip which the knicks have then yeah i mean you can have different results there
00:47:05because it's not just one guy doing a push shot over and over and over again like isaiah hartenstein
00:47:10was because nobody else wanted to attack them at all right as we get to the next play now here's
00:47:15where we're going to shift to defense guys this is we're going to look about how the knicks can attack
00:47:19them on defense so spurs on offense here and i want you to pay attention to who's guarding
00:47:25wemby cat is on wemby this is a matchup alive seen a lot of knicks fans talk about it and
00:47:29say
00:47:29i don't want to see that i don't think you'll see much of it but it doesn't mean that these
00:47:33situations
00:47:34can't happen with screen actions and different things cat is here in the action he's worried
00:47:39about stephan castle getting downhill downhill right and brunson's there and by the way
00:47:45this is a team that can put because we haven't seen brunson and cat get tested a lot together
00:47:50in the playoffs not nearly as much as this team a lot of right not nearly as much as i
00:47:54thought we
00:47:55would by now and you thought we would by now this team can do it because they have castle and
00:47:59wemby
00:48:00and also dearon fox and also dylan harper and like they just have the guards they have the guards
00:48:05to do it and they have a big that you have to respect either popping out or rolling to the
00:48:08basket
00:48:08right and that's the key against this so they're going to get tested they're going to try to put
00:48:13them in in a lot of actions like this now cat brunson's behind on the play yeah brunson's beat at
00:48:19this point so you see bridges has to come over and help it's still really tight it's very tight this
00:48:24is
00:48:251994 spacing right here like this is this is this is literally actually you could say this is
00:48:32spacing you would see in the previous finals between the spurs and the knicks oh my god i just
00:48:36looked at some tape from that the other day me too such a different game man i was watching stuff
00:48:40such a different such a different game duncan and robinson just one on each block you know what i
00:48:48mean like or free throw line but you would just your mind your 2026 mind it's like why are you
00:48:54doing
00:48:54that but this is what people grew up except when you were watching in 1999 you were like yo that's
00:48:59a problem right right he's like that's a problem and it was a problem to be clear yeah um but
00:49:05here
00:49:05look kelden johnson's in the corner right that could be a pass but that's a tough pass because
00:49:11brunson could recover right there could recover you also could see bridges get his long arms in there
00:49:16so castle makes the right play here and the cells here too which og like og's locked into
00:49:21that has a well scouted so the knicks are actually good here like even though brunson gets beat brunson
00:49:26could just recover on kelden johnson and also you have a situation where like all right where else
00:49:33are you gonna pass this ball if not wendy here's the problem so when he gets the pass this is
00:49:38a great
00:49:39look potentially um and his mid-range has gotten better throughout the season right throughout the
00:49:44playoffs also yeah you know what i mean like he he can make some back-breaking shots here's the issue
00:49:49now to be fair to car anthony towns i'm not sure he would do this today this was a few
00:49:54months ago
00:49:55yes but you just never know old habits die hard here's the pump fake he sells out completely and
00:50:01now that that breaks down the defense defense was fine before that and again towns probably i'm sure
00:50:07he's watched this back and it's like all right don't bite on the wendy pump fake because you want
00:50:10wendy to take as many jumpers as possible and if he makes them he makes them and he can make
00:50:14them but
00:50:14fine you cannot have wendy doing this and it'd be this easy it is that's too easy and it's all
00:50:20because it's all because of one mistake because you're right the next defense was actually fine
00:50:24considering the fact that brunson and got beat it actually was fine if wendy hits the shot
00:50:29you tip your hat right keep it moving before wendy gets the ball you have four guys in the paint
00:50:34so in a matter of seconds you go from here to here after that one mistake yeah and one mistake
00:50:42can cause
00:50:42you can't have this is wendy's a handful but you you want him to shoot jumpers you want even in
00:50:47the mid-range from three even there you're just putting up more shots right or taking tough shots
00:50:52where he has to work and then he's got to turn around let him do that but that's just too
00:50:55easy
00:50:55you can't have that happen so in terms of attacking you can't bite on the pump fake if he hits
00:51:00the
00:51:00jumper i respect it he can it's not like he's it's not like he's Mitchell Robinson shooting the ball
00:51:04but he can hit a jumper but no shit no i'm not throwing shade no i know we don't know
