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Victor Wembanyama had a few questionable moments in what was a very physical Game 3 of the NBA Finals - was it just heat of the moment, or is Wemby a dirty player?
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00:00Knicks are up two games to one after the Spurs got on the board last night with a 115-111
00:05win.
00:07There was a lot to game three.
00:10Obviously, the crowd, the atmosphere was sensational.
00:14The second quarter run that gave the Knicks, you know, the halftime lead,
00:18I really thought that they were going to come out and really end the series
00:22after that run at the end of the second quarter.
00:26They didn't, and they gave up that lead pretty quickly in the third quarter.
00:31Wembenyama was great last night.
00:32Stefan Castle was outstanding in the game last night.
00:38My top two takeaways really are, man, Wembenyama is becoming a little bit irritating for me.
00:44I think he's a bit dirty, to be honest with you as a player.
00:47There's a chippiness.
00:49There's a badass competitive streak.
00:50I love it.
00:51There's a lot about him to like for sure.
00:55But, man, he got away with another cheap shot last night.
00:58He's already been booted from one game in the postseason.
01:01I think he's up to three flagrants for the postseason, but they've missed a couple.
01:05Look, he's desperate.
01:07They play desperate.
01:08You got to love that about a team that's down 2-0.
01:10And they went into an absolute snake pit last night.
01:15As 20, 21, and 22-year-olds, they're three best players, and they won the game.
01:21And they are alive and well in this series with game four set for tomorrow night.
01:28That was takeaway number one.
01:30Takeaway number two is that I just don't think the Knicks played well at all.
01:36And they reverted to what they were last year, and they reverted to what they were early in this postseason.
01:42And that is way too much Jalen Brunson iso ball.
01:46I don't think you can win playing that way, four out of seven, over four series in two months.
01:53I think it's really hard.
01:55You're too easy to defend.
01:57Yes, he is a spectacular shot maker.
02:00You know what he is for this series right now?
02:02I mean, he was 11 for 25 last night, which was his best shooting performance of the playoffs at 44
02:09% from the field.
02:10But on threes right now, he is 7 for 22 for the series, shooting 31.8%.
02:16He's shooting 37% for the series from the floor.
02:21He's averaging 4.3 turnovers per game and 4.3 assists a game.
02:29That's not good.
02:32A lot of it is San Antonio's defense.
02:35There's no doubt that the Spurs defense gets a lot of credit for it.
02:40Castle is a brutal defender.
02:43And the way they're officiating the NBA playoffs as a whole in these finals games,
02:48it plays into his ability to get up into Brunson, even when he's not guarding Brunson,
02:54and Harper is, or anybody else is, and they try to get the switch to Champani when he's in there.
02:59That's a better situation.
03:01But the iso ball has to stop.
03:04They've got to get back to playing more 3-, 4-, and 5-man basketball where the ball's moving, players are
03:11moving.
03:11The ball at least touches Carl Anthony Towns a couple of times in a half-court possession.
03:18Last night, Carl Anthony Towns, for the game, had 10 shot attempts.
03:23It's not enough.
03:25And by the way, of the 10, I would say 4 of them were on offensive rebounds.
03:32You know, where he had, let's see how many offensive rebounds.
03:36He had 3 offensive rebounds.
03:37So, 3 offensive rebounds, and then I think it followed with a shot attempt for him.
03:43You can't have Carl Anthony Towns, the best player on your team in the first two games, have 10 shot
03:50attempts.
03:52The ball stuck with Brunson, and that's not a good formula for the Knicks.
03:583-0-1, 2-3-0, 0-9-80, anything on game three, the finals in general.
04:04Wemby, anybody else feel the way I sort of am beginning to feel about Wemby?
04:09I appreciate the great skill, the incredible ability for somebody that size.
04:16There's something about him that's just becoming a little bit irritating to me.
04:21And I do think that he's definitely a dirty player.
04:24There are a lot of dirty players in sports that end up being great.
04:28But he gets, and he loses his cool.
04:31And you can say, well, they were just going after Brunson.
04:34You know, Castle basically was a lead fullback on that one drive and just ran Brunson over.
04:40They didn't call it a flagrant because he didn't really wind up and he didn't, you know, extend and finish.
04:45But that was flagrant.
04:47I mean, clearly.
04:48And I don't mind going after Brunson to try to beat him up.
04:51That's, you know, they're down 2-0.
