- 3 days ago
BMitch and JP react to the insane comeback in the NBA Finals last night.
Category
đ„
SportsTranscript
00:00And for the Knicks to do that in Game 4 of the Finals, to the Spurs' credit,
00:05their shooting in the first half was unreal.
00:07When you're shooting over 60% from three-point range,
00:13it's kind of hard to stop that.
00:15Dude, I think they tied a Finals record with 14 threes in the first half of that game.
00:20Everybody was making everything.
00:22And my only thought was, you're not going to keep shooting like that.
00:25You're going to get cold.
00:25I don't know that whether it comes down some or it comes down a lot,
00:30you're not going to keep shooting like that.
00:32And so I thought the Knicks had a chance to kind of claw it back.
00:35And then we're watching the third quarter, and the Spurs just â
00:39White Bryant just said this to me in the hallway.
00:41He's like, it seemed like it was a college team that had a big lead
00:47and just kind of let it go.
00:49You know what I mean?
00:50It's not that they let it go.
00:51I'm going to tell you exactly what it was.
00:53That's youth on their side and stupidity on the coach's side.
00:57If you're the coach, you call them in and say,
01:01we're going to start doing this thing.
01:03Listen, I know y'all call Jeff a hater, but with me 7'4",
01:07he's the biggest, baddest dude on the court.
01:09Get to the block.
01:10He got to stop thinking, oh, yeah, you know.
01:14See, he has this mindset of, I'm just going to demoralize you.
01:19That's what he thinks.
01:20You can't keep pulling up those threes from that far out,
01:23especially when you're winning like that.
01:25Run some time off the clock, throw it down low to him.
01:28Nobody can really stop him.
01:30And if they follow him, he should have hit the three.
01:31He missed two in a row last night, late in the game.
01:33He missed in the two free throws last night.
01:35It was unbelievable.
01:36It was.
01:36But what I'm saying is, like someone, I think, texted on my text read
01:42from my college guys that someone said they need a leader.
01:46Yes, they do.
01:47You watch the Knicks, all that stuff happening,
01:50you didn't see them fussing at each other.
01:52They stay calm.
01:53But every time something goes crazy, OG either makes a big shot
01:59or Jalen Brunson takes it and calms everybody down.
02:01Josh Hart does it.
02:02Brunson's a real leader.
02:03Nobody does it on the spur side.
02:07Everybody is trying.
02:08And De'Aaron Fox wanted to be the story.
02:10That's what I believe.
02:11De'Aaron Fox did hit the big three.
02:13The play at the end where there's a turnover, he gets the ball.
02:15They have a lead, and he gets the ball with like 11 1â2 seconds.
02:20And he has not a clear path to the basket.
02:23And Barkley, I thought, was phenomenal postgame.
02:26Just killing him.
02:27You got to go towards the basket and then dribble that to the corner.
02:31Make him foul.
02:32You go to the foul line.
02:34For Ananobi to make that block, and that's a clean block.
02:38Hell yeah.
02:38You could be the biggest Spurs fan in the world.
02:40Michelle Beadle.
02:41I don't know another famous Spurs fan.
02:43You could be the biggest Spurs fan in the world.
02:45Big trash.
02:45You watch that block.
02:47Completely legal.
02:48That was a clean block.
02:49Clean block.
02:49And then, I love, you could say it's a good shot, a bad shot.
02:53I don't know.
02:54But I love that Brunson, there was never a doubt who's taking that shot.
02:57Hell yeah.
02:58Hell yeah.
02:59And, I don't know, B.
03:01Like, you're the San Antonio Spurs.
03:04Steph Castle had foul trouble throughout this game.
03:07I think that's a really underrated part of how the Knicks were able to come back.
03:10Because when Castle had to go to the bench with four fouls.
03:12He's their best defender, and he's their best playmaker.
03:15Harper's right there as a playmaker, but Castle is just phenomenal on the defensive end.
03:20If you're, to your point about Mitch Johnson's coaching, if you're the Spurs, and you know
03:28they're going to try to get a shot up early enough so that they can get a chance at an
03:32offensive board.
03:33Why the hell is Wemby 35 feet from the basket?
03:36OG got a complete free release to the hoop, and some of that is the universe, some of that is
03:42the
03:42basketball gods.
03:43It was the perfect play for him to tip in.
03:45But that tip in was impossible.
03:47That's a hustle, man.
03:48Dude, he's flying to the basket and then required, like, an incredible amount of touch.
03:53He hit it, and he kind of guided it in.
03:55Like, that was not a put-back dunk.
03:57That was not easy by any stretch.
03:59Bad man, though.
04:00Dude, and then listening to OG post-game, what a class act and just, like, calm person.
04:06Hey, man, he plays like that, though.
04:08You watch him in the games, he doesn't get, like, this is the one thing that, listen,
04:15you know how I am, so I tell you how if, like, Castle of a Cell, they are super hyped
04:22when they're winning.
