00:00Jared Schwartz of the New York Post here with our Knicks beat writer, Steph Bondi.
00:04The first practice of official finals week, media day here in San Antonio.
00:10The big story, obviously, is Mitchell Robinson.
00:12As we can see here, he's wearing a little protective sleeve over his right hand.
00:17Mike Brown said he was still waiting to hear what the medical staff told him.
00:22What does this indicate to you that he's on the court, he's wearing a little thing on
00:25his hand, but he's not speaking to the media?
00:28Well, it's good, encouraging to me that I watched him with the ball.
00:32He looks very comfortable with the ball, and that was a big concern is how is that, you
00:37know, hand, that fracture in the hand going to compromise his ability to handle the ball,
00:43his ability to rebound, the ability to shoot.
00:45We've literally seen him do it.
00:47So that's an encouraging sign, you know, and as we've been reporting it all along, there's
00:52real hope that he'll play in game one.
00:54Obviously, when you're here, you get the full scope of just what the finals means.
00:58And I know Coach Brown said, the finals are different, there's just so many media obligations,
01:03there's so much attention, so many extras that you have to do, and if you're not careful,
01:07you can get fatigued.
01:08That was, I was speaking with Steve Kerr about Mike Brown, and that was something that he
01:11said too, that everything is just different.
01:13Even from the conference finals, it's different.
01:15You know, you've got to practice on your home court, not in a facility.
01:19What, what do you make of that and how well this Knicks team can handle that attention
01:25and that stage, almost?
01:27Well, to promote your story, which is very good, Jared Schwartz had got Steve Kerr an exclusive
01:32about Mike Brown.
01:33It's a good thing that you have that experience.
01:36Mike Brown has been through, I don't know, counting the Spurs, four or five different finals
01:41already.
01:41He understands everything that it takes.
01:44The stuff that goes beyond the court, and the media obligations, and all the hoopla that
01:50surrounds it.
01:51I mean, it's kind of funny to watch these guys, can you see that right there, stretch to Michael
01:55Jackson.
01:56We normally don't get to see this, have this kind of access, so this is all different
02:00for the players, and you have to get used to it.
02:04It seems like they do like Michael Jackson.
02:05I remember when they won game four in Cleveland, they were playing a lot of Michael Jackson.
02:09It seems like they're a Michael Jackson locker room.
02:12Obviously, with the Spurs, it all centers around Victor Wembenyama.
02:16We know how important Mitchell Robinson is in potentially guarding him.
02:20O.G. Ananobi will be important.
02:21How do you think the Knicks can slow him down?
02:24You know, they talk about that you can't really prepare for him because he's unlike anybody
02:27else.
02:28How can the Knicks prepare for him?
02:29Well, alright, when I think about, first of all, Victor Wembenyama, I think about his
02:33dominance on the defensive side even more than the offensive side.
02:36So how are you going to deal with that?
02:37You got to get him away from the basket.
02:39You got to get him involved in as many pick and rolls as possible.
02:44Get him, you know, who's ever guarding him, you know, whoever he's guarding, sorry, get
02:48him up in the action.
02:49Get him away from the basket because then that opens up all the other possibilities because
02:54if Victor Wembenyama is at the rim, you're in trouble.
02:57I don't think this is going to be a big series for the Knicks scoring at the rim.
03:01This is going to be a big jump shot series.
03:02It's going to be a big pull up jumpers from Jalen Brunson series and that's all because
03:07of Victor Wembenyama.
03:08With those jumpers, obviously the Spurs have a good perimeter defense as well.
03:12Castle, Vassell, Fox, Champagne has good size.
03:18How do the Knicks match up with that athletic, you know, dynamic perimeter defense that the
03:23Spurs have?
03:24And, you know, Jalen Brooks has struggled with the three point shot a little bit in the
03:27conference final.
03:28Uh huh.
03:29What do you make of, you know, I think every, every series we talk about who's guarding
03:32Brunson.
03:32It'll probably be Castle, that matchup.
03:34Yep, yep.
03:35I mean, this is the big advantage for the San Antonio Spurs in addition to Wembenyama is
03:39their athleticism, their speed on the perimeter.
03:42This is a totally different series than the Cleveland Cavaliers.
03:45There's no James Harden out there.
03:46You can't just go spam at James Harden.
03:49You can't spam at CJ McCollum, you can't spam at Donovan Mitchell, you can't spam at Joel Embiid.
03:55They have weapons of one through five, so, you know, the Knicks are going to have to
04:01figure that out.
04:01And that's why I'm so interested in game one.
04:03Game one to me is a huge question mark.
04:06A lot going on.
04:07The Knicks have this long layoff.
04:09They didn't handle it very well in game one against Cleveland, certainly in the first three
04:12quarters.
04:13How are they going to handle it this time?
04:15Two, the Spurs, they're coming off what, to me, I looked at as their holy grail beating
04:20OKC.
04:21Is there going to be a letdown after you do something like that?
04:23So, those are kind of just two things going on in the minds of both teams that I'm wondering
04:28how that will kind of manifest itself in game one.
04:31Another Michael Jackson song, by the way.
04:33Hey.
04:34Speaking of all these things that we see manifest in game one, if Victor Wemanyama guards Josh
04:40Hart, that likely leaves someone a lot smaller on Karl-Anthony Towns.
04:44Can he exploit having a small defender on him and act as a facilitator from the elbows as
04:50he has so well?
04:52I don't think it's so much the facilitating of the elbows stuff.
04:55I think he's going to have to be more of a post-up guy if that's the case.
04:58And the problem is that Victor is going to be, this is why you want to draw Victor away
05:02from the rim.
05:03He's just going to be there.
05:04So, if you have Cat backing down and Victor's at the rim, that's not a recipe for success.
05:10This could be a big series for Cat.
05:13Cat really has to assert himself in the post.
05:16We'll keep you updated with all the finals developments.
05:18Today was media day, game one tomorrow.
05:21That's Steph Bondi.
05:21I'm Jared Schwartz.
05:22And this is a finals edition of the Practice Report.
05:25Smooth criminal right here.
05:28We're here now, finals times, Knicks are in the NBA Finals.
05:31You know how we do with New York God game.
05:32We have the live watch parties going on with myself and Brian Fonseca, and we're bringing
05:38it live and direct to you.
05:40We're going to be for the first two games of the NBA Finals, so games one and two.
05:44We're going to be at Magic Hour Rooftop Lounge and Bar in Manhattan.
05:48That's 485 7th Avenue.
05:50Come tap in with us for the first two games.
05:53We'll be around other Knicks fans.
05:54We're going to be watching the game live.
05:55We're still going to be interacting with our viewers online, taking your comments,
05:59taking your questions, doing our post game show.
06:02It's all going to be at Magic Hour.
06:04So it's really going to be fun.
06:06I'm excited for this.
06:07We're doing something a little bit different, but it's a way for us to connect with some
06:10of the fans of New York Got Game and the diehard Knicks fans that we know represent
06:14this city in person.
06:15So come in, tap in with us.
06:17If you can't make it out to Magic Hour, you still can tap with us the same way live online,
06:22watching us on the New York Post Sports YouTube channel.
06:25But we'd love to see you all out there at Magic Hour for games one and two.
06:29We're going to have some good guests.
06:30We're going to watch some Knicks basketball.
06:32We're going to react.
06:32We're going to analyze.
06:34We're going to talk all about it.
06:35It's going to be a fun time.
06:36We're in the finals.
06:37So, you know, we got to do a big here on New York Got Game.
06:40Tap in.
06:41Come join with us at Magic Hour.
06:43Bye.
06:44Bye.
06:50Bye.
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