June 6, 2026 • 30 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon discuss Wemby's comments at his postgame presser taking blame for the crucial turnover and the loss.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings, Welcome inside final hour tonight the Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon. For sure to check
out our YouTube channel for the show. Just search Jason
Smith Show within YouTube. Again, that's Jason Smith's Show. Hit
the subscribe button, and after you've done that, tap the
thumbs up icon. Comment away whether you agree or disagree,
(00:50):
let us know what you think. Again, just search Jason
Smith's Show on YouTube and subscribed. We just put videos
up a few minutes ago, our big take coming off
of Game two of the NBA Finals. Mike and I
love putting this content out for you every single night.
Uh it's two zip and I I gotta be honest,
I don't know how to act right now because I've
(01:12):
never seen the Mets getting to the world series, but
they were never really in it, right. They lost the
first two games and coming they were never in it right.
Carolina won the Stanley Cup, you know, seventeen years ago, right, Okay,
Syracuse won the NCAA title twenty three years ago. Okay,
But Mets, Jets, Nicks, I've never had them win, right,
(01:37):
I've never had them win my three title runs, my
three mate. Yeah, oh my god, it was so close.
That was amazing. I don't know how to act right
now because I'm two games away from the Knicks winning.
They're going home, they they have everything. I'm expecting to celebrate,
and I'm I'm I feel scared. Yeah, they've never won
in my lifetime. Man, I'm old. I've lived many lives.
(01:58):
I'm kind of many. I had the money. I wish
I had many moneies. I don't. I don't know how
I should I be feeling, because I still feel nervous
and I'm scared, and I think because I'm like, oh my,
this this is really gonna happen. This is not something
because usually my team's winning is really in the abstract,
like ah yeah, yeah, sure, everybody that doesn't that knows
wins you win? Yeah, how do you feel now it's real.
(02:21):
It's right in front of you. Like I could think
all the Jets are gonna win the Super Bowl. We
got Aaron Rodgers. Now things right now? Look how fast
that hell? How fast that fell apart?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Now?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, Smith, here you go. I got it right now
for you, Nick? Sure up to zip going home in
the NBA Finals. Uh, I don't know. I'm scared right now, man,
I don't know. I don't know. I would say this.
It's got to like say, I mean, it's Friday night.
We're heading into a weekend. Uh, happy weekend. Those celebrating
already and out and about if you're in New York,
you got a couple more hours to last call. I
(02:51):
think it's the You've got to pace yourself like you're
going out and you're gonna have You're gonna have a
drink or two, maybe maybe a couple of cocktails, but
you're supposed to have a water in between, so you
can have a better, longer night and not necessarily suffer
the ill effects. I think for you as a Knicks
fan right now, you've got to pace yourself because it's
(03:12):
very easy to look ahead and just say, all right,
we're going home for two. It's done. Yeah, I mean
because I'm wiped right now, because this was still one,
a one point win that the Spurs had the chance
to win it. Last game, came back from a huge deficit,
huge fourth quarter. So it's two. Oh. But I need
only remind you it's been fifty three years since they
(03:32):
won a title. Time was on the team. That's it,
not coaching the team. He was on the team that won.
Phil Jackson, I showed you the picture of his seventy
three tops trading card. A lot of elbows, a lot
of yeah yeah. But it's just the idea of, all right,
you waited this long, make sure you don't get yourself
(03:53):
into it tizzy early because the basketball gods and look,
I'm not going to say the Spurs are suddenly going
to rattle off four straight wins or that they're beating
this team four out of five. But it's the idea
of presuming that this thing is over. I think you've
lived long enough in your sports life to know that
nothing is a sure thing. No, right, No, I mean
(04:16):
Beayheim should have had more than one, right, No, Charmelo, Yeah, no,
sometimes you get one. And as much as I love
seeing Starks and everybody with the fours up. As soon
as that that game went final tonight, se al right,
there's still work to do. The last time the Knicks won,
Walt Frazier and Dave de Busher were their two best players.
(04:36):
Also had Senator Bill Bradley right, the senator that's right,
had the pearl right, That Willis Reid who was still
there right the sixty. The Phil Jackson was there too,
coming off the bench, Phil Jackson, Dick Barnett, Henry Bibby,
Like this is the last head one baby seventy three? Right, No,
but that's it. Like, try to take it all in context,
(04:57):
and they get it the excitation, And I'd love to
see some more of the videos from the post game
in New York as the watch party spilled out and
people took to the streets and took over the bars
and everything else. But it's it's still that all right.
You're halfway home, yeah, I mean, but it's more than
you're halfway home, because you're halfway home going home. Ye.
Like if the Knicks won the first two at home,
(05:19):
I would say, Okay, that's great, right, Usually teams don't
come from behind, but I could easily see this series
too too. And just like last year when when the
Knicks were playing the or two years ago Knicks and
the Pacers, when the Knicks, when the first two games
is said, this is going to be two two coming back.
Game five LEAs be two two coming back. But now
it's it's two oh going home, and I don't I
don't know the Knicks crowd is going to I don't
(05:39):
know the roof stays on MSG. No, it could be
a very different experience. That's for sure. It's the ticket
experience of my lifetime. It's the biggest ticket of a game,
of a sports event, the biggest game ticket of my lifetime.
You look at what the prices are Game three, Game
four of the Knicks NBA Finals like that, that's the
That's where the Spurs are going going into next week.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But to look at the game tonight, right, to think
about that, to go back out, I want to get
too far ahead, right, was it first? I'm trying to
tell you you gotta pace yourself. Obviously, the Wenby turnover
was a big deal. We'll get into that in a
in a bigger in a bigger way coming up in
about ten minutes. Right, the Wenby turnover at the end,
that helped, that helped give the Knicks the win. But
the biggest moment of this game outside of that wasn't
(06:34):
in the fourth quarter, Wasn't it the final minute wasn't
the biggest moment. Middle of the second quarter. Brunson's on
the bench, Jose Alvarado is in running the point for
the for the Knicks, and the Knicks have a bad
possession and al Doorado is getting caught in the corner
with the shot clock winding down. And the Spurs had
(06:55):
played very aggressive defensively up until this moment. Right, they
came out of their shoes and they were play aggressively. Again,
Let's go back to what Rick Buker told us last hour.
