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Joe Muso pleased to be alongside the guys following an exciting game two and that doesn't even start to tell the story. Here to do just that, John Gonzalez and Noabono. Fellas, that was an instant classic. You felt like you could engrave the thing. Two games to none heading back to New York. A big surge from the six-minute mark. Then it feels like San Antonio can't lose this basketball game. So much happened in that final 90 seconds. But I want to start with the question of shot selection at 104104. John, we get a long range jumper from Victor Webbeyama. He makes the blunder, still has the chance.
Down by one, we get a mid-range look from Victor Webeyama. What did you make of the decision making offensively by the Spurs? Yeah, no. And I were talking about this. I mean, he had a clean look on that shot, but it's a mid-range. And when you have that pick and roll situation with the Aaron Fox and Victor Wanyama, I'm thinking, okay, let's have him roll to the rim. Now there as we're looking at it, there were a lot of nicks around the paint. So it might have made things more difficult. Maybe he figured I'm going to get a clean look from mid-range. But you mentioned the shot that came before
that where it was he's pulling up and deciding here's here's the final play right here. Look, outstretched arm from Mitchell Robinson. You see a lot of Knicks around the perimeter of the paint, around the edge of the paint, but you're still Victor Webbyama. One step and you could get to the rim. really. I'd much rather see him dive hard to the rim than settle for that shot. And you know, yeah, clean, maybe it goes down, then all of a sudden we're not talking about this and it's tied 1-1. But guess what? It didn't go down. They're not tied 1-1. They're down 02. And in the history of the NBA, no team has ever lost two games at home to start a series and won the finals. The Knicks
are in the driver's seat. They're feeling great about this, especially on a night again where Jaylen Brunson didn't have it going. If you're the Spurs, you're thinking, man, Jaylen Brunson had one good quarter against us in two games and we're down 2 0. Noah, that's a decision and a shot selection that came off the you can hunt your look in that possession. They knew what they tried were wanting to try to get to. Is that the look that San Antonio was dying for? I think the problem with it is the catch. The catch you mentioned at 104 the corner. He's on that left wing area. It's a tough contested two.
He's he's catching it so far out. Then on this one on the last shot, it's a pick and roll, but he stops the roll at the elbow and he flares back out to the foul line. And if you look on the weak side, it is Josh Hart coming up for for some helpside if he wants to put the ball on the deck. I don't know how many there was under two. I mean, he's so long and lanky. Can you maybe get there? Helpside wouldn't have been there. Uh listen, the Spurs were down 14 and I said that is an insurmountable amount of points for a team this young to come back from down one. This game to me felt like they were already down. It had the
feeling of you're already down 2. You don't want to go down 3 0 because they were going to lose both at home. They break the 14-point run. And then when critical thinking mattered, when fatigue settled in, when strategic basketball IQ decisionmaking was at the forefront, Victor Webbyama was not there to meet the moment. And that is where we finally have seen the inexperience from this young basketball great. And it's unfortunate because in that moment, he had a chance. He goes defensive rebound after the shot and great one-on-one defense verse Brunson. But then he turns it over. He commits the foul. You get lucky that Brunson misses that one free throw and then he settles for another
jump shot in a second half that he quite frankly was brilliant after a really bad first half. It's been an impossibly frustrating final 90 seconds to both game one and game two for Victor Webbyama. The execution, the shot selection, it's just not there. And sometimes we have to tell the story of a great one who came up short to get that taste of blood in their mouth before they finally go do the thing. This is not over yet. It's two games to none. But history tells us we have an eventuality waiting for us and the New York Knicks. John Jaylen Brunson does make that shot down the stretch. Continues to be clutch in the biggest moments. And as you put it, in a game where he still didn't have his
fast, still did not have his ace stuff. You're going back to New York with an opportunity to find it. Up two games to none. Yeah. The Spurs are kicking themselves right now, right? Because you're in game one, you're up 14 in the third quarter. You're thinking, "Okay, yeah, the Knicks were really good against the Hawks and the Sixers and the Cavaliers, but we're different, right? We just beat the defending champs, the Oklahoma City Thunder. We should win that game." They don't win that game. They give that game away where Jaylen Brunson wasn't good for through the first three quarters.
Steps it up in the fourth quarter of game one. Okay, that's okay. But it tonight again, you're down 14. You go on that run. Jaylen Brunson doesn't have it going. He goes seven for 25 tonight. And by the way, it's not just that Jaylen Brunson hasn't necessarily been good and hasn't had his fast ball in the series. The Spurs were playing really good defense on him to a man. I mean, uh, Castle, Vel, Champeni, Harper, up and down. They really made him work. And you get back into this game and you get it to 104 and you're thinking to yourself, okay, now we've got the momentum. We absolutely are going to tie this series at 1-1. And Victor Wyama was not good in the first half. And then midway through the third
quarter, he really turns it on. And for him to find it and start playing better and then give it all away after that rebound where he throws the turnover against Stefon Castle's back and on top of it compounds the arrow with the foul. You said it's not over. I'll say it's over because the series it's never happened in NBA history. If they somehow pull off history, you know, we'll walk this back and we'll say good for you San Antonio Spurs. But Victor Wmanyama, that series, the turnover and then the foul probably lost San Antonio a chance at a championship. It's not to overstate it. That is the situation. That is the reality that they're now staring at.