00:51:09Mitch Robinson can't shoot free throws what are you talking about no i just thought you could have
00:51:12used like a a reasonable shooting center i could have you know like sure it's fine fine whatever
00:51:20all right but you can't have this happen it's way too easy yeah uh and to be fair to towns
00:51:26again i
00:51:26think i think now he'd probably stay down on that but it's tempting like look nba players want to block
00:51:32shots yeah and this was also a game if i remember correctly you know you're looking at scores 12 to
00:51:365 i think the knicks got down 19 to 7 if i remember correctly this game like that before they
00:51:40then came
00:51:40back so you know they cleaned some things up there well we have one more defensive play in terms of
00:51:45how
00:51:45you can attack wendy one thing is not not doing this now this was a play we've actually looked at
00:51:49in another film session but the reason i chose this again was because of what the knicks did to
00:51:56wendy on this play they really blew things up and it was because they were physical with him we have
00:52:01not been able to use the word physicality a lot a lot with the knicks when i even talked to
00:52:06carolina
00:52:06teague uh our good friend who writes for this perfect blog blog about scouting the spurs she even said
00:52:12the thing that she worried about the knicks was their physicality and i said well nobody would have
00:52:17said that four months ago five months ago two months ago right so but the knicks have shown the
00:52:25physicality in the playoffs and if they do something like we're going to see on this play then i think
00:52:29this
00:52:29is a way you're able to disrupt wendy here and the key to me on this play is josh hart
00:52:35please keep
00:52:37your eyes on josh hart and what he does and how he's able to stop wendy and it leads to
00:52:43the knicks
00:52:43getting easy score here so here's hart and here's wendy we'll play this at full speed
00:52:53transition is going to be very important we'll get to that that's very important it's one of my keys
00:52:58to the series for sure okay so josh hart this pass is going to wendy as he's coming off this
00:53:04this
00:53:04screen harper's looking landry sham it's good here brunson on champagne that's get get used to seeing
00:53:11that and they're going to dare champagne to beat them from three um he's been good risky proposition
00:53:18yes um there's a chance he enjoys the garden a little too much yeah you know brooklyn brooklyn
00:53:25uh did we both cover him in high school a little bit uh i missed that i didn't cover him
00:53:30but i met
00:53:30him before he uh ended up playing at saint at saint john's yeah i i did one of the doesn't
00:53:37matter
00:53:37one of the tournaments so here we go josh hart completely just blows this up by the way i mean
00:53:43yet again another series where josh hart is probably the x factor i've been saying all playoffs long
00:53:48yep even on plays like this he the way he blows it up right like how physical he is and
00:53:52the way
00:53:52mikhail reads it too yeah mikhail reads it right because you know this is they're running this for
00:53:56wendy and they want to get it to wendy because wendy would have had either heart or bridges on him
00:54:00on that switch because cat was off of him which is interesting because cat played on him a lot in
00:54:05this game
00:54:06and it's an easy bucket but that's all because of josh hart mikhail bridges gets credit for the
00:54:10steal has to read it no doubt about it but that's all because they were physical with wendy
00:54:14wendy even though he's gotten stronger he's sometimes still not strong enough to get through
00:54:19a screen like that look at it he's just dislodged from the play wendy has no chance also wasn't a
00:54:24great
00:54:24pass admittedly that's true it wasn't but dylan harper's grown some as we've seen in the playoffs
00:54:30maybe he maybe he makes a better decision here but this is also i mean it's almost like he
00:54:35anticipated where wendy would be instead of seeing where he was right he just thought he was gonna
00:54:39get through this is how nfl players throw interceptions that is it and there you go
00:54:43you had uh mikhail bridges at the rim a little bit more safety yeah then corner and and there you
00:54:48go
00:54:48so yeah like this is ways you can attack wendy i think physicality is gonna be important you got
00:54:53to be physical with him if they're able to do that then i think they'll be fine but let's move
00:54:57on to
00:54:58the next thing which is how the knicks can attack the spurs guard and i think brian and i we
00:55:02both
00:55:02respect the spurs guards they're young they're quick they're fast they have good ball handlers
00:55:07they can get into the paint and castle is going to give you he's going to bring it on defense
00:55:14he's
00:55:14going to bring physicality he's going to bring it every play honestly he is i think with him
00:55:19right and you're going to see this in his first play this is from the nba cup championship with him
00:55:24you got to get physical right back he's going to give that energy so how do you do this how
