00:00Jared Schwartz, the New York Post, here with our Knicks beat writer, Steph Bondi.
00:03The Knicks lost for the first time in 45 days. We're actually talking about a loss.
00:07The 13-game winning streak came to an end. Their final series lead went from 2-0 to 2-1.
00:13We have a series now. It's almost like I don't know what to talk about coming off of a loss,
00:18but let's start with the officiating. That's something that Coach Mike Brown talked about right away
00:22in his post-game press conference. It was 24-8 in terms of free throws in the second half.
00:26He mentioned that a bunch of times. He said, in a finals game, I've never really seen this before.
00:31He didn't really hold back. What do you make of that? Is he justified in that argument?
00:37Did he make too much of that?
00:39I understand. 24-8 is crazy. If you watch the game, if you're an objective observer,
00:45they didn't foul that many more times than the Spurs. I think he has a fair argument.
00:51With that being said, the Knicks still had a very good chance to win this game.
00:53They were down only four points with about six minutes left. That's when it's Jalen Brunson's time.
01:00With Jalen Brunson, he needs two things. He needs an opportunity, which he had,
01:05and he needs a little bit of help. He got no help. His teammates, other than OGN and OB,
01:11were just terrible. I think that was the two storylines. Jalen's teammates faltering down the
01:19stretch and the foul discrepancy.
01:20You talk about his teammates faltering down the stretch. I know you wrote about that.
01:24I think besides Jalen and OG, because OG chipped in a little bit, they were one for 16, I believe.
01:29That's crazy. One for 16. You can't do that.
01:32I know Carlton Townsend was 0 for 4.
01:34Cat, obviously the first two games, magnificent, was owning his matchup with Victor Wembe and Yama.
01:39Today, a completely different story. Wembe kind of dominated that matchup.
01:42Cat went missing for large stretches of the game and obviously faltered down the stretch.
01:46What did Wembe do well today in that matchup specifically that maybe flipped the script from the first two games?
01:52Yeah, I mean, he was Wembe that we saw in the OKC series. This was the alien type stuff.
02:02I thought one big difference for him was he had a lot of energy.
02:04In games one and two, I mean, he even admitted it. He was feeling kind of a hangover from that
02:09conference finals.
02:09He looked gassed in the games in San Antonio. Here, he had a ton of energy. He was all over
02:15the place.
02:16One play that stuck out in my mind was Landry Schama just blew by him in the fourth quarter.
02:23And Wembe did what Wembe does, which is like, all right, you can blow by me. That's not a problem.
02:26I'm still going to come back from behind and block it.
02:29He had a tremendous game on both sides of the floor.
02:32And I thought a lot of that was just him having his bounce back, having his energy.
02:36And maybe that's having two days off in between games. I thought that really helped him.
02:40It is tremendous when you watch him, just how many shots aren't taken just because of his presence.
02:45And, you know, the first two games, I think the Knicks did a good job in dragging him out of
02:48the paint.
02:48A lot of that was Carl Anthony Townsend, his shooting and attacking from the perimeter.
02:52Today, it just seemed like anywhere that Victor Wembe-Nyama was, the Knicks kind of drove in and he was
02:57lurking and ready to block the shots.
02:59I'm going back to Jalen Brunson and the physicality they played with him.
03:02Obviously, they've made it a point to kind of rough him up.
03:04There were a couple, you know, shots at him today that were maybe cross the line.
03:09Wembe, you know, Wembe kind of did shove him in the face and was not called for a foul.
03:12That was crazy.
03:13Jalen was actually angrier, I think, than I've ever really seen him.
03:17He got, the play was still going on and he got up in his face and kind of jawed with
03:20him.
03:20Do you think that affected Jalen at all today?
03:23No, I thought Jalen had a decent game.
03:25I mean, he didn't shoot well. He was only 11 for 25.
03:28But he, I thought, the big problem was his teammates down the stretch.
03:33You had three players in particular.
03:35Carlin of the Towns, Mikael Bridges, and Landry Schammett, who were all, all three of them were great in San
03:40Antonio.
03:41And they either didn't want any part of this game or they didn't want to, they just, they felt like
03:47they weren't efficient.
03:48You know what I mean?
03:49They had, all three of them had terrible games.
03:50So I thought that was a big difference here.
03:52Obviously, another big talking point was the turnovers.
03:54Mike said there were too many turnovers.
03:56Cass said there were too many turnovers.
03:57I think Jalen also said there were too many turnovers.
04:00Do you think any of that could be up to the crowd?
04:02You know, it was such an anticipated crowd.
04:04It was so loud.
04:05There were so many celebrities.
04:06You know, we talked about this game like being a party that we haven't seen in 27 years.
04:10Were they maybe a little bit restless or maybe a little too jacked up?
04:13And, you know, we saw a bunch of turnovers where they just, you know, unforced.
04:16Yeah.
04:16Jalen had five turnovers.
04:18It was a mistake-laden game.
04:21And there was a lot going on.
04:22I mean, we had to experience ourselves coming to this arena with Donald Trump here and having
04:27to go through, like, a TSA screening process.
04:29It's different from anything I've ever experienced at the Garden.
04:32I'm sure the players felt that, too.
04:34It wasn't just about basketball.
04:36And I know they try to make it that.
04:38But when there's so many different things going on around you, it can lead to mistakes
04:44and mental lapses.
04:45And that was certainly probably part of it.
04:47Last thing, this team is, you know, the story of this team has been resilience all year.
04:50We've seen resilience in-game with, you know, maybe some late-game comebacks.
04:54This is the first time in a month and a half we've had to see resilience coming back from
04:57a loss.
04:58What do you expect from them in that department?
05:00Well, they've shown it all year.
05:02And frankly, like, you know, they can get away with a loss because 2-2 means everybody
05:07held serve.
05:08But it also means that now you're basically down.
05:11You've lost home court advantage.
05:13And we're talking about a potential seven-game series.
05:16And the Knicks doing something that no other team in history has done, which is be
05:20the road team, win the first two games, and then lose a series.
05:25So they're facing that in game four.
05:28It's a big game.
05:29I think huge game, game four on Wednesday.
05:32We'll have you with everything covered between practice, between now and then.
05:35That's Steph Fondi.
05:36I'm Jared Schwartz with this recap of an eventful game three.
05:41Yeah, one wimpy shot.
05:42We shot a...
05:42...shot a...
05:43You
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