Sometimes the Spurs play too fast and you have to
slow it down, and they don't do that. He says, well,
I'm screaming at the TV. Slow down, slow down. But
they were really aggressive. The Guards played great for most
of the first half. And here's Steph Castle, who really
(07:19):
has been giving Jalen Brunson fits. Right, My two biggest concerns.
What I tell you going in Dylan Harper and Steph
Castle putting Jalen Brunson in a blender. And now you're
seeing Steph Castle get away with all kinds of stuff. Defensively,
he's just able to just push Brunson when he tries
to get by him, like, Okay, I think you're letting
Steph Castle be a little bit too physical. But Ja
(07:41):
is there already as a physical and aggressive defender. And
you know how great I feel about Steph Castle, right,
he was my guy. Guys, why he wouldn't take the
number one overall in the draft? But he has been
The physicality he has had is giving Brunson all kinds
of problems. He's got two fouls. Jose Alvarat. It's Jose
Alvarado and it's the middle of the second quarter and
(08:03):
he's dribbled himself into a corner. He doesn't have a shot,
and Steph Castle loses his mind for a second, gets
in the air. Alvarado, being the crafty veteran that he is,
makes the biggest play for the Knicks, gets him in
the air, goes up for a jumper that has no prayer,
but draws the third foul on Steph Castle, and now
(08:26):
Castle's out of the game. Brunson's back in and what happens.
The Knicks then go out to a four point lead
at halftime. That was the biggest moment of the game,
because the second quarter into the third is where the
Knicks kept and built their lead. That Steph Castle foul
where he had to leave the game was such a
big deal because the Knicks, who had started to cut
(08:47):
into the lead a little bit, now it was hey,
we're buzzsawing through you guys. Now it's a lot easier.
It was easier to move the ball up the court,
it was easier to move the ball around. Castle wasn't
going to play the rest of the first half. I
tweeted about a time going all that's a big deal.
That's Castle's third. Him going to the bench a big deal, right,
was a big deal when Karl Anthony Towns got his
fourthal right because he goes to the bench, and that's
(09:09):
when the Spurs started their comeback. But obviously the Knicks
had enough, so it wasn't as big as Castle, but
him getting that third foul completely flipped the game. And
sometimes that's how it goes it's one guy getting in
foul trouble and that changes things, right that it changed
the game for the Knicks, and they get out to
a lead at halftime. And what did I tell you
at halftime? That's the best the first half could have
(09:31):
gone for the Knicks. I expect them to go into
the first half pre game they're down twelve, but instead
they're up by four. And you saw the game change
again with Karl Anthony Towns, but it didn't quite change
enough for him. But that Stephan Castle picking up that
third foul because if not, he's playing his normal minutes
and maybe had had in a one point game. Maybe
halftime it's tied, maybe the Spurs are up at halftime,
(09:52):
who knows, But that opened the floodgates for the Knicks
the rest of the first half, the confidence moving the
basketball into the third quarter, that they completely were able
to keep this lead and have enough to get the
Spurs comeback. The Spurs shoot was at four of twenty
one from the field in the second quarter, and you
lose Castle to what was the silly file Alvarado shot
(10:15):
clock winding down, drives all the way to the corner.
There's not a lot of daylight between the end line
and his feet as Castle leaves and gets caught in
the air a little bit and gets the lean in
and create contact, all of that kind of thing to
get to the fall line. But you take away a
big defender, you take away a bit of a starter
(10:37):
in terms of jump starting this offense. He finishes just
twenty eight minutes played tonight did steph Castle fourteen points
five of fourteen from the field. But that file, and
we watched it over the course of the game. There
were a lot of those instances that they just played
on right, A lot of the wow, I got bodied, No,
now just get past this, the awkward moment of everybody
(11:01):
looking around waiting for a whistle and move on. In
this case, there was no question about it. Got caught
in the air. Alvarado did a good job to bail
himself out, all right. He goes, oh, you're gonna give
this to me. I'm gonna take it. Insert all your
your great bailouts of governmental agencies of the past. But
(11:22):
scoring just for eighteen points in that second quarter, just
a dismal effort. And that's the thing I take away
from these games is that you've got these long droughts
both teams, but certainly the Spurs trying to find that
jump start after Castle goes to the bench doesn't happen
(11:42):
third quarter. Same twenty eight twenty three was the margin
there for the Knicks in the third quarter. It's just
that pesky middle of the game that the Spurs just
can't see. We do well in the very beginning, we
do well at the very end. The fiddle. It's the
middle that gives us all kinds of problems. Not I mean,
look again, this goes back to what we said a
(12:02):
few minutes ago. But you know, shake it all up.
The Knicks have been the better team, right, They've found
a way, They've played more consistently. They've done it. It's
been a little bit closer than you expected. The Spurs
had a big lead in Game one, they nearly pulled
it out in Game two, but the Knicks made the plays. Right.
You can't cut it any further than that. I think
if you are San Antonio, you want to talk to
(12:23):
yourself and say, okay, what do we do to ourselves?
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
No, do all way, But understand that the Knicks have
been out executing you whenever they've needed to. In the
clutch with a lead, without a lead, when they're behind. Like,
I don't see one point one portion of the game
where I can say the Spurs have out done the
Knicks doing this right. They had their runs, and their
runs are built on confidence and energy and defense. They've
(12:49):
had a couple of run. They had a run to
start the game, and they had a run midway through
the fourth quarter, and then that was it and the
Knicks were able to own the rest of it, and
again having just enough at the end to win to
make the clutch play. But again, the Knicks made the
clutch plays and the Spurs did just enough. Johnny on
the Spot, Jalen Brunson, who was terrible. I love Johnny
on the Spot. That's my favorite. Wow, But I mean
seven of twenty five again, you know, as you talked
(13:11):
with Rick Buker before, and he's just pointing out the
fact that Jalen Brunson for this series is shooting thirty
four percent. You're up too. Oh yeah, you gotta think
that's not happening at Madison Square Garden. You gotta think
that it's gonna be a Knicks rollover. But I will
say two and a half points is the line. Yeah,
for Game three, I will say this, like this is where, Okay,
(13:32):
you're gonna see what the Spurs are made of? Like
are they gonna be the Calves? And after they lose
Game one, it's the Knicks are just rolling over them?
