At least we know who to blame.
Dude was booed ruthlessly during the national anthem. THAT shit will be remembered forever.
The other who: The refs, man. It’s a clown show right now. That the whistle wasn’t as egregious as Game 2’s doesn’t mean it wasn’t a joke. It was very much a joke! We all see what’s happening here, right?
This is how long I’ve been out of the game. Ref-bitching is literally the lead. I’ve said my piece.
But we all see what’s happening here.
Now… Let’s Breathe.
Breathe again.
Take a minute to sweep up the many varieties of glass strewn about your floor. You missed a cluster over there. Yes, that’s your grandmother’s favorite rooster plate. It’s fine. I’m sure you can find a replacement.
One more time…
Breathe…
… So that was fucking ugly. Or ugliness punctuated by far too little beauty and brilliance, anyway—mostly from the Spurs, who showed some serious shit and proved they’re here to pose a whole bunch of problems for a very long time.
This is both laudatory and very much accusatory. Castle’s elbows scored 7,000 points in the paint, Harper exploded again, the Spurs found open looks with relative ease, and Wemby was forceful and aggressive in all the ways we wanted him to be—NEXT YEAR.
On the other hand: These guys are kinda dirty? Right?
Wemby tried to snap Jalen’s head off like a female mantis?
Castle with his Hungry Hungry Hippoes-ass slaps on anyone with the ball?
I’m assuming there’s some fictional character who inherits the powers of everyone they defeat (good and bad!)? Seems like that’s what the Spurs did to/with the Thunder*?
I’m not sure why these are questions anymore?
(*The the violence part, I mean.)
THAT bullshit aside, our offense was a trainwreck—with occasional glimpses of the magic we’ve come to expect. Jalen toggled between vintage heroics, sheer idiocy, and looking like he’s still very hobbled by something/many things. Maybe it’s the knee. Or the back that Castle nearly broke forearming him strait through the floor. I just want that man in every available compression wrap for the next 36 hour—and drugged to sleep if need be.
You can see him processing, though. Percolating. Hold that thought.
KAT remained largely brilliant, taking what the Spurs gave him and coming up with several huge stops/swipes on D. He got hosed at least twice on limb-tangled jostlings, was crawled upon by Keldon Johnson like child on a jungle gym, and missed a couple potentially roof-collapsing threes.
One thing about him, though: He needs to shoot, like, way more. This was both a KAT issue and a playcalling issue tonight. It’d better be resolved fast!
OG was meteoric (albeit in spurts), hitting highly contested corner threes with ludicrous ease and freight-training for two-handed flushes at will (including another “on” Wemby)… as well as missing some pretty important free throws like they were highly contested corner threes. Save a few curious lapses, his D continued to be terrifying. This ain’t on him, either.
Josh. Man. YES!
Kevin called this one early. As he so often does with the Nova Cats. For a Georgetown grad to connect this deeply with a piss-on-the-campus-statue rival is truly remarkable—and very, very funny. Our boy finally hit some threes (a few of them HUGE), defended fine, but was still a minus-7 and had a definite role in the Knicks’ offensive woes.
The bench was… absolutely horrendous. Shamet couldn’t drop the ball into a trashcan, Mitch (minus-13 in seven minutes) looked visibly sluggish—save for a clutch tip-on off a Jalen miss and getting shoved into Wemby to negate what would’ve been an early dagger. Probably up all night trying to figure out what Matchbox trucks he wanted to give to Trump.
… Anyway, we’re gonna win Game 4.
There’s been a lot of talk about #vibes the past few days. Understandably so. I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten more texts from as many people about one sports-related thing—in a mere 24 hours, anyway—than I did today about that pedophilic piece of shit #RuiningTheVibes.
Jeopardize? Yes.
Compromise? Undoubtedly.
Irritate? He made thousands of New Yorkers endure hours-long commutes and wait in hours-long lines to attend a game I promise you he will not remember a single goddam thing from tomorrow other than: “That Wimpy, he’s very big. Just enormous. Like a dinosaur. I feel bad for the city.”
But ruin?
These vibes? This team? This endeavor?
G
T
F
O
H.
I said this earlier, but if these guys are about anything—and they’re about so, so many things: chemistry, friendship, toughness, togetherness, their connection to the fans, a brand of ball that at its best is some of the most sublimely beautiful any of us have ever seen—it’s overcoming shit.
I thought that high-cholesterol antichrist would be the thing they needed to overcome. Turns out, it was just a loss.
One loss! Their first in 14 games. By four points. On a night when the hope and hype were stratospherically high, when the discourse was dominated by a sociopathic narcissist who probably thought the 500-decible boos were actually cheers, when the 7’5 Odyssean monster that only appears in Homer’s supercut played about as well as he possibly can at this stage of the ‘yoffs, when his Todd Gurley backcourt bully-balled the fuck out of ours, and when the ghost of Tim Donaghy haunted every third call… the Knicks are still up 2-1.
