[0:00]The Knicks will host an NBA Finals game, as I said, for the first time in a generation. They're up two zip after, as by now, no doubt you have seen this frenetic end of game sequence on Friday night. The game is tied. Jalen Brunson misses the shot.
[0:13]Victor Wembenyama, the pass that he will remember a long time to Stefan Castle, who wasn't looking. And then Wembenyama, after Brunson had made one of two free throws, had a clean look to win it.
[0:26]In the end, it resulted in the Knicks up two games to none. Here's Wemby on turning the page.
[0:30]we did a lot of things wrong, but we also were relentless and kept pushing, but kind of like wasted that effort. Even though I know it's not wasted, because all lessons are learned. And um, I know we're not going to make the mistakes of the past again, but in a moment like this, we need to make these things matter.
[0:56]All right. So we've got all morning long to dive deep into all of this. And we've got reporters who've been covering the series and covering the press conferences. And what can you tell us about the mood of Victor and the Spurs down to nothing coming here?
[1:08]For a team down two nothing, coming into the belly of the beast here in New York City where there's incredible energy. They are not defeated. And I think what Victor said there was what their mindset is. And Greg Popovich met with them before they left to fly to New York on Saturday.
[1:24]and said, look, you've got to forget what happened in game two. You have got to focus on the process. And if you look at that in the game sequence, Victor does a great job. He defends. Great defense.
[1:34]Then he gets in there, gets a great rebound. Let's go. Oh, process great, result bad, and then obviously a terrible foul. And then on this play, they get a very good shot. Process works, greeny. And what Popovich and the rest of the Spurs are focusing on.
[1:46]Don't just focus on the fact that it didn't work out. Focus on what got you there. They like the defense they're playing on Jalen Brunson. They're they're their players who are dealing with some minor injuries, Stefan Castle, and D Aaron Fox, are not on the injury report and ready to go. They still think they're alive and kicking in this series.
[2:01]Vinnie. You've been with the Spurs, you've been talking to them. What have you heard from them and their perspective?
[2:07]It is amazing to me, Gray, that they don't seem broken at all. Like they look they are looking at this is, yes, we blew two games at home. Yes, we're behind the eight ball, but we're in an advantageous situation where we learn our lessons really quick.
[2:22]Once again, I go to Oklahoma City. When you win two games in Oklahoma City, including a game seven on their home floor. You are not a team that's going to be broken easily. Yes, this is not this is not the advantage advantageous situation that you want to be in. But I think with everything going on tonight,
[2:40]the focus is on the Knicks. It is so celebratory. It is like the Knicks parade is happening tonight and not a basketball game. And that is the greatest atmosphere for a young team to walk into and say, all we got to do is play.
[2:52]Michael Wilbon joins us here as promised. That's what B-roll is for, to cover up your dramatic entrance worked out. Well, he's reading coming out of the tunnel. Yeah.
[2:59]That's what B-roll is for, to to to cover up to to cover up your dramatic entrance worked out. That that's So we're we're focusing on the Spurs and then we'll get to the Knicks side of it. You you you've been there, you've been at the games. You've sort of heard all the comments and all that sort of thing. No team is going to say, oh yeah, we're dead. It's over. They sound like they mean it.
[3:19]What is your sense of where the Spurs are psychologically going into this situation?
[3:22]They they do mean it. I'm I'm more concerned with or more interested in where they are emotionally. Um, they lost their poise. And you you know, I beat the drum every year about how you're going to get crushed before you win unless your last name is Russell or Johnson.
[3:33]You're going to get crushed. All of them. And this is what it is. This is what it feels like to be crushed. You know, you have you're thinking you should have won two. You know, you should have won one game, and you didn't. And now you face this. A team that right now is better and more mature.
[3:53]And so I I it's interesting. I have seen you you and I were at a game. This reminds me of this, a scene. When Chicago was ready to win home and beat Charles Barkley and the Suns. And Charles goes through his famous writing on the whiteboard before the game in the in the visiting locker room. Save the city.
[4:15]And you know Charles, I don't want to see Chicago burn. We got to save Chicago. And they they beat the Bulls and have forced them to go back on the road and win in game six. And there was a coordination, Vinnie. It was there was a parade routes. We're being openly talked about. The whole thing. They were just a prop. That's what the Spurs are tonight.
[4:35]The Spurs are the Washington Generals in this story. So I want to see like how they deal with it. I I think they sort of don't have anything to really lose at this point. Not not here, not now. What do you think, J?
[4:47]I think in order to be great at anything, you have to be a little bit certifiably insane, right? You have to Yesterday was yesterday. Today is today. And I think if you're a player in this locker room, you're looking at last game, you're saying, yeah, we should have won, but also when you watch tape,
[5:00]like if we just execute minor details down the stretch, we win this game. So, if we don't have a take foul early by Castle, which there was no need for a take foul. We could have called a timeout there in that situation. You didn't have to pass the ball. You just compose it. There's 14 seconds left on the clock. It's a lot of time to get the ball down the court.
