[SPEAKER_04]: Now playing open for this is open floor.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sports Illustrated's Chris Manix back at an NDA podcast with Sports Illustrated Senior Writer.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's time that the world gets to know.
[SPEAKER_02]: My guy, Chris Manix.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think your opinion's shared by everyone.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now it begins.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now it begins.
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright Rachel Nichols, we are here here in New York City.
[SPEAKER_01]: Game 3 in the books of the NBA finals, game 4 coming up on Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can say this with absolute certainty.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are few things better than New York City in the spring.
[SPEAKER_01]: New York City in the spring kind of rules.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: New York City in the fall is better, but New York City in the spring spring.
[SPEAKER_01]: New York City in the summer kind of sucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: A little too hot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't think people turned us on to listen to our weather reports.
[SPEAKER_01]: The waft of cooking garbage, I could have vividly remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just like being that warm feeling and the city's kind of empty.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can go eat wherever I want, do whatever I want.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it is kind of empty because people don't want to be in Manhattan during that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just tougher than most people, Chris.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're tougher.
[SPEAKER_01]: You departed for Los Angeles long before I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I was it's also warm there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very good at warm.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those those grueling went very good at warm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, game four is coming up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Game four is that's why people have That is what people are here to listen to our takes on game three and preview and game four game three and I both just came for practice
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, came from practice over at the guard, which wasn't really practice.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just the guys Second showing up to do their media availability.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure they got up Or at least they're gonna watch film this afternoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sounded like most of them had had already.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was actually very interesting afternoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, what was your take?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's well, let's let's put a put a button that first because let's talk about the game on on Monday night game three Monday night must win game
[SPEAKER_01]: for San Antonio, which is already facing a historical, no team has ever come back from a two nothing deficit after losing the first two games of the series at home.
[SPEAKER_01]: More daunting perhaps that no team in playoff history has come back from a three nothing deficit.
[SPEAKER_01]: in a playoff series, much less a final series.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was this close to a must-win game as we got from San Antonio.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the spurs they showed up, Victor Wimbanyama, 32 points, kind of a tour de force type performance.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had Dearen Fox making a big shot with under 30 seconds left.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had Steph Castle making two big free throws with under 10 seconds left.
[SPEAKER_01]: Things broke right for San Antonio in game three.
[SPEAKER_01]: What were your big takeaways from watching the spurs beat the next?
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought they played a more traditional defense and at times that worked in the second half.
[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't work as well in the first half.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought the nicks going in a half time looked so strong and it felt sort of like, oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess New York just knows how to do this at the end of games and look, even now after the result, let us not undersell what an uphill climb this is going to be for San Antonio.
[SPEAKER_00]: San Antonio got off the plane, the spurs got off the plane here in New York, having to win four of the next five.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is almost impossible against a NBA finals level opponent.
[SPEAKER_00]: We obviously saw in recent history the bucks beat the sons after the sons won up to nothing, but to your point that was different home and away, and it's still really hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that they did it was really remarkable and it required a team with the Anacenticupo and this will require a team with Wemby being the full Wemby.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it to see you though the two teams have done it in the last
[SPEAKER_01]: ten years.
[SPEAKER_01]: 16 calves do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Granted.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say I feel on at his peak.
[SPEAKER_01]: 21 bucks transcendent player Janis at his peak, but I think it's got to be mildly encouraging for, you know, for saying it's one of the two teams in the last decade have done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I personally just threw out the 2016 finals for any trends.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many peculiar unusual things happened during those finals in LeBron as we sit here as, you know, the greatest longest career of anyone ever and certainly if he was going to do, if anyone was going to do something, it was going to be him to pull that off.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, I think it's a very tall road, and obviously they had to start with that first step in game 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did all the things we have been wanting them to do, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody kept their head about them, which by the way, let's not undersell that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Donald Trumpson, the building causing all kinds of feelings on both sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their security issues, when he's getting like wanted down, just to get into the building.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got caught up in the right wing Ecosphere there with the Trump...
[SPEAKER_01]: was boot which was factually accurate during the national anthem he was loudly yes i don't care one way the other and if we're being real and honest the trump delays really weren't that bad like they were bad for media coming into there but all the fans were in the same defense on who you were and when you got there and that's fine you know everybody can have their tip all of every times in the sea
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't matter or not that the fact that the watch party had to be moved to Brian Park matter or not, you know, this is everyone's opinion.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that Donald Trump was booed in that building when they showed him on the screen is not an opinion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just spoke to today's world that I put on social media many facts during the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and so has X free throws.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and so did this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and so did that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and so was booed during the National Anthem.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the amount of, yeah, you're right, right, wing of sphere, saying that sound is edited.
[SPEAKER_01]: was actually that was that the part that I have no skin in the game on the leader and I I did think it was interesting that they chose to put the president on the screen during the national anthem as if that might be some kind of heat shield for him like are you really going to boo during the national anthem well answer that is everything yes
[SPEAKER_01]: a resounding yes for New Yorkers we're going to food during the first of all it's New York come on down.