One loss.
It was never gonna be a sweep. You know who knew that? The basketball heroes busting their asses completely to deliver this team and fanbase to glory. They understand what they’re up against. They respect the Spurs. And I know that feeling is mutual.
Think they can overcome this?
Yes, you in the back, in the Kemba shirsey? You don’t think they can? What’s that? You think the Spurs have turned the tide?
Go to bed, dude… Or just fall over the chairs. That works, too. Nice work.
“Stay desperate at all times.”
Think they’ll overcome this?
So do I.
119 replies on “2026 NBA Finals Game 3 Recap: Knicks (2) 111 – Spurs (1) 115”
It’s very hard to sweep a team that won 62 games, but man, I really thought that the Knicks were going to do it. But oh well, a gentlemen’s sweep will have to do.
Although…can you even IMAGINE this team playing a Game 6 to win it all in front of an even MORE insane crowd? Wooooooow.
https://x.com/yagottahbelieve/status/2064184174697648442
Much more egregious than the Brunson flagrant.
If the refs aren’t calling it, you have to fall down.
I think the home team is winning the next two, but the Spurs physicality worries me. They’re like a bunch of mini Draymonds out there, and the refs are allowing them to play dirty.
I hope these young guys believe in the hype about themselves and do stupid celebration stuff in NYC tonight, and lose focus for tomorrow night.
I went to bed angry hoping that I would be calmer this morning but if anything I’m even angrier. I feel like I did in 97 when half the team was suspended for breaking up a fight that Miami started right in front of the Knicks bench.
Truly the only good thing to come out of the loss yesterday is that we continue to get more of these recaps.
Jim, I am fucking ELATED that you’re back man. Your humor and recaps when we were absolute ass connected with me in ways beyond those words.
At least Mike Brown finally went off about the terrible refereeing. Good for him.
I’m angry about the officiating in this Knicks–Spurs series. But I’m even more upset by Mike Breen’s role in normalizing what we’re watching.
It is the announcer’s job to describe what is happening. Not to minimize it, redirect attention, or provide cover for it.
When Wembanyama shoves Brunson in the neck, Breen’s call is: “A lot of post wrestling going on there.”
Nothing specifically about Wembanyama. He turns a one-sided act of violence into a vague “both sides” situation, then says nothing when the replay clearly shows what happened, and then has the audacity to suggest “Brunson better be careful there, he doesn’t want to get hit with a tech”.
Then Brunson is assessed a flagrant foul. Richard Jefferson is questioning it. Tim Legler is questioning it. And what is Breen talking about?
“Champagnie was born in Brooklyn.”
“He went to the same high school as Mark Jackson.”
“St. John’s plays on the same court as the Knicks.”
At the exact moment when the lead announcer should be scrutinizing a consequential and highly questionable ruling, he fills the broadcast with trivia.
At some point, silence and deflection become their own form of commentary. Whether it is intentional or not, the effect is to make this officiating seem ordinary and legitimate—to tell the audience there is nothing here worth examining.
That is especially painful for me because I have loved listening to Mike Breen for nearly 30 years. I trusted his voice. I respected his judgment. Watching him use that voice to downplay what is happening in this series has changed the way I see him.
I haven’t just lost faith in the officiating. I’ve lost respect for the person I expected to honestly call it out.
Pags summarized it succinctly yesterday. 84-52 free throw disparity (excluding hack a Mitch) is all you need to know. I’m with Hubie in that Brown should have detonated after the 2nd game but I understand why he chose not to.
Links to Breen’s calls:
https://youtu.be/gtqGlEioJ6E?si=rVON4qX3XoK9M3l6
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1u0rzio/lowlight_flagrant_1_called_on_brunson_for/
The next time someone touches Brunson I’m expecting him to storm onto the court and get a tech. This is your star player being abused by kids. You cannot put up with it.
When Brunson was hit by Wemby, the Knicks should have escalated a bit to ensure stoppage of play and a review. You have to force the ref’s hand – like the Spurs did by making the refs stop an ongoing play in the second half that would have led to an OG corner 3.
Breen is a great commentator but he’s always been a company man. He never criticizes the refs and he’s probably even less likely to in these cases to avoid criticisms that he’s biased.
By the way, it’s fine if that’s how they want to call the series. But it ain’t going both ways
I was thinking the same thing yesterday. The refs can’t ignore this shit if they have to review it.
I’m so rage full. Last night I got back to my block and the tia working the line at the Dominican joint for my instant dopamine was the one who doesn’t like me. I didn’t get food cuz she was like I gotta wait and she kept helping other people around me and all because I wore the wrong fucking underwear.
https://x.com/JoshDubowAP/status/2064234390268547410
#elitewhistle
Breen calling these games right now is like watching a guy try to hang out so thy his girlfriend and his friends together for first time. His friends are shaking their head right now
It seemed like Harper had a good game but he was actually 5-18 and 1-8 from 3.