00:55:29do you
00:55:29bring the physicality for him especially when there's a size difference when he's guarding
00:55:33someone like brunson as we see right here how do you bring that physicality well you got to bring
00:55:36other players into the action and see what you can do to maybe dislodge him just a little bit
00:55:42we saw how a little screen just mattered or a little chip if you want to call it that sure
00:55:47in
00:55:47terms of matter with josh hart well it can matter to say that was on defense it can matter the
00:55:51same
00:55:51way on offense and you'll see this here so let's let it play
00:55:55so cat coming into the action brunson's dribbling using his physicality against who harrison barnes
00:56:00has has a size advantage there yep good screen great screen pops him in the face now look
00:56:08probably not the cleanest look but you're getting jalen brunson going to a spot he likes and going
00:56:13towards his left yeah and he got up enough he rises up enough before he can get him it's a
00:56:20decent
00:56:20contest but but late by barnes and he's able to finish what i like here is how they attack though
00:56:26that screen hey you saw a little bit of the head flop going back uh your boy castle i think
00:56:32i don't
00:56:33think he i don't think he's flopping it's just the hair the hair was just doing the hair yeah he
00:56:37but
00:56:37he also looked like he was surprised at how hard the screen was yeah i i think i think he
00:56:43was i think
00:56:43he was a little shocked at how hard and how hard the screen was there yeah so there you go
00:56:48and he's
00:56:48able he's able to put it up and get the shot to go so you like you like that there
00:56:53boom that that's
00:56:55that's good the way he was able to bring the bring the physicality there that's good the way he was
00:56:59able to able to do that all right so the next play that we're going to look at is from
00:57:04the game that
00:57:05the knicks had against the spurs in early march we're going to take a look at that because this is
00:57:11another way they can attack the guards and a little bit of brunson uh on the move here yeah and
00:57:16you
00:57:16like this a lot so this is one of the ways to attack the guards and one of the things
00:57:19that's
00:57:19going to be very important in the series are the non-wemby minutes these are non-wemby minutes for
00:57:24the spurs luke cornett will be out there at least to start the series if you do play them off
00:57:29the
00:57:29floor or if mitch johnson just wants to go luke cornett-less so to speak you may see a small
00:57:36ball
00:57:36lineup that we talked about already referenced earlier with harrison barnes keldin johnson some guards
00:57:40i don't think they want to play miss mac biumbo or mason plumley or kelly olenek all of whom are
00:57:45on
00:57:45the roster but the knicks have to win the non-wemby minutes big and one of the ways you can
00:57:50do that
00:57:50is by using their guards to really attack luke cornett so this is attacking their guards in this
00:57:56play but parenthetically this is attacking luke cornett as well and trying to get him in space
00:58:00where you have an advantage so here's brunson attacking dylan harper high screen from mitchell
00:58:06robinson here and now you can dance with luke cornett because he's backpedaling i think the
00:58:13mid-range jumpers in this series as we've already talked about are going to be valuable but getting
00:58:17into the paint it's going to be more difficult for obvious reasons so one of the ways you can sort
00:58:22of
00:58:22alter your offense a little bit and they've shown that malleability is for jalen brunson to get pull
00:58:29up threes because we know he loves pull up threes and you talked about momentum earlier yeah he's going
00:58:34downhill here here's the momentum luke cornett backpedaling this is already enough space for
00:58:39him this is already enough space for him to get this shot off and i think it's a great great
00:58:42look
00:58:43and one of the ways you can really attack the guards have brunson operate in space and have
00:58:47luke cornett backpedaling where you create an advantage i love it and i love it so sometimes
00:58:51you made a great point brian because attacking the guards are also going to be very important to
00:58:57attack the matchup and who can you bring into the action mitchell robinson in here but it gets
00:59:01one-on-one with luke cornett you're gonna love brunson one-on-one with luke cornett anytime
00:59:06that you can get this anytime you get this shot with him backpedaling it's going to be good and
00:59:10then you know there's the effects of what happens after this maybe the next time luke cornett gets
00:59:14into action like this he plays up harder now brunson can drive past him you have different options and i
00:59:19do agree that the minutes with wemby not on the floor are going to be very very very crucial for
00:59:24the
00:59:24knicks right and even the spurs too because they want to try to survive those minutes but it was the
00:59:28knicks the knicks perspective of looking at this you want to make sure you're able to do able to do