Or is it gonna be After two days off, you
get Hulk Wemby for four quarters of Game three. Having
the extra day off might be a really big thing
for the Spurs. And if you're not careful, you get
a Hulk Wemby game and suddenly the Spurs get back
(13:53):
into it down to one and you know the series
is going back to San Antonio at least for game five. Well,
and that's the thing if you're the Spurs and Mitch
Johnson and and go throughout the lineup and assistance and whatever,
barking a lot of Rick Brunson in my timeline, by
the way, from yeah, getting getting involved in a lot
of players like sit down coach. They're giving him a
(14:14):
lot of credit for calming Mike Brown down. They're giving
him a lot of credit for a lot of stuff,
and he keeps injecting himself into play. Well, here's the
thing is, like you see, like Brunson comes off the
court sometimes and Mike Brown's not talking to but Rick
Brunson is his dad, Rick Brunson talking trash with whatever.
Coach whatever, coach, I can talk to my dad. Yeah,
let the players figure this out, coach. But but the
(14:34):
point being that this was a game that looked like
a Knicks runaway, and you did battle back to lose
by one. Now, there are no moral victories, there's no
in the end that you might as well have lost
by thirty in a lot of regards. Uh, the result
is just the same. But you're close, right, You've handled
their star through two games for the most part. Yeah,
(14:58):
I mean really, like I said, as long as the
Knicks can stop Wemby from being Hulk Wemby, and he
was Hulk Wemby midway through the fourth quarter until he
until the turnover the I mean just to like, like
that part of Top Gun where Jester says, that was
some of the best flying I've seen yet, right up
until the part where you got killed, Like that was
that was some of the best Wenby I've seen this series,
(15:19):
right up until the part where he turned the ball
over and midst the final shot. That was great. What
that was Hulk Wemby. But it was only for about
five and a half minutes. But that's the question, like
how much of that can you get? And part of
it give credit to the Knicks and the big bodies
down low. He doesn't want to fight down there, right.
I joked about it the other day and I bring
it back. It's like, you know all the euphemisms and
(15:41):
you know little cliche things that are said during a
football game or something. Boy, he really doesn't like people
around his feet. He doesn't like contacts, like who does
who does attack? Taking an elbow? Every time you try
to set up in the low poblic and you got
Mitchell Robinson jamming you with his forum. No that gets
all no, no, what do you do? You go and
(16:01):
hang out on He's got to learn to go and
deal with with taking the extra body up from Kat
and from Mitchell Robinson and be down as as a
would be rebounder and give them more opportunities in that way.
But but for the Spurs, you know you're down two
oh and and the Knick's are already printing the championship.
(16:22):
Merch exit how about it? Fresca exit, swollen dome Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. You
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(16:43):
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you get your podcast, you'll find today's full show and
a best of version posted right after we get off
the air. Well coming up next, you'll hear from Wemby
explaining the big turnover that contributed to the Spurs loss,
and we break down the biggest play of the NBA
Finals Yet keep it right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
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Speaker 1 (17:42):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and comment away as
little as I got, I gotta go a p because
at two thirty in the morning, you'd just be laying
there going Knicks, Nicks, Nicks, Knicks, whether you've got coffee
or not. No, that's true idea. Yeah, yeah, we're you
kidding two. Oh yeah. The spurs a bit discombobulated, don't
(18:04):
have their big closer moments, and now you're going back
to Madison Square Garden. Yeah, you're just gonna be running
around yelling Nixon four and Nicks Nicks, Nicks, Knicks and
picking out all the shirts and hats and whatever else
that you're gonna hit some buy as soon as the
series is actually over. What's going on? What's going on?
What's going on? I'm gonna get home tonight after the
show and my wife and dat are gonna be like,
(18:26):
oh my, you're They're gonna say, did you go out
drinking after the show? No, just had coffee, just had coffee.
Came home, coffee, came home. What's going on? What are
we doing? What's happening? We're staying up lake, we watch TV,
we make popcorn. Let's do something. Let's do something. I'm ready,
I'm ready. Can you watch a replay of the game,
just the fourth quarter or maybe the second quarter, maybe
the second through fourth quarter. Let's watch something that the
fourth quarter wasn't a lot of fun for you? Then? Yeah,
(18:46):
but a second quarter, so it's okay. You still have
to ride, like dude, I go, yeah, whatever, Oh Spurs
coming back? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, No, No, I don't
uh no, I don't. I know how it ends, So
I'm okay with it. I'm good there, I'm really good now.
I know if something happened in the game ended differently,
(19:07):
I would know I've entered into another earth. You mean,
no turnover or a Maine shot. Wait a minute, I
just watched this game and Wemby pass the ball into
the back of Steph Castle. What the hell's going on here? Man,
I've got the directors cut. The biggest moment of this game,
and really the moment that's defining Wemby's career at this point.
(19:28):
After tonight, now, that's big. The Nicks miss, Brunson misses
and the Spurs get the rebound with about eleven or
twelve seconds left on the clock, and the game is tied.
The Spurs have come all the way back, they were
down twelve. They go on a big run and now
at the very least, the game's going to go to overtime.
(19:52):
But in theory, the Spurs have a huge advantage because
they're breaking out down court and they have the basketball,
and who knows what's gonna happen, but this is where,
oh man, the Spurs can win this game. And Wemby
coming down with the rebound, dribbles the ball out, starts
dribbling up and passes the ball to Steph Castle, who
(20:16):
is right in front of him, about ten to twelve
feet in front, maybe a little bit more, but he
passes to him and Castle never even look back for
the basketball. He is running up court because Wemby's got
the ball. And how many times have we seen Wemby
dribbled the ball apart went Look the talent that Wenby has.
