Game 3 atmosphere is going to be insane. And maybe at some point, we will be assigned a refereeing crew with actual good vision and judgment? Even though we won, I am so furious about so many of those calls last night. The KAT offensive foul, Jalen for touching a guy‘s hair, Wemby not getting a technical for shoving Mitch, and Mitch getting a technical for shoving him back? Leave the Wemby turnover and missed jumper aside. It is a goddamn miracle we won that game with those officials calling it.

It’s getting late early for San Antonio.

Even though we won, I am so furious about so many of those calls last night.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this at this stage. When analysts are picking it up, you know something is wrong, as they hate to talk about refereeing. It was Lakers-Kings level BS.

Brunson was mugged all night. It was obvious. The Knicks were late in the shot lock all the time because he had to get through the WWE out there.

And then there’s the way they protect Wemby. The Mitch technical was the most pathetic thing I’ve seen. And then they don’t catch Wemby literally grabbing Jose by the neck and trying to throw him on the ground? And don’t get me started on the moving screens.

The first FTAs for the Knicks in the half were in the OG 3 THAT THE REFS DIDN’T EVEN CALL.

I guess I’m still mad.

This should have been a blowout, but the refs decided to get the best player on the court in foul trouble to make it a game.

I got chills watching that Mikal Bridges post game “0-0” comment

The guy has gone from passive non-factor to a total playoff badass. It’s like he and KAT both went into phone booths and came out Supermen.

I’m genuinely inspired by what I’m seeing from KAT. Like, on a human level. A person faced with tremendous loss and personal upheaval coming out the other end and just deciding to become the best version of himself.
I don’t think the word heroic overstates the point.

I got chills watching that Mikal Bridges post game “0-0” comment

Bridges knows exactly what it’s like to be up 2-0 and lose the series.

I love you Mitch

https://x.com/sny_knicks/status/2063114671540887714/video/1?s=46

And yeah Marechal. What about that “hook” they called on Towns after he sealed his defender. That was an enormous call and was total bullshit.

I’m genuinely inspired by what I’m seeing from KAT. Like, on a human level. A person faced with tremendous loss and personal upheaval coming out the other end and just deciding to become the best version of himself.

The KAT thing is a miracle. Has there EVER been something like this in the NBA, where a player who’s been around this long, was already an all-star and at least fringe Hall of Famer, but who had a well-established and deserves reputation as an inconsistent flake, and all of a sudden — after a DECADE of being that guy — finally finds focus and becomes the best possible version of himself?

Wemby’s flop on the final shot lol. Wanker.

KAT should be the Finals and playoff MVP. Whether he will be is still up in the air. I guess technically there are still games to play.

Didn’t realize Brunson had 5 steals last night

His defense in the playoffs has been more than passable.

Bridges knows exactly what it’s like to be up 2-0 and lose the series.

+ the shenanigans of ECSF 1997 v Miami. Knicks up 3-1 but (wait?) refs suspend five (!) of our guys for “leaving the bench area.”

Parts of last night’s game looked as chippy as some of those Heat games. Wouldn’t be surprised if tempers flare further at the Garden next week. Refs gotta focus.

https://x.com/skyedokc/status/2063075829152891319

This is the stuff the Pacers did to us last year.

That is maybe the best possession I have ever seen this team play. Not just the specific roster, but this franchise since I started watching in the Pat Riley days.

UPDATE: immediately after I posted this comment, I went to read Ian O’Connor’s story in the athletic, and came across this passage:

On one remarkable second-quarter possession, Brunson dribbled into the paint and passed into the right corner to Shamet, who hit Bridges in the opposite corner. Bridges darted into the lane and passed to the right wing to Brunson, who found Anunoby at the top of the key. OG then drove to the goal and kicked the ball back to the right corner to Bridges, who nailed the 3-pointer.

Just like Red Holzman drew it up.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7337261/2026/06/06/knicks-spurs-game-2-magical-season-nba-finals/

😉 Princeton offense?

In between bong hits Big Chief Jackson is no doubt saying about KAT, “Finally they got someone who can pass out of the pinch post.”

Tony Brothers is a terrible ref

Almost like Silver put the call 📞 in to get the series even , but..

I said this in the game thread last night, and I’ll say it again here, but a quick search showed me that only three players in history have won Finals MVP without being named to an All-NBA Team:

Cedric Maxwell in 1981 with Boston
Chauncey Billups in 2004 with Detroit
Andre Iguodala in 2015 with Golden State
KAT would be the 4th

We’re doing a whole lot of “this has only happened 2 or 3 times” or “this is the first time this has happened” in league history and I can’t get enough of it.

CJ McCollum needs to get a ring if the Knicks do the thing.

And then they don’t catch Wemby literally grabbing Jose by the neck and trying to throw him on the ground?

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

CJ McCollum needs to get a ring if the Knicks do the thing.

And the Hawks should hang a banner in their arena –

“Beat the Knicks twice”

Sober reflection on the Spurs blog:

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.”

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

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.

Even the Spurs fans agree about the reffing

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

“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.

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.

The refs also took Josh Hart away from us. (Hart helped a little, but still…)

Thank god for Landry Shamet.

we really struggled to get kat involved in the fourth, even when jalen was so deep in hell we literally stuck him in the corner for two huge plays. kat went 0-1 with 1 assist in 10 q4 minutes. his only shot was an improv when jalen stepped under wemby with 3 on the shot clock & hit him under the basket (and he was blocked by champagnie). in the two games combined kat has been 0-2 with 1 assist in 19 q4 minutes and they are not doubling him or, for the most part, even guarding him with their best defender

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.

Spurs bloggers/fans propose “putting two 7 footers out there” so Wemby can drop off KAT. But they’re also saying things like this:

“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

For me the most egregious ref mistake was the OG non-call that we had to challenge to overturn. Absolutely impossible to miss-involves an unscreened shooter and one defender and significant arm on arm (not body on body or arm on hair) contact in the act of shooting. And in the midst of their 14-0 run. Knew we were going to be in trouble from the time they called a Deuce (I think it was Deuce) backcourt when his foot was 4 inches from the line.

I felt dirty after watching that game….this league and refs play it off like nothing happened…anybody watching that disgrace knew what was up…I feel sorry for Breen…he has to go with the flow and many times just mentioned “how physical it was”…you know he was probably disgusted…anyhoo…we’re up 2-0 and if we can win something like that…not sure how the Spurs get back in this..i can’t see how they get those whistles in the garden.

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