04:53You try everything you can.
04:55But Wemby has one, has three flagrants, got booted from a game against Minnesota, and last night got away with
05:04a flagrant against Brunson in the first half.
05:083-0-1, 2-3-0, 0-9-80.
05:10Max, what were your thoughts?
05:12I haven't asked you.
05:13I mean, it's been a great final so far.
05:15But that one Wemby play where he grabs Brunson, and I'm not going to victim blame on Jalen Brunson, but
05:21he did have a fistful of his jersey.
05:24But if you're Wemby, you can't react like that.
05:26And it's happened a couple times throughout this postseason.
05:30You saw him whispering to Plumlee.
05:32I think it was after, what, game one?
05:34Just hard fouls.
05:35So, I definitely think he's starting to build that moniker up.
05:39I think by the end of this series, he's going to be a big-time villain in New York.
05:43He also was asked about that, and he said, I don't know.
05:48I'm nowhere close to Trey Young levels, but I think he's going to get that.
05:52Yes, I saw that.
05:53Yeah.
05:54But yeah, overall basketball-wise, the Spurs came back really hard in this game.
05:58You could tell right from the jump that they were ready to roll and that they were determined to get
06:03this win.
06:04So, yeah, I definitely think we're going to see.
06:07I think this is going seven.
06:08Don't you think?
06:12I don't know.
06:13I think every one of these games is kind of like they can go either way.
06:17It's been a war.
06:18So, the Knicks could win the next two.
06:21The Spurs could win the next three.
06:23I don't know.
06:24I hope it goes seven.
06:26I hope we have four more of these.
06:28Because the actual competition is compelling as hell.
06:34It has been throughout.
06:36But these three games, even though they haven't been the prettiest at times, they've been absolute thrills to watch.
06:44Because you just, you know, the intensity, and I think some people get surprised at this, but man, it doesn't
06:52matter how much money you make.
06:54Like, these guys want to win.
06:56And it's so obvious in the NBA playoffs how badly these teams want to win and be on this stage.
07:03This is the sport more than any other that gets judged on championships.
07:09It's the fewest number of players, you know, that you have on the floor or on the field at the
07:14same time.
07:15And so, players' legacies are so much more tied to titles than they are in football, baseball, or in hockey
07:24in terms of the four major professional sports.
07:27And you can see how badly these teams want it.
07:31I think you see it every year in the NBA postseason.
07:34You're definitely seeing it right now.
07:37A coach texted me during it.
07:40He said, the worst part of the iso ball is when he gets double teamed and he tries to dribble
07:45out of the double team.
07:46A hundred percent.
07:48Man, the Knicks have to have an easier answer.
07:51The ball should immediately off the double teams.
07:54Ball should immediately go to the middle of the floor.
07:57Who's ever, the guy who goes to double team, if that's your man, you get to the middle of the
08:05floor, you're the relief.
08:08You throw the ball to the middle of the floor, then you attack.
08:10And you're four on three.
08:12And it should be easy.
08:14And he does try to dribble through and out of double teams, which just eats up the shot clock more.
08:22They can bitch all they want about how physical San Antonio is being with him.
08:27But the Knicks didn't earn the right to be at the free throw line last night with the way they
08:32played offensive basketball.
08:34It was painful to watch at times.
08:36And as great as he is, and he's such a great shot maker, he's such a great ball handler.
08:43He's patient.
08:44There's so many things about his game.
08:46And without him, they've got no shot.
08:47Understand that all these things can be true at the same time.
08:51But, God, wouldn't it be – how many times does Brunson catch a ball after it's reversed from one side
08:58to another and he's got an open look?
09:00Every shot he takes and makes is contested.
09:05Mo in Gaithersburg, go ahead.
09:09Hey, what's going on?
09:10Thank you for having me.
09:11Sure.
09:12I think the key plays of the whole game were NBA was not going to have the Knicks win in
09:20that game.
09:21There's way too much money involved.
09:24And they want this to come back to New York for one more game.
09:30The whole – if you watch the game, the key point was –
09:34Well, it couldn't end last night.
09:35They were going to play on Wednesday night anyway.
09:36Last night was just game three.
09:38Well, you know, what I was stating is there was no way that they were going to have them get
09:42swept.
09:42Because if you think about it, you watch the game.
09:45When Bridges got two fouls in the first half, in the first quarter, that's where the game turned a little
09:52bit.