He’s a big reason why we were within striking distance at the end.
And my hope for game 4 is that we build up a big lead and put Huk in to clothesline Wemby and then smile in that disingenuous bastard’s face.
Two very plausible narratives:
1. Spurs poured everything into not suffering the indignity of a sweep; that, combined with the Knicks getting a bit too much into the hoopla of MSG/NYC, led the Spurs to a win they won’t repeat.
2. Knicks lost their magic, reverted to stagnant hero ball, never got the magic back, proceeded to stagger and maybe even lose the series.
Series odds narrowed a lot — Knicks down to -184, Spurs up to only +154. Game four spread is only Knicks minus-1.5.
I don’t think there’s a “conspiracy,” but I do think the refs have a kind of implicit bias wherein they recognize Wemby is simply too skinny to set real screens and thus let him get away with all kinds of hands/arm stuff that are always fouls on other bigs. I mean, think about how much more of that kind of thing he gets away with than KAT.
Anyway, despite all kinds of aggravating shit we were right there and might’ve won but for a desperation Stephon Castle 3 that will be haunting me until game 4 tips off. Go get it.
https://x.com/BrickCenter_/status/2064184736504074429
Another wtf play
The spread in game 3 was 2.5 so not shocking .
They are playing well when Alvarado is in game because he is penitraticng.
I thought Mike Brown handled it perfectly last night.
He was respectful. He didn’t put on a Nick Nurse-style performance. He made his point with dignity, grounded it in a clear fact (the 24–8 free-throw disparity) and, most importantly, kept the focus on what comes next.
He didn’t say, “That’s why we lost.” He said “it cannot happen again in Game 4.”
The criticism that he should have gone ballistic after Game 2 is completely off base. It’s coming from an old Thibs loyalist (the “ghouls” guy) who has been looking for reasons to criticize Brown all season.
Complaining after Game 2 would not have changed the whistle in Game 3. It would have been wasted. And then, when Brown raised the issue again last night, he would have been dismissed as a coach who complains about the officials after every game.
You get one real opportunity to make this argument, so you have to use it strategically.
Rick Carlisle didn’t complain after every game. He chose his moment, with his team down 2–0, and delivered a message that dominated the conversation: “Small-market teams deserve an equal shot.”
Brown chose his moment just as carefully. Now the 24–8 disparity is being discussed everywhere and by almost everyone.
That is how you do it. When you complain after every game, it becomes background noise. When you do it at the wrong moment, you waste the bullet.
Brown waited until the message would have maximum impact. Now the pressure is on the officials to call Game 4 fairly, and the Knicks have an opportunity to take a 3–1 lead.
Expertly done by Brown.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/most-team-free-throw-attempts-this-playoffs-2026 Spurs lead the playoffs with 557 Free throws attempted . Thunder for example only had 337.
What a cute graphic by the NBA https://x.com/SuperiorNBA/status/2064184125670535575
It is very conspicuous that they sent the officiating crew with the best record for road teams last night.
Generally speaking, I agree it’s more bias than conspiracy, but that one’s hard to swallow.
It’s such a shame that Wembanyama’s true colors are this bad. I liked the idea of him as the new face of the League.
In less than one month he went from eminently likable to whiny asshole.
Silver is putting his thumb on the scale to make sure this Finals goes at least 6. He can’t bear the thought of this marquee matchup ending early.
Hubert your vendetta against Breen reminds me of that ClydePolice guy back in the day.
No norm survives late-stage capitalism’s relentless monetizing — certainly not the norms of “fair play” and “honest competition.”
Rough’s brilliant post in the “political” discussion yesterday hit on the asymmetry perfectly — when the Black Sox Extended the 1919 World Series, they were turned into shunned outcasts and docketed in the criminal courts; when the NBA office Extends playoff series, crickets and plaudits.
The NBA can and should assess Wemby a flagrant for the hit on Brunson today. That would give him 3 pts, which would likely curtail further shenanigans from him (4 pts is a suspension).
I’m not holding my breath, though.
After 48 years of Knicks fandom, one bump in the road in the Finals does not discourage me. This team still has home court advantage. If they win both remaining games at MSG, they are world champions.
It would probably help if the refs called the game on the court, rather than the game that they imagine. As Mike Brown said post-game, the Knicks may have fouled enough to warrant the Spurs shooting 24 free throws in the second half, but there is no way that the Spurs did not foul essentially the same amount. The Knicks only got 8 free throws in the second half.
This follows Game 2, where the Knicks did not shoot any free throws in the second half until they won a challenge on a clear foul on an OG 3 point shot.