(20:37):
We've seen him play point guard, but we've seen him
do everything. He's trying to get up court because there's
ten seconds left, and there's time. But okay, we got
to get the ball up court and Wemby's got it
and he's dribbling and they're not gonna foul him, so
Wemby's gonna have time. Can look, you know what kind
of a passer Wenby is? And Wemby, in a complete
panic move, just passes the ball to Stephan Castle, who's
(20:59):
not looking looking, and it hits him in the back.
Jalen Brunson goes to grab the rebound he has fouled,
goes the free throw line, hits one out of two.
Wenby misses the shot in the final seconds, and the
Knicks go home and leave San Antonio up to zip.
And that turnover was such a cataclysmic bad moment for Wemby,
(21:20):
and it goes into everything we've talked about with the
Spurs and the Knicks and why going into this series,
why I've talked about liking this matchup more so than
I'd like the Knicks playing the thunder right now. Rick
Bucker joined us earlier, and he made a great point
by saying, sometimes the Spurs play too fast and they
need to slow down. I get it, and you can
(21:41):
say that's part of the moment too right. They play
too fast and they had time. They could have done
many things right. They could have called time out. Wenby
could have waited, You could have waited for steph Castle
turn around. Many things could have happened. But instead the
worst thing happened. That was they turned the ball over.
But when you are a young team, and this is
why I like this matchup strictly from the perspective of
(22:05):
Knicks Thunder, the Thunderer coming off winning the championship, they
will have just beaten the Spurs and now they're playing
the Knicks team that are newbies to the pressure of
the NBA finals and the thunders arena is insane. And
the Knicks have to go in and try to win
one of the first two games knowing full well that hey,
this is a new thing for us, and the Thunder
(22:25):
are a team they know right, they know how to
win a championship. Did all these guys just did it
last year? Bad matchup for the Knicks. But the Spurs,
now they're all young. They hade a big deal about
how their average age of their starters are basically seventeen
years old, and that can service you for a while.
But when you get into the finals, everything is different.
(22:46):
The pressure is different, the feel of the game is different,
you feel the way to the game. The Knicks come
in being that team that now has more experience because
the guys have at least been through more of the fire.
Granted to the NBA Finals, but the last few years
Conference semis Eastern Conference Finals this far away from the
(23:06):
NBA Finals, where the Spurs are doing it all at once,
like there's no, hey, we lost this year, then we
made it to the second round, and no, this is
what they went from seventeen wins and now here we are.
We are a potential dynasty. Right. They're doing all at
once and I have not seen them rise to the
moment because I don't think they know how to right.
The Knicks have the closers when when the end of
(23:27):
the game comes, make or miss. I know Jalen Brunson's
gonna take the shots. Either they're gonna go or they're not,
or he's gonna find the right place to go with
the basketball. I know what the Knicks are gonna do.
The Knicks know what they're gonna do. I don't know
if the Spurs know what they're gonna do, because you
Just look at that last play where you think, okay,
you want Wenby to take the last shot, especially because
Wemby was so good the last five or six minutes.
(23:49):
But what does Wemby do? I'm getting rid of the basketball.
Whoa dude, what are you doing? Right? Castle's running up
the court, not turn around, like nobody was ready to
rise to the moment there. Nobody was ready because I
don't know the Spurs know who their clothes out guy is.
Who they want the basketball to go to. You think
it's Wemby, right, they gave it to him tonight. He
missed the jumper, didn't try to get to the hoop,
had some time to do that. The Spurs, their youth
(24:11):
and their inexperience has crushed them in these first two games.
And nothing bigger than that moment, because that was a
panic move by Wemby. Dude, just fine, no one's coming
after you. You are all alone. You are good man.
No one. You can dribble the ball up court. You
have plenty of time. You have ten seconds. That's an
eternity and I'm just getting I can't hold onto it
(24:35):
and I gotta get rid of it. It's like my dad,
but my Dad has forty dollars in his pocket. I
gotta I gotta go spend it, right, I gotta go
spend it dad, Dad, take it easy. No, I gotta
get rid of it. I can't do it. It weighs
too much in my pocket, Dad, it's two twenty dollars bills.
It weigh nothing. I can't do it. I get it.
But like how fast he had to get away from
he passed the ball when his teammate's not even looking like,
what are you thinking at that moment?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I mean watching that repeatedly. It's like Castle does a
flashback right as Wemby Corral's it. So maybe in that moment,
Wemby thinks, all right, here's pushing up the court instead
of keeping his dribble. But now you put the situation
where it hits Castle square in the back. You're patent
pending T shirt for the ball imprint on the back,
(25:16):
which is pretty good. How great of a T shirt
that couldn't be. I don't know how big a market
it is, but it's New York. Any they would sell
the Spurs T shirt, the Castle T shirt with the
back of the basketball, the picture of the basketball hitting
him on the back. It's got to be all New
York though, because I can't have it look like full
like a Spurs jersey. Well, it would be the Spurs color. Well, No,
(25:39):
I think it have to be a steff Castle jersey.
I would kind of have to be a stepf Castle jersey. No.
I think there's a novel to the impront of the
basketball on the batch. No, it's good. I'd wear that
shirt every day. Buddy. It hits him in the back
and then Brunson just happens to be coming by back,
you know, as if he was going to just check
Wemby to stop his dribble. But he ends up the beneficiary,
(26:01):
picks up the ball and then hits one of two
free throws. But in the moment, right, you're expecting more
of Daron Fox. But certainly when min Yama has been
one to bring the ball up, we've seen it, right,
remember the heat check three. I'm old enough to remember
that one. Just the last series that brings the ball
up and just says forget it, I'll do it myself,
the full Fanos kind of thing. So yeah, just in
(26:26):
those big moments, we've seen Brunson do it for several years.
So the pecking order on where the ball should go
well established in New York. I would like to think
after eighty two regular season games, a couple of big
playoff series, you've kind of figured those things out, regardless
of how big the moment is, that you're still going
(26:48):
to be able to play within yourself in the moment.
But clearly that has not been the case, and being
able to close things out. They did a great job
to battle back from the fourteen point deficit after earlier
giving up another twelve point leads. So the ebb and
flow and consistency of the Spurs certainly has not been
there for these two games. Not that either one of
(27:11):
these squads has been brilliant for a full forty eight,
but you know, you come away with this one, and
you had the chance to go and stop the tide.