09:53And then when the Spurs got the lead, then we go back to the whole foul game.
09:58Like, how was that flagrant foul, by the way, on Brunson?
10:05But Brunson's not even looking at him.
10:07And if you watch him, the shooter actually jumped into him.
10:12That was more like a Reggie Miller play than anything else.
10:16Yeah, I want to just go back to what you said about the Bridges thing.
10:19Because I do think that San Antonio started off well.
10:22They went to Wemby early.
10:23They got him going early.
10:25They took another double-digit first quarter lead.
10:27To your point, and it's a good one.
10:29Bridges gets two fouls.
10:30And he never, never recovered from that last night.
10:34He was a non-factor the entire night.
10:37But let's not forget, the Knicks absolutely went nuclear in the second quarter.
10:44And they scored 42 points.
10:46And they had a seven-point lead at halftime.
10:48And I don't know about you, but at halftime, when they took that lead with that crowd,
10:52I'm like, it's going to be 3-0.
10:53I understand what you're saying.
10:55Of course, the NBA would prefer a long series.
10:58They would prefer to see this thing go seven.
11:01And I thought in game two, the Spurs got the benefit of a very kind whistle all night long.
11:08I didn't feel that way last night.
11:10Part of it, though, is, Mo, I don't think the Knicks earned a better whistle last night
11:16with the way they played offensive basketball.
11:18The numbers won't say it was one-sided officiating-wise.
11:22It was 32-22.
11:24That's a pretty big disparity.
11:2523-21 in fouls.
11:27It was the 24 free throws to eight in the second half that Mike Brown was complaining about.
11:31Well, then, Mike, make the defense move a little bit.
11:34Take it to Wemby.
11:37And instead, there was just too much of the ball getting stuck with Brunson.
11:42And, yeah, he's a magical shot maker.
11:46But I don't think you earn the free throw line playing that way.
11:50I don't think you do.
11:52The second part that the game turned around was also Brunson getting into foul trouble in the third quarter
11:59when they took him out.
12:00If you watch the game, the Spurs and the Knicks, they couldn't score for about two minutes.
12:05Yeah, there was that stretch.
12:08And there was a bad stretch for the Knicks.
12:11And if you also, you know, everybody's on the Spurs now, you know, Spurs this, Spurs that.
12:17But if you think about it, everything went well for a Spurs in this game.
12:21And the Knicks were still in it.
12:23If Castle does not hit that three, the Knicks are probably going to win that game.
12:28Look, you're right.
12:29They would have had a chance down 108-104 with still a minute, you know, plus left, a minute 40
12:35or whatever it was left in the game to come back down.
12:38And you know if he misses.
12:39And that was a bad possession for San Antonio and a good defensive possession for the Knicks.
12:44I'll tell you this about when Brunson's out.
12:47I think Alvarado's had a very good series.
12:49I think the ball with Alvarado has energy and life and it moves.
12:54I'm not suggesting that they could win with Alvarado instead of Brunson.
12:58Of course not.
12:59But they play, it's a different style of basketball when he's in there.
13:03Now, that was last night because the Knicks have played better team basketball.
13:08The ball's moved.
13:09If you really go back to that game three loss to Atlanta when they were playing ISO once again to
13:15start the playoffs and they were down two games to one, it changed.
13:18And Karl-Anthony Towns became a big part of what they were doing.
13:22Last night, sorry, but Cat needs to be more significant offensively.
13:28And he wasn't.
13:29Jalen Brunson can't have as many turnovers in a game as he does assists, especially when he's getting doubled.
13:37You know, now, off the double team, it may not result in the assist.
13:42It may be the hockey assist.
13:44But you've got to get rid of the basketball on the double team.
13:46Ball's got to go to the middle of the floor.
13:48You've got to play four on three the rest of the way.
13:50And maybe somebody else ends up with the actual assist.
13:52But that's good basketball.
13:54Jalen Brunson did not play high IQ basketball.
13:58And Mike Brown, they've done this.
14:00They did it all last year.
14:02It's not going to cut it against a great defensive team like San Antonio.
14:07It just isn't.
14:07Mo, thanks for the call.
14:08I want to get to some of these other calls.
14:103-1-2-3-0-0-9-80.
14:14Anything about game three last night?
14:16Anybody with me on Wemby?
14:19Look, there's greatness.
14:22And there's projected greatness.
14:24He's a bit irritating to watch.
