“The refs, media, and NBA want Knicks to win due to money involved in NY vs SATx. Referees will blatantly favor the Knicks. Game 1 opening tipoff violation was an example where Towns tipped the ball on the way up, instead of waiting for it to reach its peak. Cheating to win, a NY staple. The refs will have non calls vs the Knicks where Knicks will get away with flops and fouls. Spurs fans at home games need to let the refs hear it with chants and boos. FLOPPER, REFS YOU STINK, chants need to be in abundance.”

#postsfromtheupsidedown

twice we semi-iso’d mikal with og nearby half-setting a kind of will i or won’t i screen. once with 2min left up 100-99, then again with a minute left up 102-101. going to mikal in the clutch is not terrible but you cannot iso him at the top against a good defender. i get that kat is a poor screen setter and roller, and mikal’s pnr game kind of needs a great mitch screen and a snake dribble, but bringing kat up to pick and pop with mikal is still way better than what they did. or at a minimum if towns gets a guard switched on to him while he’s literally standing in the dunker’s spot the plan needs to be for him to try to pin and get an entry pass. in the two mikal possessions kat is being checked by harper and fox.

we did give him the ball in the pinch (again with harper on him, kat had a small guard or champagnie on him for a good portion of the 4th) with 4min and he hit brunson backdoor. unfortunately jalen missed mikal in the corner and instead threw up a spud.

offense is going to be ugly in q4 of a finals game against a great defense containing an alien. and brunson hero ball is often the best you are going to do. but if you’re not actually doing that you’ve got to get kat involved. as great as kat has been it’s probably a mix between gameplan and his failure to move off the ball and work to get position against much smaller defenders when his number isn’t explicitly called.

Thank god for Landry Shamet.

and to be clear, if we finish this we need to send Thibs a ring for the part he played in building toward this

Yes, absolutely. Brown’s penetrate and spray or whatever he calls it is winning this playoffs but along with Rose and Jalen it’s also Thibs spirit.

“We don’t feel like we’ve played well or up to our standard, at least, in the last two games. New York’s played very well and they’re a part of that. We’re gonna go into Game 3 and if we play our brand of basketball, up to our standard, we’ll be just fine.”

Keep doing this, Mitch Johnson.

https://x.com/centexlib/status/2063101685778497958?s=46&t=0wqff4cNt-sCGcDs-uMExw

He’s been getting away with this kind of stuff all playoff. Really disgusting. I have zero respect for Wemby.

+1

That was such an infuriating experience last night. The tech on Mitch. The fouls on KAT. Give me a break.

When he got off without a suspension for elbowing Reid people said “he’s not that kind of player.” How the hell you know that? It’s his first playoffs. That was his 9th playoffs game.

The kid is dirty AF. And a flopper, too.

https://www.poundingtherock.com/spurs-analysis/104225/what-we-learned-from-dying-a-thousand-deaths-at-the-hands-of-the-knicks-in-game-2

“Two games in, the Knicks look like they know exactly where they are.

How could they not? This is a franchise that has spent the better part of three decades being a punchline. Draft picks that didn’t pan out. Superstars that chose somewhere else. Stars that arrived and immediately got hurt. An owner who, at times, seemed to be actively working against his own team.

Last year, this group got within two wins of this exact moment and then Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers ripped their hearts out.

Twenty-seven years of almost and now here they are, back in San Antonio. In the Finals. In our building. Their fans look deliriously happy and their players look like they’re on a mission from God. They all look like they’ve been waiting their whole lives for this moment.

Maybe this is the story we’ve really been watching all along.

It could be as simple as that.”