The Knicks keep winning challenges, but that is not really a full exoneration BECAUSE THEY DON’T GET MORE CHALLENGES AFTER THE FIRST TWO SUCCESSFUL ONEs.
If the Knicks had unlimited challenges, there were at least five additional clearly blown calls, plus the failure to call Wemby for a foul on what was clearly a flagrant take down of Brunson off-of-the-ball (could not be challenged because it was no call).
Even with all of that, today still is a good day to be a Knicks fan.
They’re not suspending Wemby in the Finals. Not happening.
@MikeVorkunov
I don’t care about the whining. It’s the violent, abusive stuff that bothers me. I’m so past celebrating assholes.
That’s not what I said.
He wouldn’t get suspended. He’d have 3 points. On 3 points he has to cut out the bullshit.
The Knicks media team needs to put together a montage of all of Wemby’s (and the rest of the spurs) egregious fouls and play that on the jumbotron while they introduce the spurs in the next game.
One of the dope things about reading this blog is the homer takes combined with a dose of reality with a dash of doomerism.
I am firmly in the “refs are bad” camp, but less for the missed flagrants and techs because as a young fan I was taught about the Roy Hibbert Rule & Bams Moving Screen of Doom.
What I am extremely beyond frustrated at is the no calls of castles’ fucking hand checking all game. The reason the traps and hero ball are happening is because they’re getting 10 seconds to set up a play. Proof: we’re demolishing them in transition at all points.
Now brown can make the adjustment of having Hart take the ball up and get KAT set so Brunson can play off ball. Should he have to? NO.
Physically draping a player on Brunson all game is a fucking problem. And it’s not just bringing the ball up. They’re on him. We should have deuce or Alvarado in Wemby’s knees all game long.
I was a little annoyed yesterday by the Knicks’ passivity against Spurs ball handlers. If the refs are allowing them to be physical, you have to pressure their ball handers to make life difficult for them. The Spurs are marching down the court every time, and have a ton of clock to work with. This allows them to mess up and still get a shot off (like the back baking three at the end of the shotclock to get their lead back to 7). Deuce, Shamet, Mikal, Alvarado need to hound them.
I think Alvarado is playing well enough to warrant consideration of a two PG lineup with Brunson off the ball sometimes.
Need to switch it up . Having Brunson bring it up is just to easy for the Spurs defense . Brunson can play without the ball. Throw a different look out there.
“I couldn’t care less about a post game fine for a flagarant that should have been easily called during a game. Helps us zero”
Could be nice to let him know that there are consequences, such as maybe calling it next time. And there *will* be a next time—the guy is a hothead. So much for “ethical basketball.”
Also a very strongly pro-Spurs crew historically. The totality of circumstances us unmistakable.
Why? He knows he’d never get the fourth even if he literally skull-fucked Brunson on live TV
“Pags summarized it succinctly yesterday. 84-52 free throw disparity (excluding hack a Mitch) is all you need to know.”
That was Underground Kings, not Pags.
I saw some slippage into bad habits in game two and they carried over into game three.
Too many possessions where nobody touched the ball except for Brunson.
Shamet finally had an off game.
We’re getting into foul trouble early in quarters and get into the penalty. Then they get to the free-throw line for Ticky Tac fouls.
San Antonio has an elite defense. This is an especially tough matchup for Brunson. We have to do more to get the ball up the court fast and moving.
One thing is certain we aren’t gonna beat this team if Brunson takes more shots than any other two players combined and we are playing hero ball
.
I agree Hubert. We need a different look and Alverado and OG are the only ones playing fearless.
I have a British friend now living in the US who really only follows futball, so when I explained what was happening with various videos of the horrible non-calls, along with Brown’s presser, he wrote the following pristine words:
“But that is match fixing of the highest order.”
Well, last night is a night I will forever remember as the night the NBA jumped the shark. I just can’t see it as a basketball competition any more. Instead, it’s some kind of semi-scripted reality show about one giant 22-year old asshole’s coming of age story where he gradually learns no rules actually apply to him because he’s popular.
It was also the perfect fuck you to us as a fan base.
Fuck you from Dolan by inviting Trump to inconvenience every real fan in and around the arena. Not even to watch the game, but to take a fucking nap.
Fuck you from the NBA by making it so we have to be flawless while the Spurs get to be lawless.
And fuck you from Breen and most of the sports media by pretending thus horse shit is normal basketball or even worse (Shaq) lauding it as old school toughness.
The 90’s Knicks were tough and physical, and the trade-off was that we got called for fouls. We didn’t get this golden whistle bullshit.
If we lose game 4 I think we lose the series, and we have to win by 15 or so to win by 1. There’s no reason to think they won’t just do this again. The obviousness if it all suggests that it’s not just about extending the series. Even if it is, we can easily lose an honest game after a string of dishonest games cost us our lead.