00:59:33that this is an excellent excellent way to not just attack the guards but attack another weak defender
00:59:39in space on the floor for sure yeah and it's worth noting less than two minutes left in the first
00:59:44quarter here so like wemby's not going to play the entire first quarter never does you have to be able
00:59:48to win some of those minutes in the first quarter that gets you off to a good start yep and
00:59:52this is
00:59:52where the knicks actually started making their push in this game that they were down 19 19 7 they came
00:59:58back all right moving on now we're going to look at the new year's eve game and this is kind
01:00:03of where
01:00:03things uh maybe didn't go as great as the knicks would have liked in this one but you see uh
01:00:08fan
01:00:09favorite tyler kolek uh with with the ball here always has his head up always looking for people see
01:00:14what the knicks do here this situation where they're trying to push the knicks have tried to play a
01:00:17little bit of pace against the uh against them now look i'm going to say this right here 5.6
01:00:24seconds on
01:00:24the clock and d'aaron fox is guarding jalen brunson i'm not saying that d'aaron fox is james harden
01:00:34but for the purposes of this series jalen brunson might look at him like he's james harden out of
01:00:41all the guards this is the one i think jalen brunson looks at and is like oh i see food
01:00:45and i gotta eat right again not quite the meal that james harden is serving but you get the point
01:00:51also jason brunson has a size advantage here not not in height but definitely in strength
01:00:57definitely in weight and i think he likes this matchup and i think when he sees it he's gonna
01:01:01look to either get past d'aaron fox or pull up on him if he gets space and look he
01:01:07goes right to work
01:01:08gets to his spot that's right in rhythm for jalen brunson crossing over right to the spot and so this
01:01:13is a guard i think where he's like i don't need to help now if he had a little bit
01:01:17more time do i think
01:01:18luke cornet comes up in the action absolutely i think that he does but considering the time at
01:01:23the end of the quarter and the space he's look at how much space look at all that space that's
01:01:27great
01:01:27made him switch feet switches front foot hasn't beat kind of like what we saw earlier we were
01:01:33talking about cat attacking of the front foot of victor women yama did the same thing here with
01:01:38d'aaron fox make some switch positions and that's too late and here's the thing i know some fans are
01:01:45going to look at this and say well i don't want to see a lot of iso brunson in this
01:01:48and i agree you
01:01:49should not want to but i do think that it is to note that how brunson is getting his pull
01:01:53-up
01:01:54threes and mid-range shots are going to be important in series he's going to get pull-up looks there
01:01:59are opportunities where he gets like a cornet or d'aaron fox on him and he gets in rhythm and
01:02:03creates a space he's got to take these shots as especially when wimmy's on the floor when wimmy's
01:02:09not on the floor there's a little bit more room and opportunity for you to go inside but when wimmy
01:02:12is on the
01:02:13floor some of these shots will be available too and will be good shots it's just about
01:02:17how they're taking a rhythm man gershon yabusele and uh yeah this is a lot of you won't see in
01:02:24the
01:02:24fight i ain't seen either of them you know so if you see if you see i don't have poor
01:02:29you things
01:02:29have gone wrong i mean we saw colec we saw diawara i think on one play also feels like a
01:02:34long time ago
01:02:34but this is a good shot in rhythm uh for jem brunson all right last play we're going to look
01:02:39at
01:02:39for how the knicks could attack the spurs guards and this is another one back to march first
01:02:44uh here again oh this is another one i i liked here a lot actually yeah so jaylen brunson passing
01:02:50out of a double team here so he'll get some of these blitzes like they'll they'll try some of
01:02:55these traps high near the half court line as soon as he brings us across half court you have castle
01:03:03and
01:03:03harper but landry sham it leaks out now castle has to recover this is already too late landry
01:03:11sham it by the way i just want to know made 11 of 12 threes against the cleveland cavaliers not
01:03:17all
01:03:18of them were wide open some of them were but he was just ridiculous in that series i don't know
01:03:23if
01:03:24he's gonna do that again it's literally better than 90 but you probably shouldn't take this gamble
01:03:30because now you're putting yourself in a position where i mean this is just a simple pass right and
01:03:36brunson having the awareness to not try to just dribble out of this but like hey landry sham it
01:03:42leaks out beautiful and then again attacking the guards means attacking luke cornet if he's out there
01:03:48in space does not want to come out because he knows what would have happened there mitch robinson