[SPEAKER_00]: New Yorkers can food during anything but I actually thought the NBA handled the very well MSG handled it very well and that he was on the screen for two to three seconds.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure somebody has clocked exactly how much and that was it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were a fan, your attention was never directed toward him again.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you happen to be on that side of the arena and wanted to look up into that sweet, you could.
[SPEAKER_00]: But other than that, it was not imposed upon everybody in the building during the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which I thought was the exact right thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's about the players.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about the teams.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if people want to think sound on a national live broadcasts somehow edited in real time, which I don't even know how that would happen, more power to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not why I'm here today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, I thought that when being the spurs did everything they needed to do that we have been finally saying hey go to the paint more hey be more aggressive draw the fouls and I heard Mike Brown afterward, you know, obviously giving the song and dance of what he say I didn't think I'd be in an MBA finals game where one team had 24 free throws and one team had eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was so rehearsed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was thinking for that, I was like, look, I was probably meeting on that before he said it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I understand this is job, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not sure who in this particular case he was lobbying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Normally, coaches say that when they want to sort of build public pressure on the officials themselves when they walk into the building for the next game, but more importantly, in the league office, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because after a game where a team doesn't like how something's officiated, they will send a tape to the league office, there will be conversations on the phone back and forth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who you're lobbying in this case.
[SPEAKER_00]: if your team gets into the bonus with three minutes in to the quarter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, of course the other team is going to have three times as many free throws as you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a basic rule of basketball and I just didn't understand who he was trying to preach to at that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the fact that the spurs attacked early and got them into that bonus and got themselves, you know, to the free throw lines so often, I thought was again exactly what we had to ask them asking them to do
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That, to me, was the biggest, the most fundamental ship for San Antonio offensively.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were much more aggressive going to the basket.
[SPEAKER_01]: Victor Wembanyama shot 15-3s in the first two games of the series.
[SPEAKER_01]: He shot four in game three.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a big difference and I think played a big role in his success.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was sitting alongside some of my media brethren there watching and
[SPEAKER_01]: And just we're talking about like every time the spurs go to the basket, it seems like they do something productive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So driving kick or a finish at the rim or getting to the free throw line, where they get into trouble and where they've gotten to trouble in the series is when they just take these kind of lazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: mid shot clock three point prayers, whether it's Wimbledon doing it or doing it, Steph Castle has been guilty of doing it, like those shots, or won't get them in the trouble, and those are the ones that spark runs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Long rebounds, fast breaks, all that stuff that goes against them, I thought they did a much better job of getting in the paint creating contact.
[SPEAKER_01]: And look, it's a little,
[SPEAKER_01]: Like she could have been close then 24 to eight in the second half in terms of free throw attempts probably probably a little bit closer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe like we we all the NBA.
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard Monima Cuchin on TV today saying yes We missed the shove from Victor Wemman.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, they absolutely didn't miss it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Totally missed it missed like two files.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that like you know it mean while Probably the reason why mystic is everyone was watching Keldon Johnson and talk Carl Towns in a Greco Roman wrestling match on the in the paint
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, what's the hate difference there by the way?
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, 67 to 7 feet, so about 5, 6 inches.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel Carl should be winning that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he was, but like, they eventually called the foul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they go on on Johnson and play, um, but the, like, yeah, the officiating didn't go their way in game three.
[SPEAKER_01]: The officiating didn't go their way in game two.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, game two was the most physical game of the series in that game.
[SPEAKER_01]: they were allowed to play on throughout almost everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: You heard Richard Jefferson on the broadcast, where he's like, you know, I've been finals before.
[SPEAKER_01]: I played deep in the playoffs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Richard Jefferson was on like the O was the O203.
[SPEAKER_01]: That team's.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was part of a different era of physiology, even he's like, this is two physicals.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were letting them get away with everything in game two.
[SPEAKER_01]: They called it a lot tighter in game three.
[SPEAKER_01]: And were there some 50, 50 calls there?
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, did they have to call the
[SPEAKER_01]: the play with champagne just dumped a jumped on the foot of Brunson in the I think there's a third quarter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe maybe not.
[SPEAKER_01]: He kind of jumped into that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: The landing space one.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a few others here are there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But by and large, like when they showed the replay, the next were committing fouls.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they were following the spurs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, and when you have Wimbledon Yama in the paint,
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not driving as much.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to be looking, you're not creating as much contact.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought Brunson got the line when you need to get to the line.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cat probably got to the line a little bit more referees.
[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, Cat said this to bring it forward to today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cat said this at the media availability.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said the referees did not cost us the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: So at least he's accepting that.
[SPEAKER_01]: the outcome was not changed by the reference.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, again, that's why I wasn't sure who Mike Brown was talking to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you're talking to your players in those press conferences because they want to hear you publicly defend them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you're talking to the league office.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this case, I think everybody on the court and everybody in the league office watching.