14:27He's kind of dirty.
14:28He is.
14:29Rod and Landover, go ahead.
14:33Man, look, for me, first of all, the Knicks got to match that intensity.
14:40Man, they can't let these young guys from San Antonio come in New York City
14:44and rough them off like that.
14:46You know what I'm saying?
14:47They will have to stand up to that.
14:49Look, if they throwing elbows, the Knicks got to throw them back.
14:52You know, it's just the bottom line.
14:54The Knicks is the veteran team.
14:56You know, they can't let these young guys come in there and steal their thunder.
15:00These young guys are absolute defensive.
15:05I mean, they err on the side of being crazy aggressive,
15:11which you have to love for a 20- and 21-year-old in Harper and Castle in particular.
15:18Those two have been major, major revelations in this postseason.
15:24I know a lot of, you know, Big Tony and a lot of Spurs fans
15:27were telling me about Castle and Harper all year,
15:30but you don't know for sure until the postseason.
15:33Wow.
15:34And that leads me to my next point.
15:36My next point is this.
15:38They are must-watch TV.
15:40You know, when they had Parker and what's-my-man, Duncan,
15:46they was kind of boring.
15:47And Ginobili.
15:47I didn't really like watching them.
15:49You did?
15:50They were boring.
15:50They kind of reminded me.
15:51I mean, they was winning championships, but they was boring.
15:54But this man's team right here, with Wimby shooting threes like Steph Curry,
16:00dunking on people backwards, Castle dunking on people, them shooting threes.
16:04Man, this team is a must-watch team, man.
16:06They fun to watch.
16:07They beat you up.
16:08They dunk on you.
16:10They in your face.
16:11Man, these guys are fun to watch, man.
16:13Listen, I agree with you on that.
16:16If you like basketball turning into football and rugby and, you know,
16:24and watching somebody literally try to intimidate physically the opponent,
16:31boy, the Spurs are good at doing that.
16:33Look, the Knicks are a tough team, too.
16:36Knicks are very tough.
16:37Josh Hart is tough.
16:38By the way, I thought Ananobi last night was phenomenal,
16:41and he has turned into one of the best two-way players in the game.
16:45But you're not wrong, man.
16:47Castle and Harper, I actually enjoy watching them play as much as I enjoy watching Wemby
16:55Nama play.
16:56I'll tell you what they need.
16:57They need another big.
16:59They need another.
17:00They need a 6'8", 6'9", 6'10", 6'11", big to put out there so they can go
17:06big.
17:07They don't have a big lineup at all.
17:09Now, Castle plays big in terms of, you know, his personality.
17:17Same with Harper.
17:18I think in the offseason, the Spurs are going to go get themselves another big guy
17:24so they can occasionally play big because they don't have the ability to do that.
17:30You know, they don't have another big dude.
17:33Somebody come off the bench would be perfect.
17:35And last thing, Kevin, I would say this.
17:37Man, I love the city of New York, but I'm going to tell you right now, I love when their
17:42sports teams lose.
17:44Man, it'd be so – when they lose, it is so funny looking at Spike Lee and all them
17:49jokers, Fat Joe, all them jokers.
17:51Man, it'd be so funny when they lose, Kevin.
17:53Look, the Giants, the Yankees, the Knicks.
17:57Man, listen, I love the city, but I'd be loving to see their sports teams lose.
18:01Man, thanks for taking my call, Kevin.
18:02All right, as always, Rod.
18:04Yeah, I mean, look, there is something to be said for that.
18:08I mean, they came for a celebration the next two games, and they're not going to get that
18:15celebration sweep.
18:17Look, I still think the Knicks have a good chance to win this series.
18:21I think at times they've been the better team.
18:24Wembenyama was outplayed by Carl Anthony Towns in the first two games.
18:28I don't think Mike Brown and the Knicks coaching staff and or Jalen Brunson gave Carl Anthony
18:36Towns an opportunity last night to outplay Wembenyama again.
18:40I think they've got to get back to that.
18:43Again, I'll beat this dead horse until it's dead multiple times, but you cannot have Jalen
18:50Brunson barely get the ball over the timeline.
18:53Now there are 16 seconds left in the shot clock.
18:56He's dribbling the life out of it.
18:58Then they come with the double, and he's trying to dribble through the double, and you can't
19:03have eight, nine possessions in a game where he's the only one that touches the basketball.