01:03:52would have flashed in for probably easy dunk yeah because you have kelden johnson here and dor is up here
01:03:57so this is already tough positioning castle has to recover he's fast but not that fast
01:04:04this is great look if they're good look here's the thing do i think you'll see some blitzes and
01:04:10traps like this near half yeah yeah i do because the spurs are going to want to show different looks
01:04:14the person that's coming off the action is showing whether it's josh hart whether something because he
01:04:19was on the floor here whether it's landry sham it usually we'll see that that person's got to be
01:04:24ready to tell josh hart wasn't the floor there sorry so you had him on with mikhail wasn't he
01:04:27was about to check in and mikhail is another one who will get the he will be the beneficiary of
01:04:32some
01:04:32of these those guys have to be ready either to attack or shoot got to be ready this is a
01:04:36way to
01:04:37attack you hit shots you start attacking that blitzing they're going to do is going to have to go away
01:04:43and that was the knicks in this game that was their first three of the game and they were down
01:04:4619-7 as
01:04:47you mentioned earlier yep then they take wendy off the floor because again he doesn't play the entire
01:04:51first quarter and now you could attack this was key i remember being at this game sunday game i
01:04:57remember it and they really turned after the shot i mean the whole game turned after the shot i'm not
01:05:01saying that this was the play to turn it there was a lot of other things that happened but the
01:05:04knicks
01:05:04won those non-wendy minutes and then they never looked they never looked back um in in that game so
01:05:09you're 100 right that that was huge and sham it we know how big he is and this was one
01:05:14of sham it's
01:05:15first couple of games back if i remember from his injury um when he injured came back with the
01:05:20shoulder so that's it so that's how the knicks can attack the spurs guard the last thing we're
01:05:24going to look at is how the knicks can effectively get transition buckets brian and i agree on this
01:05:31transition transition transition it's going to be so important in the series and if you looked at
01:05:36all of the games these teams played this year it was important then too now how you get the
01:05:41transition points that's i think what we're going to look at they can happen in a variety of ways
01:05:45in a way you can get these transition points and it can come off a defense it can come off
01:05:50of a
01:05:50concerted effort to keep the pace it's very interesting so let's take a look here this is
01:05:54from the nba cup championship that the knicks won here you got a missed shot here by dylan harper
01:06:00cola gets the ball good tap yep great tap there that was by huck porty i believe and goes to
01:06:07brunson
01:06:08kelvin johnson with a stumble and that was it i mean julian champagne gets crossed um
01:06:15that's it here's what i love about this right the recognition of everybody even huck porty running
01:06:20the floor here uh bridges running the floor on the other side but brunson was keenly aware that he was
01:06:26going to attack and it really started with colic you got to give colic the credit because he gets the
01:06:30the rebound off the tap right head is up immediately is pushing gets it out to brunson and brunson's like
01:06:38oh i see julian champagne nah son that's food and he just he's gonna score there so i just love
01:06:45the
01:06:45awareness it's again could we also note again please look at the personnel on the floor there's
01:06:50no wimby i know when we only played 19 minutes in this game in the cup final but was it
01:06:54really that
01:06:55low i think it was that low because it was the second game i thought it was 25 or something
01:06:58was
01:06:58it more than that okay maybe scored 19 you could be right about that something like but regard he
01:07:03wasn't like full now it's you know what that's an important note though because wimby at that point
01:07:09and even when they were playing march 1st even leading up to that game he had been averaging 29
01:07:13minutes since his return and he had just gotten back into the starting lineup like 12 games earlier
01:07:17that month of february like right before obviously the march 1st game he averaged 29 minutes now in
01:07:24the playoffs he's at 32 and a half but he's really at 35 in games that he finishes because in
01:07:29one game he
01:07:29got concussed and the other game he elbowed nazare in the face like ufc style so you it was 20
01:07:36it was
01:07:3623 minutes you were right so he's really averaging 35 minutes in the playoffs if you just take off
01:07:43the two flukes where one he gets hurt and two he gets ejected it's ejected so six more minutes of
01:07:49wimby on average you're seeing in in the playoffs that you didn't and that at that point in the regular
01:07:53season right and that and this is his longest playoff run right first and fewer minutes at this at the
01:07:59time we were here we wouldn't even add 29 minutes yet he was coming off the bench yep you know
01:08:04for