[SPEAKER_00]: New, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: what actually happened versus Mike Brown's version of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then again, Mike Brown doing his job.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, you know, he is coached just on every step of the way in this finals, certainly before that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in these finals, he had some great challenges last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought that his coaching job has been excellent.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you can see all of the experience that he has when you watch these finals even last night this is not his first rodeo by any degree his first finals that he walked into as an MBA coach was you know what head coach was 19 years ago and you can see all the experience he's gained since then so I thought there was some bright spots for the nicks and some bright spots for Mike Brown in that game that they can carry into game four which is which is like the story of this entire series because the losing team has been able to walk away from these games
[SPEAKER_01]: And say, hey, we've got a lot that we can build on.
[SPEAKER_01]: No game one if you're San Antonio, you can say, yeah, we coughed up a lead, but we had a one point lead with two minutes left and we could have won the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Game two could have won that game had an early lead, but they had the ball in their hands of their best player with five seconds left and an open 20 footer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they'll take that every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why they came into this game three.
[SPEAKER_01]: with as much confidence, and I thought the way they set the tone, like it was 19 to nine at the first time out.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was an 11 point game at the end of the first quarter.
[SPEAKER_01]: From the opening minute, they took this crowd and they took this building straight out of the game, and they got back into in the second quarter when the next minute of run, that a five point lead at half time, but from the third quarter on.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just, you know, occasionally you get these spurts of noise from the crowd, but it was so subdued.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, sitting in my section, the most noise I heard was from fans yelling at the referees.
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard one fan sitting behind me who was begging Mike Brown, who could not hear him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But screaming at Mike Brown to insert aerial hookporty, just so hookporty could go take out Victor Wembanyama.
[SPEAKER_01]: They wanted to send hookporty on like a basketball suicide mission out there just to go out there and take out Wembanyama at the knees.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that was what was coming from the crowd.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, and I think that was a huge factor in all this.
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't let the crowd get into it, really for any prolonged stretch and they allowed them to play their game a little bit freer.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did, and I definitely love the way that they came out, but as you pointed out, they've come out like that before and lost the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the second quarter, it really looked like the next sort of found their groove and gotten comfortable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want shooting in that second quarter?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just, just, and you know, it's funny, you bring up the threes, and we've talked about this multiple times since this final started.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do not understand those throw away three pointers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand why they keep taking them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've asked Mitch Johnson about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked him after game one, so this was four or five days ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't understand why those guys, but they're space in front of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you look at some of those three pointers, the spurs are taking that are just sort of tripping them up that we saw a lot in the second quarter and we saw a lot in the first two games, there is 10 feet in front of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it that you're behind that three point line.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that three is more than two, but guess what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Two is more than zero.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I just don't understand what they don't come in and take the safe or mid range and get those points on the board and stack the points and we saw them kind of getting more disciplined in the second half, but I think they need to be even more disciplined on that front in game four because I still saw enough of it to make me think, this is not hell rep. Well, the second quarter is when I don't have the stats in front, but it felt like they were taking too many of those
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a cup on the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter, sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it felt like second quarter in the second quarter, I think the next shot, 75% from the field in the second quarter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of that was off, long rebounds, transition, bad offense from San Antonio.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got more disciplined in the third quarter, back and forth there in the fourth, but they ultimately did enough to get it done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wembanyama was the big story because he's always the big story.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's the centerpiece of the team.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's very tall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very tall coming out at MSG, winter, not go home game, basically winter time game, obviously he's the big story.
[SPEAKER_01]: But to me, Stefan Castle knew that you're going to say, why they're in this position right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me, this kid at 21 years old has ice water in his face.
[SPEAKER_01]: A kid that won, we won national championship at Nikon, and plays like a 10-year veteran.
[SPEAKER_01]: Has the mindset of a 10-year veteran, has the body of a 10-year veteran, has the defensive discipline of a 10-year veteran.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only way, Erie, he's a second-year player, is occasionally shot selection in turnovers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are where you see your reminders.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is where you're reminded that he's a second year player in those, those aspects.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every other place, he is a, just an experienced asset for this team.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you saw him get going early on, like he was making shots.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was getting to the rim.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was playing through contact.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, like, let's talk about that final possession for a moment here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm watching that final possession develop.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for starters, it was the worst inbound play I've ever seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: where they throw the ball to Dearen Fox, who's on the move.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dearen Fox is the guy you want to have the ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the great, great former clutch player of the year.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's who you want to have the ball in your hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Dearen Fox has such momentum going to the ball that he's about to cross the half court line.
[SPEAKER_01]: He winds up lobbying a pass that felt like it was in the air for like 10 seconds and could have been grabbed out here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Could have been grabbed, Castle winds up grab, and Castle cut a hold onto it.
[SPEAKER_01]: has a frozen look for a split second, they follow him, he goes to the line, I'm sitting there thinking like the next, they're down to, they're going to get one out of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like the second year guy is who shot like 75% from the line during the regular season is not making both, but he steps the line and knocks down to and doesn't look like he breaks a sweat doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't quite like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Harper is a big part of this as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got some of the same characteristics, but Steph Castle was like born to play in these
[SPEAKER_00]: I have been knocked over and pressed by him and he is just as much to your point of the reason why these young kids and they are so young could actually come out and win this thing as uphill a battle as it still is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victor's 22, Steph is 21, Dylan's 20, do I have all those ages for that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's insane.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even here is not that old, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just 26, 27?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd be a little bit older, I'd be a baby, but yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, again, that's not nothing to have the presence of mine to do some of the things he did in that building.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will say in terms of the building, it was a great crowd and MSG in the NBA finals is always going to be great.
