00:00Jared Schwartz of the New York Post here with our Knicks beat writer Steph Bondi after a thrilling Knicks Game
00:051 victory over the Spurs.
00:07They trailed by as much as 14 points in the third quarter.
00:10Another comeback win, another Jalen Brunson takeover in the fourth quarter.
00:14And you and me were talking as it was happening.
00:17When Brunson, I think the score was tied at 86-86 midway through the fourth quarter.
00:21Brunson was checking back in and we both kind of said, alright, now's the time where Brunson takes over.
00:26We've seen this before.
00:27And he scored eight straight points. I think he took over the fourth quarter.
00:31I mean, what do you make of his latest signature?
00:34I mean, listen, at this point, it's like you're numb to it.
00:37And like you said, we're expecting it.
00:38My lead to my story is death, taxes, and Jalen Brunson in crunch time.
00:42And he's done it over and over and over again, as Mike Brown said in his press conference.
00:47And really, this one was only shocking because he was going against an elite defense.
00:52You know, they had Stephon Castle on him.
00:54Stephon Castle is a tremendous perimeter defender.
00:57But he was able to get some switches on Julian Champagne.
01:00He attacked the paint.
01:01He put the spurs into blenders.
01:03And he hit his shots from crazy angles.
01:05So it was just another Jalen Brunson epic performance in the fourth quarter.
01:09And one question, if you had any questions, and you shouldn't have any questions because of how many times he
01:14did it.
01:14But if he had any questions about whether he could do that in the biggest stage of the NBA Finals,
01:19because this was his first NBA Finals game, yes, the answer is obviously he could.
01:23I guess we should talk about his leg.
01:25You know, he obviously went to the locker room briefly early in the game.
01:28It looked like Landry Shama kind of pushed Harrison Barnes into his right leg.
01:33He said he was fine on the court afterwards.
01:36He looked pretty shaken up in the moment.
01:38Yeah, you know, I don't think he's going to miss any time, obviously.
01:40But, you know, could that potentially be a worry when it's, you know, if it swells up?
01:46It's a non-story.
01:47I mean, he went back to the locker room, but he came back really quickly.
01:51And obviously, he wasn't affected.
01:54So to me, always the biggest thing is his ankle.
01:56And he did have an ankle turn at one point as well.
01:59That's been the bugaboo for Jalen Brunson for a long time.
02:03But I don't think the knee problem is going to have any carryover in game two.
02:07Going to the other side, Victor Wambunyama.
02:09Obviously, his first moment on the biggest stage.
02:12Struggled with his shot.
02:14It felt like he made his presence known on defense early on.
02:17But it seemed like in the fourth quarter, they found ways to avoid him in the paint,
02:20drag him out of the paint.
02:22What did you make of his first finals game and how the Knicks handled him?
02:26Yeah, I mean, like you said, he was a menace in the first three quarters.
02:30And the Knicks could not hit a shot if he was anywhere near them, especially jumpers.
02:34I was sitting next to James Edwards, the Athletics,
02:37and he was actually tallying the number of shots that the Knicks were taking,
02:41jump shots only, when Victor Wambunyama was the closest defender.
02:43I think they only hit one of them, one of nine or something like that.
02:46So, obviously, drawing him away from the paint was a huge help for them,
02:50as they did in the fourth quarter.
02:51And my overall impression at the end was, he was outdoed by Jalen Brunson.
02:57Maybe he should have went to the Jalen Brunson camp instead of the Shaolin Monk camp.
03:01Chalk another one up for David versus Goliath.
03:03Oh, there you go.
03:042-0.
03:052-0.
03:06He beat him in the NBA Cup, and he beat him in game one.
03:083-0.
03:093-0.
03:09There you go.
03:10He almost had a biblical serious sweep.
03:15Besides Wamby, besides Brunson, Cat felt like he carried the offense a little bit in the third quarter.
03:21He was effective.
03:23What did you make of him?
03:24It seemed like there were stretches where Brunson was struggling,
03:27where the Knicks were kind of scuffing their feet,
03:28and he was aggressive, and he kind of carried the offense.
03:31Yeah, and he was, like you said, aggressive.
03:33He was going to the paint.
03:34He certainly wasn't intimidated by Wamby.
03:37And it was an overall strong game from him.
03:41I thought, now listen, Josh Hart was in foul trouble.
03:43Yeah.
03:44But in that second half, man, I mean, he was the unsung hero.
03:47He was grabbing everything.
03:49There was one rebound on that side, right there in the corner of that court.
03:52He must have run from half court to grab it.
03:55Unfortunately, the Knicks didn't make a bucket on that possession,
03:57but that was one of the best offensive rebounds that I've ever seen.
04:00So I think Josh Hart was the unsung hero.
04:03Cat had a strong performance.
04:07Landry Schammett was great off the bench.
04:08O.G. Ananobi hit some clutch shots at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
04:11If I were to pick only one player that underwhelmed it was probably Mikael Bridges.
04:15He was benched for part of the fourth quarter.
04:17But overall, a great effort from the Knicks.
04:19One of those bench guys, Mitchell Robinson,
04:21obviously his availability was a central storyline.
04:24We spoke with him after the game.
04:25He had no interest in going into any more detail about how his broken right hands occurred.
04:31But he played.
04:33He grabbed, I think, six rebounds.
04:35He had two points.
04:36He was at alley-oop over Luke Cornett.
04:38I guess it's promising that he was on the court and playing.
04:41He didn't look like he was his same old self,
04:43but he seemed better than I thought he would be, at least.
04:47Yeah, it's better than you could.
04:48The best-case scenario would have been him going off,
04:51like a dominated game like he did in the NBA Cup final.
04:54But this was just about as good as you could hope after a guy breaks his hand,
05:00has surgery, and then comes back and plays, what, like nine days later or whatever it was?
05:05So, yeah, I mean, good.
05:07It was encouraging from Mitchell Robinson across the board.
05:11We'll have plenty of stories covering every storyline from tonight
05:14and in between games at NewYorkPost.com.
05:17That's Steph Bondi.
05:18I'm Jared Schwartz.
05:20Done with Game 1.
05:24I'm Jared Schwartz.
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