You had a chance to stop the Nixon four chance
and at least bring it back to even heading back
to the garden. Instead, you came up small in the
(27:32):
final moments. So let's listen to a little bit of
wemby talking about the final turnover the end of the game.
Here's Victor webbin Yalla from just a few moments ago.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I threw that away. I messed up. We didn't pay
great as a team. We needed to win that game.
This game was ours. But at this point it's done.
It's yes. Am I gonna regret it? Yes? Of course?
Am I going to use that to fuel me and
to fuel using game? Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Vic. In terms of being blurry, was that limited to
the last three possession or did you get the start
you wanted to? How did you feel? Sorry? Can you repeat?
In terms of being blurry, you said things were blurry?
Is that was that just the last three possessions or
was that sort of the issue all all night?
Speaker 3 (28:12):
I would say the last three possessions. I think we
need to put ourselves in better conditions. Were digging ourselves
a whole? That's been the theme so far, Victor.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
On the last shot specifically, did you guys get what
you were looking for coming out on that play? And
how did the execution go? Did you like the shot
you got?
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Yeah? Of course I like the shot. But I feel
like in this moment, you need to shoot the score.
And in moments like this is like results matter more
than process, if you know what I mean. We just
need to score. I need to score. That's the whole point.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So there's Wemby taking responsibility for it. And again I
said this a couple of times. The silver lining for
the Spurs is that maybe now you get Hulk Wemby
after a couple of days off, a little bit of
chance to reset because you know he's tired, right, you
know the Spurs are tied. You see it during the
games when Wenby can only play a certain number of minutes,
he's got to sit for a while. You see the
Spurs they go through spurts where all their SATs are
(29:09):
short or they're way off, and you go, what is
happening here? And you can tell that they're guessed before
they get a final run, a final emotion. You know,
like I said, they're built on their defense, their energy.
But you know that's the one silver lining I would
say is that, Okay, maybe you get Hulk Wemby in
game three. I like that one statement because he also
got his shot in at Philadelphia and Joel embiid blank
(29:30):
the process. We need results, right, because we talk all
the time process and learning and these different iterations. You
don't often get these kind of shots, and it would
be nice if if you got at least in that
little moment from when bin Yama the recognition of hey,
we we had this game, we could have won this game,
(29:51):
and there's no guarantees for any of this, Like that's
what you know, the the old hey, you know, sometimes
you gotta lose and then you'll you'll come back. And
I'm not trying to quote Air Smith here on it
late on a Friday night, but he goes, well, you
had to go through them, or the bulls had to
go through the pistas. No screw that. You don't often
like it doesn't work that way that you necessarily get
(30:12):
back what We got eight different champions the last eight years, right, yeah,
it was eight in thirty years before that. So the
idea that okay, well we've got this great nucleus, it's
gonna ride, well, you have no idea. So hopefully when
min Yama as he's you can hear him getting a
little bit ticked off with himself as he's kind of
processing this, that that hopefully there there's that sense of
(30:34):
urgency for a full forty eight. We need you more
than just the fourth quarter exit out about a Fresca
exit swelling dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon Live from the
Fox sports radio studios time out to find out what's
trending in the wide world of sports. So someone who's
been called the Mike Brown of Fox Sports Radio, he
likes to walk around the hallways going who the
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Greetings, Welcome inside final hour tonight the Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon. For sure to check
out our YouTube channel for the show. Just search Jason
Smith Show within YouTube. Again, that's Jason Smith's Show. Hit
the subscribe button, and after you've done that, tap the
thumbs up icon. Comment away whether you agree or disagree,
(00:50):
let us know what you think. Again, just search Jason
Smith's Show on YouTube and subscribed. We just put videos
up a few minutes ago, our big take coming off
of Game two of the NBA Finals. Mike and I
love putting this content out for you every single night.
Uh it's two zip and I I gotta be honest,
I don't know how to act right now because I've
(01:12):
never seen the Mets getting to the world series, but
they were never really in it, right. They lost the
first two games and coming they were never in it right.
Carolina won the Stanley Cup, you know, seventeen years ago, right, Okay,
Syracuse won the NCAA title twenty three years ago. Okay,
But Mets, Jets, Nicks, I've never had them win, right,
(01:37):
I've never had them win my three title runs, my
three mate. Yeah, oh my god, it was so close.
That was amazing. I don't know how to act right
now because I'm two games away from the Knicks winning.
They're going home, they they have everything. I'm expecting to celebrate,
and I'm I'm I feel scared. Yeah, they've never won
in my lifetime. Man, I'm old. I've lived many lives.
(01:58):
I'm kind of many. I had the money. I wish
I had many moneies. I don't. I don't know how
I should I be feeling, because I still feel nervous
and I'm scared, and I think because I'm like, oh my,
this this is really gonna happen. This is not something
because usually my team's winning is really in the abstract,
like ah yeah, yeah, sure, everybody that doesn't that knows
wins you win? Yeah, how do you feel now it's real.
(02:21):
It's right in front of you. Like I could think
all the Jets are gonna win the Super Bowl. We
got Aaron Rodgers. Now things right now? Look how fast
that hell? How fast that fell apart?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Now?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, Smith, here you go. I got it right now
for you, Nick? Sure up to zip going home in
the NBA Finals. Uh, I don't know. I'm scared right now, man,
I don't know. I don't know. I would say this.
It's got to like say, I mean, it's Friday night.
We're heading into a weekend. Uh, happy weekend. Those celebrating
already and out and about if you're in New York,
you got a couple more hours to last call. I
(02:51):
think it's the You've got to pace yourself like you're
going out and you're gonna have You're gonna have a
drink or two, maybe maybe a couple of cocktails, but
you're supposed to have a water in between, so you
can have a better, longer night and not necessarily suffer
the ill effects. I think for you as a Knicks
fan right now, you've got to pace yourself because it's
(03:12):
very easy to look ahead and just say, all right,
we're going home for two. It's done. Yeah, I mean
because I'm wiped right now, because this was still one,
a one point win that the Spurs had the chance
to win it. Last game, came back from a huge deficit,
huge fourth quarter. So it's two. Oh. But I need
only remind you it's been fifty three years since they
(03:32):
won a title. Time was on the team. That's it,
not coaching the team. He was on the team that won.