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't have the energy that I have seen in that building over different periods of the next, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is the result of the ticket prices, and I do wonder if there is some way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know this is not a solvable problem right now, the mechanisms, whether it's the legal mechanisms,
[SPEAKER_00]: the second market mechanisms or whatever aren't there because we've seen artists from Pearl Jam to Taylor Swift try to solve it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen teams try to solve it, but they're really has to be away because the NBA is not making money off of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: When a ticket goes for $30,000 for one ticket, the NBA is not making money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ticket brokers are making money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes very rich individuals are making money and it's also sometimes not so rich individuals that are selling their tickets.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone who has season tickets to the next is of a certain income level.
[SPEAKER_00]: True.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there are people I've read.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are lost stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good stories written over this last couple of days.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there are people that paid like $6,000 for the season ticket in the other level.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if they're offered 10 grand for one night, I don't blame them for taking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not mad at any fan.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, it's not, look, we see it in the All-Star Game every year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's the reason that we have crappy All-Star games.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think if there were a renaful of fans screaming, if you think the 19-year-old guys from Brooklyn screaming, hey!
[SPEAKER_00]: get your head out of your ass and play some defense during the all-star game wouldn't get some of these guys to pry it up and play well it would a little different yeah and i thought that the the vibe in there was very rich person and i would have loved to have seen and look a lot of people in the city have money and had been life-longed expands it's not like they were posers but i just i think some of the energy so let me go to point what it was took some hits the last 24 hours and what do you mean
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I was, uh, the attention has been drawn to how many celebrities were not in their seats for the first few minutes of the third quarter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I looked down there and I was like, oh, that's not a good look.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a good look.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also had like, and look, all the eyeballs are on each one of these celebrities.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was the, um, DJ Khaled on his phone stuff, the entire game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love Shadow Ben Stiller who is, uh,
[SPEAKER_01]: Fast becoming my favorite nicks fan, but like it's like owning a lot of this stuff like he's on social maybe like listen That's a bad look for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know celebrities when I call him self-care.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the first row has to be there And be visible right when the game starts or further quarters people who don't know what happens is like just a few seconds before halftime Everyone gets spirited to a back room.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're not just standing there on the court to have spirits and to mingle and elbow to elbow with each other
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the only place it happens to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lakers, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not the only place at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying that's where they went.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not at the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not stuck in the bathroom line.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is my point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, there's a room in the butt.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't think there's a room in Boston.
[SPEAKER_00]: I work with poppiers long enough to know there is a room.
[SPEAKER_00]: that you get spirited away to, if you're sitting extra-palk, or- Boston fans are always in their seats.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, you're actually came out again today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the back of the room, I hear one of these press conferences.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did they come out the press or- Oh my god, you were- You're like a 90% lock, and then 10% of the time, it's just full Boston's outie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, we ran into AJ Debatsets and we did and I was having a brief conversation with him by the way You were trying to let the Boston out a little bit there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I noticed that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, well, when you start naming Boston Towns He's from Brockton My family from Dorchester grew up at Quincy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dorchester.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a Dorchester say a Boston word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, so we were Talking about yes, it did come out a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it flows naturally when I'm front of someone from Massachusetts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, yes, no, they need to be in their seats better.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was interesting That some of the long time Nick celebrity fans didn't make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who didn't we see?
[SPEAKER_00]: We saw Didn't we see that?
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't even know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know if that was by her choice So maybe we didn't make the cut.
[SPEAKER_00]: I expected to see her.
[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciated that Ben Stiller obviously full attention on the game the whole time And his wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he's been incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean the practice the other day
[SPEAKER_00]: The I talked to him a little bit after the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: The the work he has been doing as by the way, I mean he directs preference.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is not only just an actor, but but and documentary maker, but he is an excellent excellent director and has been shooting such amazing stuff, courtside.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't wait to see what he's going to do with the end of all of this, but got to be a documentary.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but you know, his wife Christine has been there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, his wife Christine there has been there every step of the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I love seeing her there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't see Kylie Jenner there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you?
[SPEAKER_01]: I really wasn't looking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: My thing about Kylie Jenner this whole time is I'm sure she's lovely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I all, all the best to her and all of her fans.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure there's a Kylie Hive, perhaps I'm, I'm saluting you, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, um, no, I, I think, you know, look, anybody who can make themselves a billion dollars, I'm all for, this girl has definitely done her thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, she is not a long time next fan.
[SPEAKER_00]: So whether it was by her choice that she wasn't there, maybe she was there and sitting somewhere different or maybe she was right next to him and I didn't see him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Next to Timothy Chalamet, but I appreciated that it was like more long-time next-fans in those seats, Larry David, you know, obviously the SVU crew, Mariska Hargate and Chris Wright, I saw that.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, I'm not going to repeat the joke that kept circling with them, but if you want to, if you want to check on social media, I'm going to leave you all to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's worth looking up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I thought, you know, look, I thought celebrity Rose showed out and that was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I bet they'll be in their seats.