Just to recount, 97 to 83. New York at the 6 minute and 4 second mark, leading by 14 points. By the three minute mark, we were tied at 97. With a minute left on the clock, the Spurs had a lead. I only offer that once again, Noah, to really ask you what that takes out of a team to have completed that comeback in a way and still be going on the road down 02. I It's heartbreaking. It's as heartbreaking to me as what the Cavs did in game one versus the Knicks when you're up 22 with seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter and you blow it for they force overtime. You blow it in
overtime. It has that feel to it and it has even more of that feel to it because they lost both these games at home. And John mentioned the lead that they had in game one and then to fight back to literally steal the momentum from the New York Knicks. Like the Knicks looked like they had nothing going on offensively. They every single time they got the ball crossed half court and they even started their action after a fullcourt press on Brunson, they had 10 to eight 8 to 10 seconds it left in the shot clock for them to force up a shot. every possession down the stretch for the New York Knicks was forced uh a really rushed action because of the Spurs defense and they weren't able to capitalize it on the offensive
end and that is demoralizing. Four minutes without a field goal from the floor for New York in the most pivotal moments of this game and still a two- series lead for the New York Knicks. A ravenous home crowd awaiting them to come home and try and do something they haven't done since the 70s. They're going to get their first Finals game since 1999. John, again, this was not the Jaylen Brunson performance we'd come to expect in this series or throughout this season. And still, the team effort, the total sum of the parts for New York has been amazing. It's cat early in game.
It's OG throughout it. Male had his moments as well. We're not giving out an NBA Finals MVP just yet, but we could. Who's leader in the clubhouse through two games in your eyes? It's Carl Anthony Towns, I think. I mean, he was excellent in game one. in game two at the half he was plus 600 to win MVP. By the third quarter that had dropped to plus 350. Too much action. He's been that good, right? And again, you think if you're the Knicks, you're you're living a charmed life.
You've now won 13 in a row. You've won eight of your nine games on the road. You haven't lost in 43 days. It'll be 44, I guess, somewhere uh any minute now. Yes. You mentioned the total team effort. All these guys have picked up Jaylen Brunson. And that's what's different about this year's Knicks team. Previous iterations, Tom Tibido, it was the Jaylen Brunchen show and if it didn't work out, the Knicks were cooked. This year, and especially in the playoffs, Mike Brown has figured out a way to unlock all these other guys. Oh, it's the Spurs are playing incredible defense on Jaylen Brunson. They're really making him work. He has a hyper
inefficient night tonight. No problem. Carl Anthony Towns is going to be really good again and he's going to outplay Victor Wanyama for much of this series. OG Anobi played well at both ends of the floor. Male Bridges hasn't missed a shot in like a month. This guy is automatic right now. And we talked about Josh Hart. He was my X-factor this game, non-factor this game. He was in foul trouble early and still they overcome all this, right? Cuz here comes Landry Shamut off the bench. He's making uh buckets. Mitchell Robinson is pitching in. This really is a total team effort by the Knicks this playoffs. And kudos to Mike Brown. Kudos to the
Knicks. They deserve to be up to because I was talking about what the Spurs did to give away the first two games. Well, how about what the Knicks did to take these two games. Shaquille O'Neal is infamous for the others as well as his four titles, but he credits his four championships because of the others. And the others on the Knicks have just been night and day better than the others on the Spurs. The depth of the New York Knicks bench has just outplayed the Spurs bench. And then when you look at Carl Anthony Towns, if you know me, you know I'm not one to overreact. He's not he's 100% the finals MVP. and the heartbreak that you just touched on that we just elaborated on because of that 140 comeback. I
wouldn't be surprised if the Spurs were swept. They got two games in Madison Square Garden. I we joked about this, John, and I didn't think it was a real possibility. Could the Knicks sweep round two, round three, and the NBA finals? That is on the board, ladies and gentlemen. It is 100% on the board. Given the fact that the New York Knicks are going home, and I said it in the pregame, why would I ever pick against a team going into a game when they haven't lost in 43 days, make it 44 days, I'm not going to do it in game three, and I might not do it in game four if they win. And that's what it's on the board.
445. We'll see you for 46. Two days off before game three in New York. I sense they want to go there, so we will head there next. Setting the stage for game three headed to the Mecca. And the streak rolls on. If they do get it done in the minimum, that being a four-game sweep next week, they will match the longest win streak in a single postseason history. The Knicks 13 and counting