I’m more disillusioned than disappointed. Losing sucks, but not being allowed to compete is do much worse.
ugh, even with us playing hero ball and the spurs having a decent defense – we should have won last night…
we barely beat them in game 2 with some similar biased reffing…
both games the refs put us in bad spots in the 4th…
winning is always the best revenge, would most certainly make me a little happier though to see mikal’s bony elbows penetrating in to wemby’s mid section…
if I had to guess, retribution for wemby’s head shove on jalen will come from either jose or mitch…although the stakes are high, and it definitely seems like wemby is being protected, can’t imagine a team letting that one go without some type of message sent in return…
Deuce not being the same since he came back from injury has never been more obvious. He’d normally be the obvious choice to bring in for more ballhandling.
Of our 13 turnovers, 5 were lazy passes to nobody.
I’m with you on breen hubie, major limp dick sauce oozing out his mouth…
Last night’s game was “sports entertainment.”
Remember, the league came very close to stealing game two, but the face missed the jump shot at the end and the heel went off kayfabe by winning the game.
Game three, the face got to whack the heel with the folding chair while Bobby The Brain Heenan was distracting the referee.
also want to see jalen off the ball way way more…jose seems ready for it…
we can beat this team even with the nba and it’s old school looking vampire pressing the issue in the spurs favor…
Edit: that was a great one pags: us needing to be flawless while they get to be lawless…
They seriously do need to just keep reshowing egregious fouls on the jumbotron.
I didn’t even notice this one last night…
Harper literally walked onto to the court during live play and they didn’t call a T:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1u0tas7/lowlight_spurs_try_to_stall_for_an_opportunity_to/
Yeah I think two PG line up with Jose and Brunson could do the trick, at least for some minutes to throw a different look out there.
Back court would be small but if the forwards and center are big, it might be ok.
I keep going back to the cup and how we closed them out with Brunson and Kolek. I wouldn’t play Kolek cause I don’t think he’s ready for this stage but Alvarado can do the same thing.
We also have to get KAT and Mikal going earlier. Mikal got into early foul trouble last night and I think that took him out of the game.
Funny how Mikal has a great game two and immediately gets called for 2 early fouls in game 3.
the mitch thing in game 2 was a bad joke – the Jalen thing in game 3 was somehow even worse…
if the refs won’t intervene – just like baseball, high inside heat to the dome from one of his teammates…
I was apoplectic when this happened.
They were playing fucking basketball, like dribbling the ball around and the clock was running and stuff, and Harper walks onto the court and they actually STOP PLAY and everybody’s just standing there all confused for a second and then it’s just like “oh okay well I guess we can’t really let them challenge that by just interrupting a play in progress but everybody gets a mulligan.”
I lost my mind when that happened.
My 91 year old mother is watching basketball for the first time in her life. She thinks Wembanyama should be thrown out of the league because it’s not fair. I had to agree with her. 🤣🤣
honestly it is very hard for me to imagine silver or one of his minions intentionally speaking to the referees to do their best to assist the spurs in staying in this series for at least six games…
easy to see in the referee crew selection and the calls/non-calls on court that “something” is happening…
I don’t wanna take anything away from the Spurs, because I think they have been playing well- just not well enough to avoid a sweep or losing in 5. I feel like the series should be 2-1, because the Spurs probably shoyld have taken game 2. But..Last night it looked like a crew of refs trying to extend a series. They turned a blind eye to several Spurs fouls and travels. But…we still played well enough to win the game for the most part. IMO, we were on the way to another sweep last night until the refs decided they wanted to play too. Don’t get me wrong, the Spurs took advantage of the moment and did exactly what they needed to do to win last night, so kudos to them for playing with desperation. But they are not playing better than the Knicks this series. I do wonder- was KAT’s bad game because of their defense or our inability to keep him involved? I really couldn’t tell. I could tell they were making Brunson work, but I thought KAT was more sloppy than affected by any defensive plan
I’ve never seen anything quite like a stoppage of play when a player from a team stepped onto the floor without the officials OK without some kind of tech or something. That just allowed that ish. Bizarre.
Yeah, the Harper walk-on and the stoppage of active play with a forced do-over and all the random buzzers from the scorer’s table and puzzled looks was 1972 USA-USSR gold medal game shit. That’s exactly what I thought of and enunciated to my co-watcher during that shitshow.
The spurs got more help in game 2 than they did last night.
Exactly why they probably should have won game 2. And pardon my inability to type today lol
I’m not sure the NBA would have switched crews for game 3 if the Spurs had won game 2. It just felt fishy switching crews with the Knicks going home super confident and with a 2-0 lead, especially with the amount of blatant fouls the Spurs got away with. You know what it kinda felt like watching it? The way the refs let Detroit be extra-extra physical against us in the regular season.