[SPEAKER_00]: They showed up and they got to be in their seats.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were going to be at the NBA Finals in the most coveted tickets that any New Yorker could ask for.
[SPEAKER_01]: People would trade their firstborn son.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would give up prima not done.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would do whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: to do, to get them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm actually boring that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm boring that from a one of these videos that I saw people that said what they would do for the roots.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I saw where they lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so A, if you haven't seen the Mariska Hergedy Christopher Maloney Donald Trump joke, please go look that up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then if you haven't don't know what Prima Nakta is, which sadly I do, so I get that joke.
[SPEAKER_00]: I implore you to please come
[SPEAKER_01]: But New Yorkers would want those seats you've got to be in those seats.
[SPEAKER_01]: Got to be in those seats.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I say one sappy thing about being in the building and all of that?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you and I both lived here for a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Neither one of us are native New Yorkers is we just discussed your Boston allegiance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up in the Washington D.C. area.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you and I both lived here for a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lived here for almost 20 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And every single year that I lived here, I covered the next and one fashion or another.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't as an everyday be writer, but for whatever outlet I worked for, the next were my responsibility, because I worked for national outlets and you and I both in the next year you live New York.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you have the next.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the amount of ups and downs,
[SPEAKER_00]: and rises and falls and times I can pull out of my head that I walked into that building for different stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember standing outside MSG for 12 straight hours doing reports for sports center when I knew the next weren't getting Lebron James when he was going to do the decision and yet the fever in the streets was so much that it was kind of like some of these post MSG parties we had to have barricades around to like keep the next fans were like Lebron's coming in New York
[SPEAKER_00]: and had to tell them that they were getting a Marry Star Mironstead.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Carmelo years, the Jeremy Lind Carmelo years, the up, I just, there's been so much, the Dolan Oakley, there's just been so many things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Much by the Thomas part.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of I part too.
[SPEAKER_00]: The court cases, I mean, it's just the amount of days that I walked into that building where it felt like, you know, dedicated, but sad fans who didn't have a lot of hope for their team doing what they were so desperate for them to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it made me very happy to be walking in there for a game three, for an NBA finals game to walk on that court and win or lose.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, we don't have a side.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know people think we do, but we don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: But just I watched, you know, I walked into the building and every security guard there said hi to me and I said hi to all of them by name because you just spend time with these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was so happy for them getting to see an MBA finals game.
[SPEAKER_00]: New York deserves this and I'm very psyched for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was telling our fine producer here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was like tough game last night.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, I think we've already done the suffering part.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to have the good part.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get that already.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's, let's get to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: What the spurs did last night?
[SPEAKER_01]: How duplicable is it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like how likely do you think it is that San Antonio is going to be able to go out and do that again?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as, as,
[SPEAKER_01]: encouraging as it was to win game three.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they don't win game four, they're basically right back in the same type of situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost worse, honestly, if they go one one because then you've got to go back to San Antonio and everyone with a New York driver's license is going to be flying down to Texas.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are spending whatever amount of money you've got to spend to get into Frostbank Center for game five on Saturday night.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you see?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a little hard for me to eyeball.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you feel like the New York presence was at those games?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it was 20%?
[SPEAKER_00]: You thought so?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was more like 10, 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I could have been just missing people.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I think it was 20%.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, it was a few thousand people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought they did a good job of having as much of a San Antonio home crowd as possible, which wasn't true for some of the, like, gleams and cleanliness down down 3-1.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot more fans inclined to sell their tickets off.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think you can close to 50% if for game five.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if not more.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also like you just have a greater sense of the whole that you're in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there is some human nature of, okay, we're gonna keep fighting until the very end.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you know that very end is gonna result in your death and it's a little bit different.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I said, the spurs got off the plane here having to win four of the next five.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've won one.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a very hard thing to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So,
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, they will give themselves a better shot if they can win game four and feel as if the slate is a little bit more even, but you've now expanded the energy of winning those two games.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's because you found something and you can run the table all the way through.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's again what the box did.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just think that the road is difficult and for this burrs to win game four, which is your question, they have to do everything right.
[SPEAKER_00]: everything they did in the second half of that game they had to do they have to do everything they did in the first quarter of that game they have to do they're capable of it we watched it they have to do all of those things again they can't do those stupid threes that we're talking about when they could actually penetrate and make a better play out of it
[SPEAKER_00]: they've got to play with their heads.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can't commit stupid fouls.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the next have to be a little off because we have to acknowledge what the next told us today, which is they don't feel they played their best game and I agree with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: The early foul trouble in the second half, you know, some of the shots that normally go in for them didn't go in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jalen Bronson who was hard as hard on himself as anybody in this league is took it upon his shoulders this afternoon and I don't think it was his fault But I understand that he is going to walk into that building trying to be Superman in game four and we've seen him be Superman He can pull that off if he wants to so I just I think that they I still think the road for the spurs is is very very high tall
[SPEAKER_00]: a pill, whatever you want to call it, long and winding, but they're capable of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there's any question they are because Victor Whitman Yamma is like nothing we've ever seen and Steph Castle to your point and Dylan Harper when he's in there and Darren Fox when he's doing what he's brought in to do and firing, that is a formidable team.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if Darren Fox catches any momentum off the end of Game 3.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because that was a big shot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's great shot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, contested 16 footer.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was sandwiched between OG and an OB at a great game, but it's going down.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if that gives him a little more momentum.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he overall he shot poorly.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was 14 in that game.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wonder if that gives him a little bit of boost.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because his efficient offense is big for San Antonio.