01:08:04for at times and they were just still working him in so different and i think both teams both teams
01:08:10have grown tremendously since then yeah we have to say but the point being the knicks should look
01:08:14to push with or without victor wamuyama on the floor transition transition transition transition
01:08:19they do it here with him on the floor and kudos to everybody everybody's running the floor hard so
01:08:24the knicks are going to look to do that all right transition to the next play here we go
01:08:30as we look back to go back to this march 1st game um here's here as well too so this
01:08:37you're also going
01:08:37to look at this is going to be a very interesting sequence to look at because this is going to
01:08:41be
01:08:41c2 plays but look at what the knicks can do on offense or defense i should say and then what
01:08:47it's a mixture of both it's a mixture of both what can happen now i think watching off the rebound
01:08:52og contests victor wamuyama here right with cat also with cat also it was a good a good contest that's
01:08:59a tough shot two seconds left on the shot clock you had to get one up you you'll sign for
01:09:03this every
01:09:03time by the way you should note it was 19 to 7 spurs were ahead at this point in the
01:09:09game knicks
01:09:09run a 24 to 2 run yep and have taken a double digit lead yeah also noted about this game
01:09:15that i think
01:09:15gets forgotten spurs came into this game on an 11 game winning streak and the knicks ended that
01:09:19yeah so another another note of that game that was that was pretty good too interestingly enough
01:09:24the knicks now starting into game one on an 11 game winning streak and the spurs will look to try
01:09:28and end that so it's the reverse kind of yeah so we'll see um all right so good contest here
01:09:34but
01:09:34keep an eye on who look at look at og and and ob take off right and look at jose
01:09:39alvarado
01:09:40watch as soon as he gets his rebound up no waiting he's he's reading the floor he's looking
01:09:47now watch mikhail bridges because this is who you have to watch this is the best cutter on the team
01:09:52easily i think we could all agree um og is you know giving him a run for his money josh
01:09:57hart's
01:09:58really good too nicks have great cutters um in the playoffs has been mikhail bridges yep who i think
01:10:03can is again going to be very valuable in this series so he's going to run the floor here when
01:10:09wendy's out there you want to make them run too because you want wendy to exhaust himself if you
01:10:13can if you can do that right now mikhail sees jose pushing and he runs the floor hard hard like
01:10:20he
01:10:20actually turns and looks at him and it's like oh we're we're full-blown sprinting here what's key
01:10:25here is mikhail doesn't cut into the middle of the floor too early and goes behind victor wendyama
01:10:30and that's what's really key here right you got the eye contact now it's just by execution great bounce
01:10:35pass well great great great bounce pass from jose easy that's just great that's just that's
01:10:42absolutely fantastic you you gotta you gotta love that and that's just off of a stop again this is
01:10:47two plays in a row we've seen off of a stop the nicks just go and one was with brunson
01:10:53taking it
01:10:53but the point guards looking ahead looking up and looking ahead and able to get it done so fantastic
01:10:58play there from jose fantastic cutting running and that's you could you could also add this in how
01:11:03to attack vic vic you could take that play and put that into the first group of things we talked
01:11:07about because victor wendyama was also attacked in transition right run and be decisive yeah like
01:11:13if you if you have a transition opportunity take advantage of it yep mikhail bridges thank you for
01:11:17going all the way to the rim we appreciate that all right a lot of mikhail dunks in this yes
01:11:22yeah
01:11:22some good some good stuff all right let's take a look going back to the cup championship game let's take
01:11:27a look here uh what's going on you've got a d'arren fox here with the ball and this is
01:11:33going to be a
01:11:33situation of being able to turn defense into offense here mikhail bridge is right on his hip you got
01:11:39ariok porty i'm showing there and a good knock away initially by the shit out of luke court yeah he
01:11:47does
01:11:47he does he did he did toma he's off balance and i mean how 40s diving but he gets a
01:11:57hand on it
01:11:58right and he gets a steal here that look that kind of looked unintentional was that a trip did he
01:12:03get
01:12:03tripped now i'm looking at yeah he got tripped yeah he got tripped but he popped up with the ball
01:12:07and hey is after after leveling a bump winds up with the steel so good hands and immediately looking
01:12:15to get it out that's the key and again the wings on the knicks you see og here you see
01:12:21mikhail
01:12:21bridges do it this is something that mike brown talked about in the preseason he wants his wings
01:12:26to get out wants him to get out to the corner og does has been doing a fantastic job with