Phil Jackson, I showed you the picture of his seventy
three tops trading card. A lot of elbows, a lot
of yeah yeah. But it's just the idea of, all right,
you waited this long, make sure you don't get yourself
(03:53):
into it tizzy early because the basketball gods and look,
I'm not going to say the Spurs are suddenly going
to rattle off four straight wins or that they're beating
this team four out of five. But it's the idea
of presuming that this thing is over. I think you've
lived long enough in your sports life to know that
nothing is a sure thing. No, right, No, I mean
(04:16):
Beayheim should have had more than one, right, No, Charmelo, Yeah, no,
sometimes you get one. And as much as I love
seeing Starks and everybody with the fours up. As soon
as that that game went final tonight, se al right,
there's still work to do. The last time the Knicks won,
Walt Frazier and Dave de Busher were their two best players.
(04:36):
Also had Senator Bill Bradley right, the senator that's right,
had the pearl right, That Willis Reid who was still
there right the sixty. The Phil Jackson was there too,
coming off the bench, Phil Jackson, Dick Barnett, Henry Bibby,
Like this is the last head one baby seventy three? Right, No,
but that's it. Like, try to take it all in context,
(04:57):
and they get it the excitation, And I'd love to
see some more of the videos from the post game
in New York as the watch party spilled out and
people took to the streets and took over the bars
and everything else. But it's it's still that all right.
You're halfway home, yeah, I mean, but it's more than
you're halfway home, because you're halfway home going home. Ye.
Like if the Knicks won the first two at home,
(05:19):
I would say, Okay, that's great, right, Usually teams don't
come from behind, but I could easily see this series
too too. And just like last year when when the
Knicks were playing the or two years ago Knicks and
the Pacers, when the Knicks, when the first two games
is said, this is going to be two two coming back.
Game five LEAs be two two coming back. But now
it's it's two oh going home, and I don't I
don't know the Knicks crowd is going to I don't
(05:39):
know the roof stays on MSG. No, it could be
a very different experience. That's for sure. It's the ticket
experience of my lifetime. It's the biggest ticket of a game,
of a sports event, the biggest game ticket of my lifetime.
You look at what the prices are Game three, Game
four of the Knicks NBA Finals like that, that's the
That's where the Spurs are going going into next week.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
But to look at the game tonight, right, to think
about that, to go back out, I want to get
too far ahead, right, was it first? I'm trying to
tell you you gotta pace yourself. Obviously, the Wenby turnover
was a big deal. We'll get into that in a
in a bigger in a bigger way coming up in
about ten minutes. Right, the Wenby turnover at the end,
that helped, that helped give the Knicks the win. But
the biggest moment of this game outside of that wasn't
(06:34):
in the fourth quarter, Wasn't it the final minute wasn't
the biggest moment. Middle of the second quarter. Brunson's on
the bench, Jose Alvarado is in running the point for
the for the Knicks, and the Knicks have a bad
possession and al Doorado is getting caught in the corner
with the shot clock winding down. And the Spurs had
(06:55):
played very aggressive defensively up until this moment. Right, they
came out of their shoes and they were play aggressively. Again,
Let's go back to what Rick Buker told us last hour.
Sometimes the Spurs play too fast and you have to
slow it down, and they don't do that. He says, well,
I'm screaming at the TV. Slow down, slow down. But
they were really aggressive. The Guards played great for most
of the first half. And here's Steph Castle, who really
(07:19):
has been giving Jalen Brunson fits. Right, My two biggest concerns.
What I tell you going in Dylan Harper and Steph
Castle putting Jalen Brunson in a blender. And now you're
seeing Steph Castle get away with all kinds of stuff. Defensively,
he's just able to just push Brunson when he tries
to get by him, like, Okay, I think you're letting
Steph Castle be a little bit too physical. But Ja
(07:41):
is there already as a physical and aggressive defender. And
you know how great I feel about Steph Castle, right,
he was my guy. Guys, why he wouldn't take the
number one overall in the draft? But he has been
The physicality he has had is giving Brunson all kinds
of problems. He's got two fouls. Jose Alvarat. It's Jose
Alvarado and it's the middle of the second quarter and
(08:03):
he's dribbled himself into a corner. He doesn't have a shot,
and Steph Castle loses his mind for a second, gets
in the air. Alvarado, being the crafty veteran that he is,
makes the biggest play for the Knicks, gets him in
the air, goes up for a jumper that has no prayer,
but draws the third foul on Steph Castle, and now
(08:26):
Castle's out of the game. Brunson's back in and what happens.
The Knicks then go out to a four point lead
at halftime. That was the biggest moment of the game,
because the second quarter into the third is where the
Knicks kept and built their lead. That Steph Castle foul
where he had to leave the game was such a
big deal because the Knicks, who had started to cut
(08:47):
into the lead a little bit, now it was hey,
we're buzzsawing through you guys. Now it's a lot easier.
It was easier to move the ball up the court,
it was easier to move the ball around. Castle wasn't
going to play the rest of the first half. I
tweeted about a time going all that's a big deal.
That's Castle's third. Him going to the bench a big deal, right,
was a big deal when Karl Anthony Towns got his
fourthal right because he goes to the bench, and that's
(09:09):
when the Spurs started their comeback. But obviously the Knicks
had enough, so it wasn't as big as Castle, but
him getting that third foul completely flipped the game. And
sometimes that's how it goes it's one guy getting in
foul trouble and that changes things, right that it changed
the game for the Knicks, and they get out to
a lead at halftime. And what did I tell you
at halftime? That's the best the first half could have
(09:31):
gone for the Knicks. I expect them to go into
the first half pre game they're down twelve, but instead
they're up by four. And you saw the game change
again with Karl Anthony Towns, but it didn't quite change
enough for him. But that Stephan Castle picking up that
third foul because if not, he's playing his normal minutes
and maybe had had in a one point game. Maybe
halftime it's tied, maybe the Spurs are up at halftime,
(09:52):
who knows, But that opened the floodgates for the Knicks
the rest of the first half, the confidence moving the
basketball into the third quarter, that they completely were able
to keep this lead and have enough to get the
Spurs comeback. The Spurs shoot was at four of twenty
one from the field in the second quarter, and you
lose Castle to what was the silly file Alvarado shot
(10:15):
clock winding down, drives all the way to the corner.