[5:20]So there's all these things that you start replaying back in your mind. And now you're coming into New York where, yes, everybody has said Knicks in four, Knicks in four. I think that's why you saw them a little bit relaxed when they walked into the tunnel. They're laughing. They're like, yeah, cuz it's house money right now.
[5:33]Everybody expects you to lose. Just come in there and play your ass off and get a win on the road. I have no idea what to expect the actual atmosphere in the building to be at 8:30 when they actually throw the ball in the air.
[5:46]Maybe we will. Maybe that's exactly what we're going to get. It's just, you know, they're closing off avenues in each direction and streets in each direction. You can't drive in. You're going to have to walk in or take the train in. You're walking in tonight. I think. And I and I've spent a lot of this. I say this because I've spent a lot of this morning.
[5:59]Figuring out how I'm going to get there and how I'm going to get in. Enhanced security measures. So, hey, look, maybe everybody gets there early. I know the Knicks fans have been counting down the hours for this. They were ready for this on yesterday afternoon. Forget about tonight. Maybe it'll be fine. But I do think one of the things I want to do is see tonight at tip-off where the vibe is in the arena.
[6:19]I'll tell you one Finals game in the garden one night that it won't top, which was the O.J. Chase. Yes. That was Madison Square Garden with the Knicks and the finals, too.
[6:30]Knicks Rockets or Knicks Knicks Rockets, 94. 94, 95. The Knicks won that game to go up. And all of a sudden, the chase goes up on what was then a tell screen, which was like the size of one of our monitors. When you think about the evolution of that over 32 years. And there was there's I've been at pretty much every Finals game since 1987. There's nothing like that night.
[6:54]You'll agree, right? Yes. You were so you're hey, you have Akeem and Patrick Ewing on the floor, and you're looking at a screen with with O.J. Simpson in a Bronco, all that. I don't remember if it was switched on to the NBC broadcast accidentally. I I who nobody knows how it happened. Somebody knows we don't. And you this was the Finals in Madison Square Garden. It ain't going to top that. Right. That was a totally different scene. It was unexpected. But but it's a good example of how you never know what's going to happen. So, let's take it from the psychology of it all and actually go on the floor.
[7:27]So now you remember the San Antonio Spurs. Is there cleaning everything up is an easy one. I can sit here and say, don't make some of the mistakes you made late in the game and it's probably one one coming back here. How about actual other adjustments? Is there something you see they need to particularly in maybe dealing with Carl Anthony Towns?
[7:43]Oh, not just that. I mean, you're going to give Jalen Brunson a variety of different looks defensively, and you're also you saw them in that 14-point comeback. They started attacking him defensively. And that's something that you do to take down your other players' legs. I will tell you, I think we'll see a lot more of this four-guard lineup this evening. When you think about Castle, Vassell, Fox, um, and the way they play with Harper. I think because all those guys can be dynamic and attack off the dribble. And sometimes when Champagne is on the floor, it gives you less of a ball handler to attack all those matchups. And it gives you a lot of cross-matchups where you can find where Jalen Brunson is on the floor and attack him defensively.
[8:21]Jay, what do they give up? If they're going to give up I mean, cuz they're they're not big anyway. Other than obviously Mr. Big, they're not a big team, not even big enough. like this though, Mike.
[8:30]I mean, is it sustainable? Yeah, you do it in Spurs. Especially on a road game. And here's the thing. They do when you're down O2, we tend to catastrophize everything. Jalen Brunson is having his worst shooting series of his playoff career. And if you're saying, we're going to throw multiple bodies at you. We're going to wear you out. Like, some of the strategy has won, like, like Wendy said, process correct. Results not.
[8:54]You don't change everything. You make tweaks, and this team has shown a remarkable ability to grow on the fly. I think tonight, they're going to respond. I think as long as they respond to that first early surge, I think they're going to be okay. When we've, you know, we've seen Brunson close out games, first game, third and fourth, and then, you know, last game in the fourth with a shot. But if you take away some of those shots, like, he hasn't been playing well at all, like you just said.
[9:19]34% in the series. I call it fatigue process decision-making. If you can keep that going over time, that that's what plays into your hands if you're the Spurs, and you can capitalize on opportunity.
[9:30]I mean, they're picking Brunson up 80 ft from the basket. They're making him work just to get the ball up the floor. You saw it work against SGA, who's the MVP of the league in back-to-back years. So their defense is a major factor, I think, in what's going on with Brunson. Let's finish up the San Antonio side of it with their superstar. What about Victor Wembenyama in his first ever go around in a spot like this one?
[9:51]I do not think he has brought the requisite energy to start either game. When you go look at what he did in the previous series, he brought it from the Spurs made it their trademark this postseason to get off to great starts.
[10:04]They've been getting off to bad starts. Wembenyama has been getting off to poor starts. He had energy in the second half of game two, started making shots. You need to see Victor Wembenyama have elimination game energy from the start. And if he runs out of gas at the end of the game, so be it.