I can’t believe Scott Foster’s horrible game 1 is now the benchmark for good officiating in this series.
At least I feel extremely confident we’re going to get a good whistle tomorrow.
The doomsday in me, though, remembers game 5 in ’93. Riley got us a great whistle after two blowouts in Chicago, and we shot 20-35 from the FT line.
Also on that stopped play when he walked onto the court, didn’t we lose a second on the shot clock because of that? I could have sworn we had 7 seconds on the clock and then that happened and we had to inbound it again and only had 6 seconds.
“Also on that stopped play when he walked onto the court, didn’t we lose a second on the shot clock because of that? I could have sworn we had 7 seconds on the clock and then that happened and we had to inbound it again and only had 6 seconds.”
Literally every possible thing the refs could have done incorrectly in that sequence is what they did. It might have cost us, or it might not have. Depends maybe on what Harper did next after getting into the game earlier than he should have.
I can’t stress this point enough- the whole reason why this run is so surreal for me is because the Knicks are consistently playing at a higher level than anyone else in the playoffs without loosening their grip. That last part is really what makes it surreal. Since my indoctrination into Knicks fandom, I’ve seen good to great Knicks teams- but none of them were this good for this long during any season/postseason. It’s like something finally clicked for this team and they refuse to get complacent. Huge..HUGE credit to Mike Brown for that. Whether or not he’s a truly better coach than Thibs, whom I think is a coach’s coach in the vein of Hubie Brown or Larry Brown, is debatable. But what isn’t debatable is his impact on this team and the fact that he was the right hire after moving on from Thibs. It felt like a lateral movement at best, but I was certainly wrong in thinking that last offseason
Spurs also realized Landry Shamet is too small and started going at him like it.
[actually that’s not what happened never mind]
Cowherd pissing me off right at the top, complaining about us complaining about our very valid officiating complaints (yes, on purpose). And extolling Wemby’s virtues while doing so.
Anyone else think it was weird that Davis actually referred to him as “Wemby” when announcing his ruling over the microphone? I thought they were supposed to be all formal and use player’s actual names.
By the way, the fans need to cool it after games assaulting people. That’s not right
@geo: Who is bruce in this scenario, though?
“you ever see 12 monkeys doogie, bruce lying on that bed, time tripping, staring at that beautiful nature painting, inspirational stuff right there…”
Bruce Willis, Doogie; a very mediocre post-apocalyptic, time travel, zoonotic disease film but fun to watch Brad Pitt and others way overacting…
This basically sums it up in my mind. I’m hoping after that Brown call out, and since the series won’t be a sweep now, the league will play it more cleanly going forward.
Look, the league definitely wins if NYC becomes a great basketball city again. They surely want more finals games to televise, but a Chip in NY is great for ratings, sales, etc… the whole product.
Also, Wemby has plenty of time to win his chips and become a global star. So I don’t see this continuing tbh. I hope I’m not wrong!
If anything, the Knicks winning it all this year sets the league up nicely next year for the rematch where Wemby potentially can redeem himself.
Or maybe he’s on the Lebron narrative and he starts losing in the earlier rounds before asking out of San Antonio.
I don’t think the writers have made up their mind yet.
Sometimee it feels like Brunson wants to be the MVP and hero even more than he wants to win.
And yeah, the Spurs did figure some stuff out last night.
Their 3pt defense was incredible, partially because we weren’t moving as much without the ball as we did in past games, but still. They also figured out the lob to Wemby cheat code (duh).
That said, Castle won’t shoot that well again and he WILL turn the ball over more like he’s used to.
I’m expecting bounce back games from KAT, Bridges, and Shamet. For Chrissake, we nearly won last night with Hart as our best shooter. I’m expecting a big win in game 4.
Jfc Strat, Brunson was not the problem last night. I think you might have Herophobia.
12 monkeys is another terry gilliam dreamscape…
I’ll be honest, sometimes it’s hard for me to see the meaning in some of his films though…
brazil kind of put me to sleep, thought though that the fischer king was one of the best movies of its time…
not sure exactly all the meanings tucked away inside 12 monkeys, for me though it deals with subjects near and dear to my heart: mental illness and personality disorders…hmmmm, guess that’s similar to the fischer king too…
I don’t know, after mentioning one time here that I absolutely loved humphrey bogart playing the everyman, and someone mentioning he wasn’t really such a great actor, and basically just played himself and read through lines – scared to even comment on bruce willis’ acting 😊
brad pitt though – mickey o’neil, tyler durden and jeffery goines are some of the most amazing characters in any film at any time…
for me at least…
you know doogie, I don’t think of myself as talking in circles, I know though I like to have some fun with words…
and you know, didn’t read all those books, and spend all that time going through dictionaries and encyclopedias for nothing – I wanna use every word I’ve ever learned…
more so maybe than even getting a clear idea across to others…
confession time: not only do i like to watch, I really like to listen to myself talk too…
Brunson was absolutely a problem last night and has been all 3 games. He had multiple unforced turnovers and he’s dribbling the air out of the ball like he did in the two losses to Atlanta. It’s certainly not a coincidence that we played better with Alvorado in the game.