19:09Even if he works himself into a good shot and makes it, you're not making the defense work
19:17enough.
19:17You're not including your teammates, which eventually you're going to have to.
19:24They've got to be ready to respond as well.
19:27That's not winning basketball, even at the NBA level, and we see it so often at every
19:32level now.
19:33Iso ball, two-man ball.
19:35It's not what they did in the first two games.
19:37It's not what they did against the Cavs.
19:40It's not what they did against the 76ers.
19:43It's not what they did for the last half of the series against the Hawks.
19:47Last night, they reverted to Jalen Brunson slash James Harden-esque, dribbling the life
19:54out of the basketball, the basketball getting stuck, and you're not at an advantage playing
19:59that way, and they paid the price for that.
20:02Look, the Spurs defense, too.
20:04If you're going to do that against a great defensive team, good luck.
20:08301-230-0980.
20:11301-230-0980.
20:13Alan, Alan, go ahead.
20:16Hey, Kevin.
20:18Thanks for taking my call, man.
20:20Sure.
20:21I've been listening to you for a long time.
20:23I've never called before, but I just wanted to let you know that I agree with you.
20:28I agree with you that Mr. Wimby has turned into a villain right in front of our eyes.
20:37He is a dirty player.
20:39I've seen him throw them elbows he threw, putting that shoulder down and running over plays like
20:47he's a, you know, that kind of stuff.
20:49And that's some dirty stuff.
20:51But what I don't understand is that why don't the Knicks, they need to bring, where's Charles
20:59Oakley and Mr. Mason?
21:01You know, they need an enforcer to put him on his butt.
21:06You're going to get teams that are going to put that guy on their roster to go after
21:11this guy in the future.
21:14Yes.
21:15If you're living in a glass house, you can't throw stones, man.
21:21You know, this guy has got to start hitting the floor.
21:27But he's going to be protected by the league.
21:30He's the league's golden calf.
21:33They're not going to let this guy get roughed up for so much because of his potential of
21:41who he is to the league.
21:43There's no way in the world, I'm going to let you go, Kevin.
21:45There's no way in the world that you can't tell me that in three years in a row, you draft
21:51and Wimby, next year, she's getting canceled, and then they turn around and get in, what's
21:57his name?
21:58Harper.
21:59A hopper.
22:00Three years in a row.
22:01You can't tell me that the league is not setting up the spurs for success.
22:07And it's obvious.
22:10And they're going to win this year.
22:12And Oakley or a Mason or somebody like that is exactly what the Knicks could use right
22:18now.
22:18Like, they need somebody to go after Wemby Niyama in a way that gets him into trouble.
22:25You can't.
22:25Brunson got up and held his cool, you know, last night.
22:29Because you're going to catch the second guy, and he didn't want to, you know, take
22:34a flagrant or potentially get tossed for the game if he had gone after Wemby.
22:38I don't know if he could have reached him, but you're going to see teams in trying to
22:45combat San Antonio here moving forward, put an enforcer on their roster for that sole
22:51purpose.
22:52Because it's, by the way, it's easy to sort of justify because Wemby's dirty.
22:57He's a dirty player.
22:58There's really no debate on that.
23:02And part of it's chippy.
23:04Part of it is hyper competitive.
23:06And I love that part of him, but we've now seen throughout a postseason him get tossed
23:11from a game, three flagrants in the playoffs, and probably two or three flagrants that weren't
23:16called.
23:17You know, so we're going to find teams trying to combat that with an enforcer.
23:24It's a good point.
23:25Alan, thanks for calling.
23:27Appreciate it.
23:28301-230-0980.
23:30Let's keep the calls going on the NBA playoffs.
23:32The Spurs are on the board last night with a 115-111 win in that unbelievable environment
23:40at Madison Square Garden.
23:42Do you agree with me that Wemby's becoming a bit irritating?
23:46Alan does.
23:48And then secondly, who's got the advantage right now in this series?
23:53It's hard for me to come up with, you know, all three of these games could have gone either
23:57away, like literally San Antonio had a double-digit lead in game one, blew it.
24:03The Knicks had a double-digit lead in game two, blew it, but then got a turnover by Wemby
24:08late or in a missed shot by Wemby late that could have cost them.
24:12And then last night, you know, the Knicks are up seven coasting.
24:17They had a shot if Castle misses that three, 301-230-0980.
24:23We've got a line open if you want to jump on, 301-230-0980.
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