There's not a lot of daylight between the end line
and his feet as Castle leaves and gets caught in
the air a little bit and gets the lean in
and create contact, all of that kind of thing to
get to the fall line. But you take away a
big defender, you take away a bit of a starter
(10:37):
in terms of jump starting this offense. He finishes just
twenty eight minutes played tonight did steph Castle fourteen points
five of fourteen from the field. But that file, and
we watched it over the course of the game. There
were a lot of those instances that they just played
on right, A lot of the wow, I got bodied, No,
now just get past this, the awkward moment of everybody
(11:01):
looking around waiting for a whistle and move on. In
this case, there was no question about it. Got caught
in the air. Alvarado did a good job to bail
himself out, all right. He goes, oh, you're gonna give
this to me. I'm gonna take it. Insert all your
your great bailouts of governmental agencies of the past. But
(11:22):
scoring just for eighteen points in that second quarter, just
a dismal effort. And that's the thing I take away
from these games is that you've got these long droughts
both teams, but certainly the Spurs trying to find that
jump start after Castle goes to the bench doesn't happen
(11:42):
third quarter. Same twenty eight twenty three was the margin
there for the Knicks in the third quarter. It's just
that pesky middle of the game that the Spurs just
can't see. We do well in the very beginning, we
do well at the very end. The fiddle. It's the
middle that gives us all kinds of problems. Not I mean,
look again, this goes back to what we said a
(12:02):
few minutes ago. But you know, shake it all up.
The Knicks have been the better team, right, They've found
a way, They've played more consistently. They've done it. It's
been a little bit closer than you expected. The Spurs
had a big lead in Game one, they nearly pulled
it out in Game two, but the Knicks made the plays. Right.
You can't cut it any further than that. I think
if you are San Antonio, you want to talk to
(12:23):
yourself and say, okay, what do we do to ourselves?
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
No, do all way, But understand that the Knicks have
been out executing you whenever they've needed to. In the
clutch with a lead, without a lead, when they're behind. Like,
I don't see one point one portion of the game
where I can say the Spurs have out done the
Knicks doing this right. They had their runs, and their
runs are built on confidence and energy and defense. They've
(12:49):
had a couple of run. They had a run to
start the game, and they had a run midway through
the fourth quarter, and then that was it and the
Knicks were able to own the rest of it, and
again having just enough at the end to win to
make the clutch play. But again, the Knicks made the
clutch plays and the Spurs did just enough. Johnny on
the Spot, Jalen Brunson, who was terrible. I love Johnny
on the Spot. That's my favorite. Wow, But I mean
seven of twenty five again, you know, as you talked
(13:11):
with Rick Buker before, and he's just pointing out the
fact that Jalen Brunson for this series is shooting thirty
four percent. You're up too. Oh yeah, you gotta think
that's not happening at Madison Square Garden. You gotta think
that it's gonna be a Knicks rollover. But I will
say two and a half points is the line. Yeah,
for Game three, I will say this, like this is where, Okay,
(13:32):
you're gonna see what the Spurs are made of? Like
are they gonna be the Calves? And after they lose
Game one, it's the Knicks are just rolling over them?
Or is it gonna be After two days off, you
get Hulk Wemby for four quarters of Game three. Having
the extra day off might be a really big thing
for the Spurs. And if you're not careful, you get
a Hulk Wemby game and suddenly the Spurs get back
(13:53):
into it down to one and you know the series
is going back to San Antonio at least for game five. Well,
and that's the thing if you're the Spurs and Mitch
Johnson and and go throughout the lineup and assistance and whatever,
barking a lot of Rick Brunson in my timeline, by
the way, from yeah, getting getting involved in a lot
of players like sit down coach. They're giving him a
(14:14):
lot of credit for calming Mike Brown down. They're giving
him a lot of credit for a lot of stuff,
and he keeps injecting himself into play. Well, here's the
thing is, like you see, like Brunson comes off the
court sometimes and Mike Brown's not talking to but Rick
Brunson is his dad, Rick Brunson talking trash with whatever.
Coach whatever, coach, I can talk to my dad. Yeah,
let the players figure this out, coach. But but the
(14:34):
point being that this was a game that looked like
a Knicks runaway, and you did battle back to lose
by one. Now, there are no moral victories, there's no
in the end that you might as well have lost
by thirty in a lot of regards. Uh, the result
is just the same. But you're close, right, You've handled
their star through two games for the most part. Yeah,
(14:58):
I mean really, like I said, as long as the
Knicks can stop Wemby from being Hulk Wemby, and he
was Hulk Wemby midway through the fourth quarter until he
until the turnover the I mean just to like, like
that part of Top Gun where Jester says, that was
some of the best flying I've seen yet, right up
until the part where you got killed, Like that was
that was some of the best Wenby I've seen this series,
(15:19):
right up until the part where he turned the ball
over and midst the final shot. That was great. What
that was Hulk Wemby. But it was only for about
five and a half minutes. But that's the question, like
how much of that can you get? And part of
it give credit to the Knicks and the big bodies
down low. He doesn't want to fight down there, right.
I joked about it the other day and I bring
it back. It's like, you know all the euphemisms and
(15:41):
you know little cliche things that are said during a
football game or something. Boy, he really doesn't like people
around his feet. He doesn't like contacts, like who does
who does attack? Taking an elbow? Every time you try
to set up in the low poblic and you got
Mitchell Robinson jamming you with his forum. No that gets
all no, no, what do you do? You go and
(16:01):
hang out on He's got to learn to go and
deal with with taking the extra body up from Kat
and from Mitchell Robinson and be down as as a
would be rebounder and give them more opportunities in that way.