I find myself on the planet Ogo, part of an intellectual elite, preparing to subjugate the barbarian hordes on Pluto. But even though this is a totally convincing reality for me in every way, nevertheless Ogo is actually a construct of my psyche. I am mentally divergent, in that I am escaping certain unnamed realities that plague my life here. When I stop going there, I will be well. Are you also divergent, friend?
preach l j washington, preach…
It was a close game. We got a terrible game from the refs. But we were also sloppy in a huge game for us
“Bruce Willis, Doogie; a very mediocre post-apocalyptic, time travel, zoonotic disease film but fun to watch Brad Pitt and others way overacting…”
Thanks, Raven and geo. I literally had no idea that what was being asked about was that movie called “12 Monkeys”—thus my lack of clarity about “bruce” referencing Bruce Willis. It was a bit out of context and sudden. LOL Anyway, thanks again.
I don’t remember whether or not I’ve seen that movie, but the fact that I don’t remember means that it didn’t make any kind of impression on me if I did.
I agree Brunson wasn’t the problem, lack of movement was. For example it seemed like the team was waiting a few seconds to see if Brunson can figure out a single defender before sending a screen. Maybe they should do it quicker? And if the switch is to a strong defender run another play immediately?
It seems like the Spurs simply don’t pressure Alvarado as much because they don’t want to waste their energy on him, they save the turbo button mashing for Brunson. If they’re going to keep giving Alvie space to operate then sure, he should get the rock in his hands more.
But again, a lot of the Brunson problems are due to the whistle. When every possession for the Spurs ends in free throws, that allows them to get into their defensive sets every time and do the Brunson harassment turbo button mash tactics. Force them to actually play basketball instead of foul spamming and Brunson would probably be more effective.
It’s all about that whistle. That game was brutal to watch because every possession all I’m thinking is “don’t foul.”
It’s 1994 on one end and 2026 on the other end.
now ready to move past last night’s game and focus on what’s too come…
not only is it hard for me to sustain any level of anger or rage, finding it difficult to even generate that type of emotion, used to be mostly all i had…
if anything will remember the knicks winning this chip while playing against both the spurs and the refs…
i’ll say this to you doogie, despite loving order and neatness, my mind is a prerry chaotic thing, like trying to get hold of swirling feagments of thoughts/ideas…very very understandable sir if half the shit i say makes no sense to you…
Game 5 and the Brazil World Cup opener happening at literally the exact same time on Saturday will be the end of me.
It was nice to meet y’all.
It feels very chicken/egg to me. The blame always falls on Brunson but sometimes it’s bc the other guys don’t want the smoke. Last night felt like an old KAT & Mikal game to me, the kind of game we haven’t seen from them since the Atlanta series. Maybe Brunson caused it. Maybe Brunson reacted to it. Hard to tell.
No it doesn’t.
On a board full of Dennis Miller wanabees it is pretty amusing to watch the kvetching today.
Going into yesterday’s game the blindest of the blind men could see there was no way the league was going to allow the Golden Boy to be swept and humiliated. For both revenue and marketing purposes.
For those of you who weren’t paying attention the fix is in everywhere, including the NBA. During COVID the mom and pop stores were all closed, but Walmart was allowed to stay open. Wanna get into Harvard… better have juice, 800 SAT scores aren’t good enough. Wanna get a policy changed, better to make a $100,000,000 donation than to have the correct policy.
Still in shock. Don’t want to talk about the refs.
And I don’t get all this stuff with Breen. He’s got a job to do and he does it better than anyone in history. Had no problem with him last night.
From Tommy Beer:
Total number of free-throw attempts through the first three games of the NBA Finals.
San Antonio: 84
New York: 61
This despite the Knicks averaging more drives per game (54 vs. 52) and more shots in the paint (non-restricted area).
The Spurs’ 155 drives have led to 22 FT attempts.
The Knicks’ 162 drives have led to 6 FT attempts
Breen probably is aware of the fact that he is a Knicks announcer and fan and doesn’t want to appear to be biased, so he is probably overcorrecting by not pointing out things the Spurs are doing.
Brunson is being baited.
Spurs are trying to take him away. Force him to give up the ball.
He isn’t taking what the game gives him.
it’s even worse frank o. when you take away the hack a mitch stuff…glaring discrepancy…
plus the timing of them, they keep putting the spurs in the bonus early in the 3rd and 4th quarters…
again, which allows their defense to get set…and jump jalen as soon as he touches the ball…
That’s exactly the issue: his job is to tell viewers honestly what is happening in front of them.