01:12:29this all
01:12:30season watch og yeah he's going he's already going keldin johnson is the keldin johnson's late
01:12:36if you're watching the ball it was too late and he was too late for him and so that's really
01:12:41it og
01:12:41that's just great awareness he sees the ball on the floor and he's out look at keldin johnson he's
01:12:45still looking at the ball yep he's like are we gonna get oh no we're not og's gone already
01:12:50and it gets ahead to bronson to og and that's just easy but that's defense turning into offensive
01:12:56transition knicks capitalizing again i think that's also another possession with no one be on
01:13:01the floor easy buckets one hand one-handed dunk by og also very nice like don't see that a ton
01:13:06all right he likes those two-handed dunks and then we have uh first this is this is actually
01:13:12actually yeah yeah that's right back to march 1st this is very early in the game though things
01:13:16were close before they were not close and then was not close the other way again yeah um but here
01:13:21we
01:13:21go let's let it let's let it rock i do like these uniforms admittedly i'll get to my uniform talk
01:13:27later um i was gonna say high screen high screen here and a guy you got og help excellent block
01:13:35here
01:13:36by og now watch a couple things i was willing to stop here transition matters but if you don't
01:13:42score in transition and you don't get back on defense you can get hurt kids that's the lesson
01:13:48that we learned here is you're going to watch this play transition matters but you got to capitalize
01:13:52in transition because if you don't you get burnt the other way and if you've watched the spurs during
01:13:56the season and in the playoffs and against okc one thing they're looking to do is get buckets in
01:14:03transition and one way they're looking to do that corner threes they're going to try to spread the
01:14:08knicks defense out to the corners just like the knicks are going to try to do to them to get
01:14:12space
01:14:12when wendy's out there or even if he's not they want corner threes in transition so watch this
01:14:18great block by og here comes mikhail this is a good play for mikhail he actually again the mid-range
01:14:24jumper it's gonna be there it's gonna be there it's another and i like this wendy was going too deep
01:14:30had to it's a great shot for mikhail the problem is mikhail was off balance yep i think he didn't
01:14:36expect to be that open right he don't shock that he was that open mikhail's got to hit that um
01:14:40but
01:14:41watch now when b gets the ball and see what happens with the spurs here's the recognition no no waiting
01:14:46darren fox is up here now they're pushing two passes barely any like one being cross court barely
01:14:53any dribbles two passes devin vassell is here knockdown shooter cats a little late bucket in
01:15:00transition yeah so this is this shows you the knicks this is why you can't you gotta finish your
01:15:06breakfast and mikhail bridges didn't finish his breakfast here right it's it's a great transition
01:15:11opportunity for the knicks it had gotten to a mid-range jumper that attacked victor wambayama the
01:15:15way you'd like to see him attack but they didn't hit it this is where execution award i bring up
01:15:20a lot
01:15:20matters the knicks didn't execute on one end they got a great block execution they got a great look
01:15:25they didn't hit the shot so they didn't fully execute there and then the spurs in two passes
01:15:29we're executing they will look for those threes yep time and time again they're going to look for
01:15:36those threes vassell champagney castle even darren fox they're all going to be looking for corner
01:15:42threes you're looking at so those are our plays that's what we're looking at we talked about the three
01:15:48things about how the knicks can attack wamby how the knicks can attack the spurs guards and how the
01:15:54knicks can effectively get transition buckets but also look to prevent transition buckets um against
01:15:59the spurs so we will see how all of that is actually able to play out in the finals it's
01:16:04going to be
01:16:04absolutely fantastic look i'm excited for the finals i think it's going to be a good one uh i've
01:16:10predicted nixon six i've done it a couple platforms already are you giving a prediction brian
01:16:15we heard from stephan bondy so now we got to hear from your prediction i'll just say nixon seven
01:16:20because i think it's going six or seven somebody's going to win this in in in a deep series i'm
01:16:27like
01:16:28of course somebody's going to win both teams play hard uh i'm gonna i'm gonna say nixon seven i just
01:16:33i i but it's not a really confident nixon seven uh i'm not mad at nixon six i'm not mad
01:16:40at spurs
01:16:40in six or spurs in seven i i literally am going back and forth with the series constantly and i
01:16:46think both of these teams have a lot of answers but what the knicks have shown is undeniable this
01:16:51last month and change now and if they continue to be that team i don't know if they're gonna lose