04:23When they're losing, they disappear.
04:25I need them to get to the point where they could be even killed a whole damn game.
04:28And some of it is their use and inexperience.
04:30Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying, but OG's not very old himself.
04:34But he's been like that the whole, when you watch him, you don't know if they're up or
04:38down.
04:38Totally.
04:39But he just goes through his game.
04:41Brunson.
04:42Brunson.
04:42Is unbelievable.
04:43Dude, for the Villanova crowd, Bridges and Hart weren't very good last night.
04:47Josh Hart needs to buy OG and Anobi a house.
04:49Because if the Knicks go on to lose that game and he misses that bunny layup, that will be
04:56the replay that goes on forever.
04:57He was too much worrying about the dude chasing him.
05:00Right.
05:01I think he took off too early to dunk.
05:03No, no, no.
05:03You can see him looking, looking, looking.
05:05If he just goes in and dunk the damn ball, I've always felt, when you're around the rim,
05:10look, Josh Girvin was the ice man.
05:12He was the one that did the finger roll.
05:13Everybody else just dunk the damn ball.
05:15Yeah, I think some of it is the NBA has gotten so foul driven, I think he was trying to
05:20hesitate
05:21a little to maybe draw the contact to get a foul.
05:23Whatever it was, he owes OG and Anobi a house, a car.
05:27He owes him something significant.
05:29Because otherwise, that play goes on forever.
05:32Forever.
05:33B, I want to run through some of these numbers.
05:35Because the Spurs deserve credit for how good they were in the first half.
05:4114 of 26 from three.
05:42Everybody was making every three in sight.
05:45But perhaps more impressive than that, they only had two turnovers in the first half.
05:50That number jumps to nine in the second half.
05:53Their three-point shooting goes three of 17 for 18%.
05:57From 60 to 18%.
05:59And in the third quarter, when they had the big lead, they just kept jacking it.
06:03But see, the thing of the basket.
06:05That is it where you watch them in the third quarter.
06:09Their shots.
06:11Normally, you're shooting it foot from the three-point line.
06:14They're shooting that thing five, six, seven, eight feet from the three-point line.
06:18Everybody got to see who's going to hit the longest three-point, I guess.
06:21You know?
06:22Instead, just win the damn game.
06:24It's not about how many three-pointers you hit.
06:27Win the game.
06:28And that, listen, bro.
06:29I'm just saying.
06:30The coach sat there in one stretch.
06:31And I'm like, dude, call the time out.
06:34That said, as incredible as the Knicks comeback was, the OG tip-in was, Spurs have a real chance at
06:41the buzzer there.
06:42The play they drew up for Steph Castle on the back screen, it was there.
06:47Credit to Carl Anthony Towns, who did not have his best game, I would say.
06:50He scored in the fourth quarter, though.
06:51He made Wemby have to defend him.
06:54And that's when things kind of opened up for Brunson, getting to the hole, getting those little pull-up jumpers.
06:59But if Carl Anthony Towns doesn't tip that inbound pass, I think the entire conversation could be.
07:08Who knows?
07:08That's still a high degree of difficulty play to pull off.
07:11But it was open.
07:12The play was there.
07:13The thing about it, sometimes when you look at Carl didn't have the point production.
07:18Yeah.
07:18But the fact that Wemby had to leave that area and start checking him, that changed the game.
07:25Totally.
07:26Just because when Cat was out with the foul trouble and you had Wemby in the paint most of the
07:32time, it was remarkably different.
07:35When Brunson can't get to the bucket and then Bridges isn't making threes, Hart's not making threes.
07:42I mean, Jose Alvarado gave them some minutes last night, man.
07:46They scored 30 points in the second half?
07:47B.
07:48They scored 30 points in the second half.
07:51Like, the point totals are staggering.
07:54They went, just listen to this.
07:56The Spurs by quarter, 41, 35, 14, and 16.
08:03They scored fewer points in the second half than they did in the second quarter.
08:07Damn.
08:08I mean, and there was a point, like, the text thread last night was kind of fun.
08:12And I know you, when you're, like, watching a game, aren't too worried about the text thread.
08:17But I was just going.
08:19And to me, it was at 10.51 p.m.
08:23So this is when the third quarter ends.
08:25I texted, Knicks had a chance to cut it to single digits there.
08:28Because remember, they kept getting it to 15.
08:30And they had one, the Spurs had one possession where they had a good look at three, missed it, get
08:37the offensive rebound, have another good look at three, missed it, got the offensive rebound, and then finally got, like,
08:42a lay-in at the bucket.
08:44But I followed that up with, but they got a chance.
08:47And it felt like, credit to the Garden crowd, and I think a lot of people wondered why we had
08:54to see so much Taylor Swift.
08:55I would be one of them.