[SPEAKER_01]: In a weird way, I'm almost resigned to Jalen Brunson not having a breakout game, and maybe I'll live to eat my words in 24 hours, but the spurs have done such an outstanding job on him defensively, and they haven't had to send multiple defenders all that often.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they've,
[SPEAKER_01]: They'd pick their spots where they've tried to take the ball out of his hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when Castle's in the game, he's got Bruns, and he has done a fantastic job defending Bruns.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think that's going to change.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Castle is not the kind of guy that looks like his energy tank is low right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks fine in these possessions.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they all have to do exactly what they're doing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It takes every single one of those spurs players to be on point in their defense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there is a couple defensive possessions, by the way, that they had that I know I'm going to see breakdowns up over the next 24 hours, because all the, all exactly, all the, I actually wrote, I mean, right, I wrote the elevator with John Hollinger on the way out of the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, as we know, he is,
[SPEAKER_00]: statistician type and an exynoke if there ever was one and he was filming at the mouth to break that play down on the internet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Best defensive plays of the scene.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a five six passes that went around and Wemby looks like like any other player probably gives up on that play in that moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's beat by lander sham and it's an exhausting defense possession and there goes Wemby, you know, just chasing that down and walking the shot.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was if they come back in the series,
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's what they have to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you talk about them containing fronts and they are absolutely capable of doing what almost no one else in the league has proven, proven able to do and contain Jalen Branson.
[SPEAKER_00]: But everybody has to be exactly where they're supposed to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there were still a couple times you saw Jalen Branson just drive in and it almost was so quick that nobody knew where he was and he does that little lay-in at the back of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get down Hillies, Tuffin.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he gets momentum gets down, Tilly.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's when his like bag becomes even deeper.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can just release that, he can go bullfans.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's almost an anti-drust contact with that and he's just has to do that two more times than he did in the last game So that's like marginic's like they had to be near perfect to win the first two games of this series like they needed cat like going into game three Chrono of the town's probably MVP yes, like the finals MVP.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did not play well in game three They get 11 points yet some think file issues of his own
[SPEAKER_01]: at times during that game, they need much more from him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think the spurs are going to continue to make Bruns an inefficient.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he's still going to get his points.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like game 1, he had 30 points.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he took 31 shots.
[SPEAKER_01]: Spurs don't want to live with the fourth quarter, but they could have lived with that kind of general inefficiency.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he was 25 shots and 20 points in game 2.
[SPEAKER_01]: Game three a little bit more efficient, but like they have done a really good job of Making him in a fish now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they can continue doing that cat is the guy these to exploit these match up They need to get 18 and 12 from him every single night 19 and 11 20 and 10 that kind of production when they don't They leave themselves a little bit vulnerable because look
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I think O.G.
[SPEAKER_01]: and O.B.
[SPEAKER_01]: is going to have another good game?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, is he going to be like, was he 9 for 11?
[SPEAKER_01]: He was so absurd.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was bucketing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, look, every one of these games went back and forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could very easily be 3 nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next, it could just easily be 3 nothings per se.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm competitive to the bend.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think I think they're both going to have to be flawless to come out of a win like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you make at the fact that cat hasn't scored a point in the fourth quarter of the last two games, I think it is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's what that I keep seeing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shelby will have to take this out if we have the stat wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: But maybe we have it right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all you guys out there are hearing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the stat I keep hearing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can look it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it was a problem in game three.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no doubt about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it a problem game two, not necessarily, I think they got enough output there from him in game two?
[SPEAKER_01]: I just like, it's not the total production from towns, it's the threat that he is in the paint, it's the ability to exploit mismatches, it's taking Wemba Nyama out in the perimeter and forcing him to defend, keeping him away from the basket.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more zero fourth quarter points in the entire NBA final so far.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: It hasn't felt that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, but look, I'm looking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have put the glasses.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I'm looking at it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he had two, like I thought the first two games were too great games.
[SPEAKER_00]: 50 points in the first three quarters zero and the fourth of each of these games.
[SPEAKER_00]: look 50 points in three quarters isn't you know in the three quarters across three like we didn't touch on him like he had a couple he was a couple shots early but yeah overall that like he had played great in game two eight of thirteen he's had I mean he's had such an exceptional playoff at some point you got to have a bad game you know the human but um
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm curious, if you were the spurs, how would you try to get cat and felt trouble early?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that is, of course, the answer, not only in having it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when be on them, or are they going to, or cats going to be on Wemby, keep more of the basket?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what I loved early on was watching Wemby, he passed up on a three pointer in the first quarter.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, oh, there we go, there we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: But why aren't we seeing, I'm this good to back to my earlier question.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are all smart smart players.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miss Johnson is a great coach.