01:17:01wow you should say a series yeah yeah i was like you should say next week sir series
01:17:07they have like if they sweep i don't even know what first of all the city's gonna be on fire
01:17:12it will literally be because they'll win it at home well look here's what i just want a home to
01:17:17go back
01:17:17to bro and then and then and then it's it's not gonna be that on fire and then and then
01:17:23we'll be at
01:17:24the parade uh we'll be covering the parade and that that that's gonna be that's gonna be a lot
01:17:28that that will be really fun well um they gotta they gotta get it done look i got nixon six
01:17:33i just
01:17:34think that i think that you're you're you're confident you're more confident nixon six and
01:17:38i'm a nixon seven i think i i think they've been playing good basketball i think they understand the
01:17:41assignment i think they understand the moment um it's been 53 years i think they've had a good chance
01:17:47to win this i felt good about it for some while yeah i think the rest is gonna matter i
01:17:51think the
01:17:51preparation they've had is gonna matter we'll see what we get out of mitchell robinson his
01:17:55availability in this series that's important um i do think that's important but at the end of the
01:18:01day i just i believe sometimes you you i said this on a watch party doesn't take a whole day
01:18:08to
01:18:08recognize sunshine and i think right now they're playing at a high level the execution is high and
01:18:16i'm confident that they are able to to get this done i think they get it done at six
01:18:21but we'll see it's hard to pick against that dude on the other side man it is really difficult but
01:18:26you know he might also have to learn some things we'll see he's he's tough is he's tough this is
01:18:30the ultimate test of some rule that we grew up with is about to be yeah yeah if you have
01:18:36the
01:18:36thing about small guards if you have the thing about you have to go through the adversity before
01:18:40you can actually eventually win one of those rules um are not good things happening to the nicks
01:18:45which wasn't always always things can change sometimes you got to recognize it but we'll see
01:18:50what's going on that is our preview for the nba finals nicks versus spurs game one on wednesday
01:18:56night we will see you guys at magic hour myself and brian will be there hosting our live watch party
01:19:01that should be a fun one we'll also be there for game two so definitely tapping with us got more
01:19:04information coming up on that including who our guests will be for games one and two that's going
01:19:10to do it for this edition of new york got game let us know in the comments what you think
01:19:13will the
01:19:14nicks win will the spurs win what is your pick say it with your chest i know some of y
01:19:17'all are
01:19:18going to say nicks and four we did not but i know some of you guys will i know you
01:19:22know you
01:19:22know they're going to yeah for brian fonseca i'm dexter harry what are you gonna say no i was gonna
01:19:27say i say nicks and four no no i was gonna say i already know i'm gonna get shit for
01:19:31not being
01:19:32confident in my prediction but like yo i i'm not i don't care about predictions like that i gotta be
01:19:38honest there you go all right for brian fonseca good series you're rooting for good series yeah great
01:19:44great great prediction i'm dexter harry we'll catch you next time on new york got game peace
01:19:48we're here now finals times nicks are in the nba finals you know how we do with new york got
01:19:53game
01:19:53we have the live watch parties going on with myself and brian fonseca and we're bringing it live and
01:20:00direct to you we're going to be for the first two games of the nba finals so games one and
01:20:04two
01:20:05we're going to be at magic hour rooftop lounge and bar in manhattan that's 485 7th avenue come
01:20:12tapping with us for the first two games we'll be around other nick fans we're going to be watching
01:20:15the game live we're still going to be interacting with our viewers online taking your comments taking
01:20:21your questions doing our post game show it's all going to be at magic hour so it's really going to
01:20:26be fun i'm excited for this we're doing something a little bit different but it's a way for us to
01:20:30connect with some of the fans of new york got game and the diehard nicks fans that we know represent
01:20:35this city in person so come in tapping with us if you can't make it out to magic hour you
01:20:41still can
01:20:41tap with us the same way live online watching us on the new york post sports youtube channel
01:20:46but we'd love to see you all out there at magic hour for games one and two we're going to
01:20:50have
01:20:50some good guests we're going to watch some knicks basketball we're going to react we're going to
01:20:54analyze we're going to talk all about it it's going to be a fun time we're in the finals so
01:20:59you know we
01:20:59got to do a big here on new york got game tap in come join with us at magic hour
01:21:04you
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