08:56But, like, the crowd, that energy, I think in a lot of capacities kind of willed them back in.
09:02I think the foul trouble for Castle was huge.
09:06Oh, hell yeah.
09:08Because when you go from Castle out there with his incredible shot-making ability, but also his defensive presence to
09:17Champagny guarding Brunson, that's a big change.
09:20That is a, and I'm not knocking Champagny, he's just not the player.
09:23Yeah, he's not the same player.
09:24And, dude, De'Aaron Fox, like, are we sure Dylan Harper shouldn't be getting those minutes and those punches?
09:30Listen, Dylan Harper, he might be the second-best player on that team.
09:36Totally.
09:37He may be better than Castle and Vassell.
09:39He's better than both of them.
09:41The way he comes into a game, knocking down threes, getting to the hole, and his defense is astronomical.
09:49But they insist on playing Fox.
09:51But I tell you this, Fox may be on the move next year.
09:54Fox out of town.
09:54He's gone.
09:55He's gone.
09:55He's gone.
09:56Yeah.
09:56I just, it was, that comeback, you got to give that garden crowd credit, because you
10:03can feel the electricity in the air.
10:06Yeah, but you know who gave them that energy to get the electricity?
10:10Them people on the court bringing it back.
10:12Totally.
10:12Starting to score.
10:13Wemby, his breakdown.
10:15He stopped throwing elbows.
10:17Sure.
10:18Or somebody from the end of the bench is going to the game and split his wig.
10:21You wonder eventually, I kind of thought Mitch Robinson might do it.
10:25Mitch Robinson seems the kind of dude to do it.
10:27But Wemby, 6 of 11 in the first half, was really, really good, really, really smooth
10:33within the flow of the offense.
10:343 of 14 after halftime.
10:37Including the missed pair.
10:39When he missed the front end, I was like, all right, he'll knock this one down.
10:43When he missed both of those free throws under two minutes left, I understand Wemby has
10:48never played this much.
10:49He's never played this many minutes.
10:51He's a young man.
10:52He's all right.
10:52You wonder about the fatigue.
10:53But dude, Castle, in both game 3 and 4, with the Garden going nuts as they're at the free
11:00throw line in huge moments, Castle knocks down the pair in game 3 to kind of ice that
11:05game.
11:06Castle knocked down a pair last night.
11:08And then Wemby misses that pair.
11:10That's up here, dude.
11:11That's in your brain.
11:12And Wemby, talking big S in the first half.
11:16He's pointing at Mitch Robinson saying, I'm in your head.
11:18Hey, man.
11:20You remember that?
11:21What was it?
11:22The show with Michael Jordan talking about the Bulls stuff?
11:26And he'd go.
11:27Last dance.
11:28Yeah.
11:28He had a cigar.
11:29He'd say, yeah.
11:31Don't take a big man to talk when you're up.
11:35Talk when you're down.
11:36Do that same thing when things are different.
11:39He disappears.
11:41You and I were talking, Mitch Johnson, I understand he's like the handpicked successor to Popovich.
11:49And maybe he, like this young team, is learning a lot on the fly here.
11:54But when they had the big lead, when they were up 29, and then it was like 22, and then
11:58it was 17, he was calling lots of timeouts.
12:01If the Knicks would get like two buckets in a row, he would call a quick timeout.
12:04Maybe that was to not let the crowd get into it.
12:06Maybe that was just to slow the Knicks down who were trying to create tempo.
12:10But to your point, earlier when we were talking, B, so Johnson was calling timeouts when the
12:16Knicks cut it to 95 to 80, he called a timeout.
12:21Then he called one when it was 99 to 95.
12:24But during that 11-0 run, he didn't call one at all.
12:28It was bizarre because earlier in the game, he was calling them all the time.
12:32Everybody that was sitting in the area I was at and people around were like, call a damn
12:37timeout.
12:38Look, why is it that everybody else could think that, but he wasn't?
12:43It's weird.
12:44You know, sometimes we're sitting in the press box and we're calling the plays.
12:47Right.
12:47So we figure the defense has to know that.
12:49Defense coordinator on the other team knows it.
12:52He, I think he just got lost.
12:56I also like this thing like, oh, you know, Wemby's just fatigued because they're playing
13:01every other day in football.
13:05If there's bad weather, right?
13:07People are like, oh man, you know, road teams at a disadvantage.
13:10They're playing in the same weather.
13:13Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns, they're all playing on one day rest.
13:18Steph Castle, Dylan Harper, it's all one day rest.
13:20Like, if you're going to be the guy, one day rest is not a valid excuse.
13:25I want to open the phone.
13:26Who said that?
13:27Like, the story with Wemby is like, oh, he's been better when they get two days rest.
13:31So what?
13:32Everybody playing like that.
13:33And he's young.
13:34He's younger than all of them.
13:35He's younger than all of them.
Comments