[SPEAKER_00]: You and I who, you know, we don't have anywhere near the basketball coaching experience that the spurs brain trust has.
[SPEAKER_00]: How come it has not been drilled into these guys had including their star player.
[SPEAKER_00]: you got it, especially early, just go to the hoop, go to the hoop, go to the hoop, go to the hoop, go to hoop is like physically taxing and I think they've been pretty gas the first couple of games.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the extra day really helped them.
[SPEAKER_01]: More than the help the next, like getting that extra day that's Sunday New York when...
[SPEAKER_01]: When we can go, draw the booth statue in Grammar.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why can't you question?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is there a statue of John?
[SPEAKER_01]: I call him then this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did not yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was busy listening to the actual players talking.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the great actors of the 19th century.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that why his brother was jealous and shot the president?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can he say for people who don't know, John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, his brother, there is a statue of him in Grammyship Park, and that is what Victor was sketching before game three, and he reports self-reporting art critic that it was actually pretty good sketch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pretty good sketch.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Booth, I think it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Booth, I didn't know, see, I should have...
[SPEAKER_00]: It should have been the first thing I did this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: He also was the founder of the player's club or player club.
[SPEAKER_01]: The player player?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did they have playa back in the 1800s?
[SPEAKER_01]: The 1800s, no, I don't think they did.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was this club, the player's club.
[SPEAKER_01]: Commissioned the statue for him there.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK. And what up, I think, in 1918.
[SPEAKER_00]: And because he was just so good at acting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was because he had the club, and it was a rich people club.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Bill, the statue were something.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, that's what it's doing in the park and I think it's not the statue with a drawing But it's the extra 24 hours of the past.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that really helped them That's why I'm a little bit more concerned going into game four That's the ability to not have any charge like if they win this game four You know that of ourselves a little bit here, but if they win game four and then game five not till Saturday Yes, two full days rest going back home sleep in your own bed get your own treatment your own facility Link
[SPEAKER_01]: This is an important game for the next.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it's huge.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, I mean, that road that I keep talking about gets a lot flatter.
[SPEAKER_00]: If now, you only have to win two of the next.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think it all is possible?
[SPEAKER_01]: And the next, I'm not going to say they did this because I didn't get the vibe that they were feeling as it all during the practice day on Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the practice day on Sunday and the 24 hours of game three, it felt celebratory.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're at the practice conference and fat Joe's there as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we win Mike, can I get some of your PF flyers?
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I get him autographed?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, stillers there, other celebs are there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody in New York, it's Nixon 4.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see in that guy, when the microphone go in my mayor's muslim, my bagels Jewish, my Christian Dior, Nixon 4.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds good coming for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really doesn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was everywhere and I think it was there was a celebratory That they were gonna win this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't mention I think it's fair to give both sides fair play Mayor Mandami in the building last night didn't get shown on the job.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's wrong?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he was in the $1,000 standing room only.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't get a camera out of here.
[SPEAKER_01]: See.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think if they had some social media up there, but yeah, that was that was where he was.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: With the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: With the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Man of the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just think I think that at the very least the crowd thought this series was a rap.
[SPEAKER_01]: The fan base thought this series was a rap.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if it's possible to buy into that if you're the next.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even as they're saying, and every word they said, zero zero.
[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't accomplish that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Focus on the next game.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I wonder if that seeps in a little bit when the public perception is this team is cooked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, again, I'm not trying to be, you know, I have been Victor Rebenjama's greatest supporter since the moment he stepped in the league.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that he is going to win so many rings.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that we are going to start talking about him among the greatest players ever barring injury.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I mean, you know, barring injury happening with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if he's going to win this series though because it is such, again, I cannot stress enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: They walked into New York having to win four out of five.
[SPEAKER_00]: They now face game four, having to win three of the next four.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes, the guy who said Nixon four was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not sure the fans wandering around New York saying we have this, we have this are going to be proven wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the end, they may be proven right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I will say, again, living here
[SPEAKER_00]: And even going into Game 3 with them up to O, I had so many of my next fans for as text and me going, I don't know man, I don't think we can win this series and you just had to be like, just shh.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sure the X's potential dread in this city, all of the nice sort of guilt that likes to come up in this city, the ink, anxiety, the Larry Davidness, the Jerry Seinfeldness, will be meeting us forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was such an important game in this game for Nick's win and they'll get one of the next three.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have any doubt.
[SPEAKER_01]: That'd be the case spurs win.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm putting the spurs right back in the driver seat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do the next three.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Two in the next three at home and again I can't emphasize this enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: The extra days in between some of these games is much more important for San Antonio They need it so much more.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're talking about
[SPEAKER_01]: every game now after this would be extra days.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be Saturday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then it's Tuesday.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it's Friday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's travel there in between though.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not a story.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, no, it's not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you're flying on a damn private jet.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're, but you're getting, you're not having to play.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not having to practice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you're fed up.
[SPEAKER_01]: The team, the needs at the most is Santa Antonio.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you think the spurs team playing has had to be reorganized for Wambi's legs?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, they're pretty big planes as it is that that was seven footers before like he's he's big, but he's you know He's he measured.