When the most trusted voice in basketball minimizes illegal play, changes the subject, or treats it as normal, he provides the cover that allows it to pass without scrutiny.
Do you know why I didn’t even notice the egregious Harper thing last night? Bc of Breen’s call: “they inbounded the ball, and then stopped it all of a sudden. They handed the ball to the Knicks, the ball went inbounds, Marc Davis now discussing it”
Noticeably absent: “Dylan Harper entered the game illegally, that should be a technical foul.”
That’s more the role of Jefferson and Legler. And I think in the moment there was some confusion, like whether a substitution was supposed to be happening. I don’t know what happened but finding fault with Breen over it seems bizarre.
Hubs is just really angry. Don’t take it out on Breen, dude! He’s not to blame!
displaying disloyalty as a charge against mike breen seems very very okay to me…don’t care at all if you think your doing your job…
place yourself outside the circle, and well, the folks inside are generally gonna be firing in your direction…seems a pretty sensible dynamic to me…
kind of seemed obvious some producer somewhere got the word after the game to the inside the nba crew to not highlight the uneven whistle at all…
ernie set the question up (think it may have been their first topic) and each talking head dutifully brushed off it’s significance…
despite the whole “historic” and eyesore nature of it…
fuck Mike Breen, do better…stop toting wemby’s water…
disloyalty deserves scorn…
I’m going to refrain from overtly judging Breen for it, but if that had been a regular season game on a January Wednesday at MSG, it would have been, “And now Harper’s walked onto the court AFTER the Knicks in-BOUNDED the ball!!” And then there would have been, “That’s gotta be a technical foul, Clyde, here’s the replay — Harper just walked onto the court while the Knicks were running a play. The Knicks were running an out-of-bounds play, and Harper just came onto the court. The Spurs were playing with six men!”
(Clyde watches replay: “Yeah, Mike — that’s the right diagnosis of the precocious neophyte.”)
I am angry, Swift.
But I’m not wrong about Breen. And I love the guy. I grew up listening to him on the radio.
He’s not on MSG though. I mean, this is insane.
Who, by the way, are terrible.
I realized what was happening in real time, because instead of watching basketball, I’m watching every second of the games for ref fuckery, which there is a lot of.
I knew they were trying to get a review, I knew the ball was inbounded and it was too late, and I knew the game was stopped after Harper walked on the floor and honestly I expected the refs to actually give the Spurs the fucking review they wanted because that’s how fucked everything was.
I didn’t actually expect a technical to be called against the Spurs because I knew the game was fixed, I was just simultaneously mortified that the Spurs weren’t penalized and weirdly relieved that they weren’t granted the challenge. I have never seen something like this in an NBA game, it just did not compute in my brain.
who’s that young guy who calls games with monica…
go ahead jimmy d – promote him permanently to the A team…
nike can go call spurs’ games…
But it means he was intentionally holding back. He can hold back the remedy — tech — that he likely would have advocated on MSG, but he’s not bound by “fairness” to not report the events on the court. He didn’t really even tell the audience what happened.
You don’t have to be on the MSG Network to describe what you see.
And he described Wemby’s violent hit on Brunson as both sides being bad. That is willful obfuscation.
Don’t forget the lesson of The Wire Season 5, Owen: some of the biggest villains in Baltimore were the guys at the Sun whose job it was to tell you about all this shit.
NBA, Rule 12:
There was no basis whatsoever for not enforcing this straightforward rule and there’s no “well, the team with six men on the court during play was just seeing if they should make a challenge” exception.
The refs just ho-hum “waived” the technical foul, I guess because reasons.
a week ago i overheard a few guys in line at a pay phone outside of sbarro’s on 47th and 7th saying that if the knicks ever managed to lose a playoff game again it would send the snowflakes at knickerblogger into a descent so vertiginous they would pass right through usual league-office conspiracy theories and the ‘everyone on the other team is a dirty cheating moron’ refrains straight into ‘actually mike breen is a traitorous coward’ and ‘jalen brunson cares more about buckets than winning or our feelings’. i was all like ‘no way the timeline is really light over there right now guys.’ anyway just checking in today.
https://www.reddit.com/r/community/comments/1mnrvm5/i_wanted_more_of_the_darkest_timeline/#lightbox
I feel seen, attacked, and entertained all at once. Well played, sir.
To extend the wrestling analogy, it’s in the league’s best interest to have both teams look evenly matched and the series to go 7 games. Their bias is ultimately with whichever team is behind. That’s how pro wrestling became fake, to drum up more excitement and make more money. If we win next game, we’ll get hosed for Game 5. If the Spurs win, we’ll finally get a fair whistle on Wednesday night.
We need a two way contract with a pro wrestler to body slam Wemby’s arrogant dirty punk ass on the floor, elbow slam his head and go for the 3 count.