[SPEAKER_01]: We bigger than Luke Kornette.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I look right at seven one Okay, he's seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's between seven four and seven six depending on how you measure him and he maybe it's exit row when they have
[SPEAKER_00]: more than exit row.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they got to take out a row of seats, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean there's spaced way apart different than a normal plane, these NBA planes, but still I think maybe there's a row of seats that had to come out or should come out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Possibly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Possibly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would like to see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the plane.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got to call you though because you said going into the series, you said, let's not forget.
[SPEAKER_00]: the nicks are still the eastern conference the next there's still way below the level of the western conference in the spurs and thunder what do you think happened in those first two even three games that made it not what you thought it was going to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I underestimated the value of continuity in New York and underestimated the man's strength that the next had, like that is a team of grown men.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody is right around 30 in the prime of their careers.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have fought their way to the near mountain top last year, coupled them in the playoffs the year before.
[SPEAKER_01]: with that same team.
[SPEAKER_01]: I underestimated the value in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I saw the spurs not get muscle by Minnesota, not get muscle by Oklahoma City.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is just a different kind of muscle.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is man muscle.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is like guys that have been around for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Carl Towns is not shed home
[SPEAKER_01]: No, he is not they've they've been good against Jalen Brunson, but plus and in the fourth quarter is better I think than show you'll to Sally'sander Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_01]: I underestimated that part of it like the OGN and OBs the bridges these guys that have kind of grown man-strength I didn't underestimate that a little bit and I do think I underestimated
[SPEAKER_01]: The physical told that seven game series local mistake took.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that took a little bit out of them Made them a little less fresh non-excuse.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just it is what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: The next deserve the credit for getting that eight-day layout They're a lot of vacations.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was their income and back.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was their deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: They did it I got into it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It must have been at that part of it, but I think this game game four is hiding it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the winner of this game wins the series
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at my phone because I was trying to find a meme.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will send to our friend Shelby or producer on one side.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the back of an image of Victor.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all drawn.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not photographed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victor Ibn Yama.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, you know, greatest generational player since willed three top three picks, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on the other end, it's the sort of menacing, hooking figure and the whole side of the screen is dark.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then on the right side, it's all bright and cheery.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it's a guy in a like pink heart costume as if he was like a singing telegram and it says the power friendship to your point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that is how they want to get this one and two.
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds lame, but your point is that this is super friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought so Dante Diefen Chenzo showed up for Game 3 which I thought was pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: on his on his crutches and I thought that was very cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do love how every time these guys are at podiums together they're still ripping on each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Josh Hart said something about trying to compliment Jalen that you know he's got a national championship and was it was it was it only was bridges so he always got a national championship and Jalen just holds up the two sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got the two and Josh maybe is Josh I guess has the one and like it's just
[SPEAKER_00]: I do think there is something to that and I think in tough times over the next few games, you're going to see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the power of friendship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your prediction, then, for game four, can't put now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last time you put it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I put it for real, because I didn't know enough about what they were going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the wicks, the wicks.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the wicks nin.
[SPEAKER_01]: There you go, that's the wicks nin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the wicks nin.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the wicks nin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the wicks nin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that's the end of the series, though.
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually think.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm playing out in my, yeah, a spurs when game five.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, again, I don't think this is a knock on a team.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I love the spurs team, you know, I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is just asking a lot against the level of competition that is so high when you get to the NBA finals.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the reason sweeps are uncommon.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you look back at the record books, they're not nothing, but it's not often that we sweep people on the finals because the teams are so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm taking the spurs.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're taking the spurs in game four.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they found their legs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they found a little bit of their rhythm.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've gotten comfortable.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be close again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be a one possession game down the stretch.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the defense that Antonio plays is real.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Wendy's the best player on the floor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I was going to ask you that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there was a road map for the spurs to win more easily than the next, but to my point earlier, they have to actually follow it every single step of the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to that point, you and I always, you and I have covered so many finals, it's who's got the best plan on the floor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, who's got the next best plan on the floor?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's got the next best plan on the floor?
[SPEAKER_00]: So what is your order of best players on the floor after three games?
[SPEAKER_01]: After three games.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, in terms of overall who I think the best players though, I think Wendy's the best player in the floor.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, bronze is next, cats right after that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I probably have a castle after that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's my top four there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that can obviously fluctuate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cat is got to be big.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Cat's got to have, let's forth quarter numbers interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't really think of that because I noticed him not scoring in the first quarter, the first two games.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they need him rebounding, putting pressure on the rim, getting guys into foul trouble.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like they need him to be the guy that he was in the first couple of games in the series.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the spurs need to do the exact opposite to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They gotta get him in fell trouble early because it just changes who he is in the second half.
[SPEAKER_00]: It either physically takes him off the floor and that gives one be a lot more free rain or it makes him as we have seen with these fourth quarter stats more cautious.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he obviously doesn't want to fall out and that changes everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we'll find out what happens and it's a big question.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's Kylie Jenner.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to be out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's she courtside.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I have to look this up before the end of the pod.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, okay bye.