But but for the Spurs, you know you're down two
oh and and the Knick's are already printing the championship.
(16:22):
Merch exit how about it? Fresca exit, swollen dome Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. You
miss any of our show tonight, be sure to catch
the podcast goes up about an hour from now. Just
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(16:43):
five stars Provider review Again. Just search our names wherever
you get your podcast, you'll find today's full show and
a best of version posted right after we get off
the air. Well coming up next, you'll hear from Wemby
explaining the big turnover that contributed to the Spurs loss,
and we break down the biggest play of the NBA
Finals Yet keep it right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
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Speaker 1 (17:42):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and comment away as
little as I got, I gotta go a p because
at two thirty in the morning, you'd just be laying
there going Knicks, Nicks, Nicks, Knicks, whether you've got coffee
or not. No, that's true idea. Yeah, yeah, we're you
kidding two. Oh yeah. The spurs a bit discombobulated, don't
(18:04):
have their big closer moments, and now you're going back
to Madison Square Garden. Yeah, you're just gonna be running
around yelling Nixon four and Nicks Nicks, Nicks, Knicks and
picking out all the shirts and hats and whatever else
that you're gonna hit some buy as soon as the
series is actually over. What's going on? What's going on?
What's going on? I'm gonna get home tonight after the
show and my wife and dat are gonna be like,
(18:26):
oh my, you're They're gonna say, did you go out
drinking after the show? No, just had coffee, just had coffee.
Came home, coffee, came home. What's going on? What are
we doing? What's happening? We're staying up lake, we watch TV,
we make popcorn. Let's do something. Let's do something. I'm ready,
I'm ready. Can you watch a replay of the game,
just the fourth quarter or maybe the second quarter, maybe
the second through fourth quarter. Let's watch something that the
fourth quarter wasn't a lot of fun for you? Then? Yeah,
(18:46):
but a second quarter, so it's okay. You still have
to ride, like dude, I go, yeah, whatever, Oh Spurs
coming back? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, No, No, I don't
uh no, I don't. I know how it ends, So
I'm okay with it. I'm good there, I'm really good now.
I know if something happened in the game ended differently,
(19:07):
I would know I've entered into another earth. You mean,
no turnover or a Maine shot. Wait a minute, I
just watched this game and Wemby pass the ball into
the back of Steph Castle. What the hell's going on here? Man,
I've got the directors cut. The biggest moment of this game,
and really the moment that's defining Wemby's career at this point.
(19:28):
After tonight, now, that's big. The Nicks miss, Brunson misses
and the Spurs get the rebound with about eleven or
twelve seconds left on the clock, and the game is tied.
The Spurs have come all the way back, they were
down twelve. They go on a big run and now
at the very least, the game's going to go to overtime.
(19:52):
But in theory, the Spurs have a huge advantage because
they're breaking out down court and they have the basketball,
and who knows what's gonna happen, but this is where,
oh man, the Spurs can win this game. And Wemby
coming down with the rebound, dribbles the ball out, starts
dribbling up and passes the ball to Steph Castle, who
(20:16):
is right in front of him, about ten to twelve
feet in front, maybe a little bit more, but he
passes to him and Castle never even look back for
the basketball. He is running up court because Wemby's got
the ball. And how many times have we seen Wemby
dribbled the ball apart went Look the talent that Wenby has.
(20:37):
We've seen him play point guard, but we've seen him
do everything. He's trying to get up court because there's
ten seconds left, and there's time. But okay, we got
to get the ball up court and Wemby's got it
and he's dribbling and they're not gonna foul him, so
Wemby's gonna have time. Can look, you know what kind
of a passer Wenby is? And Wemby, in a complete
panic move, just passes the ball to Stephan Castle, who's
(20:59):
not looking looking, and it hits him in the back.
Jalen Brunson goes to grab the rebound he has fouled,
goes the free throw line, hits one out of two.
Wenby misses the shot in the final seconds, and the
Knicks go home and leave San Antonio up to zip.
And that turnover was such a cataclysmic bad moment for Wemby,
(21:20):
and it goes into everything we've talked about with the
Spurs and the Knicks and why going into this series,
why I've talked about liking this matchup more so than
I'd like the Knicks playing the thunder right now. Rick
Bucker joined us earlier, and he made a great point
by saying, sometimes the Spurs play too fast and they
need to slow down. I get it, and you can
(21:41):
say that's part of the moment too right. They play
too fast and they had time. They could have done
many things right. They could have called time out. Wenby
could have waited, You could have waited for steph Castle
turn around. Many things could have happened. But instead the
worst thing happened. That was they turned the ball over.
But when you are a young team, and this is
why I like this matchup strictly from the perspective of
(22:05):
Knicks Thunder, the Thunderer coming off winning the championship, they
will have just beaten the Spurs and now they're playing
the Knicks team that are newbies to the pressure of
the NBA finals and the thunders arena is insane. And
the Knicks have to go in and try to win
one of the first two games knowing full well that hey,
this is a new thing for us, and the Thunder
(22:25):
are a team they know right, they know how to
win a championship. Did all these guys just did it
last year? Bad matchup for the Knicks. But the Spurs,
now they're all young. They hade a big deal about
how their average age of their starters are basically seventeen
years old, and that can service you for a while.
But when you get into the finals, everything is different.
(22:46):
The pressure is different, the feel of the game is different,
you feel the way to the game. The Knicks come
in being that team that now has more experience because
the guys have at least been through more of the fire.
Granted to the NBA Finals, but the last few years
Conference semis Eastern Conference Finals this far away from the
(23:06):
NBA Finals, where the Spurs are doing it all at once,
like there's no, hey, we lost this year, then we
made it to the second round, and no, this is
what they went from seventeen wins and now here we are.
We are a potential dynasty. Right. They're doing all at
once and I have not seen them rise to the
moment because I don't think they know how to right.
The Knicks have the closers when when the end of
(23:27):
the game comes, make or miss. I know Jalen Brunson's
gonna take the shots. Either they're gonna go or they're not,
or he's gonna find the right place to go with
the basketball. I know what the Knicks are gonna do.
The Knicks know what they're gonna do. I don't know
if the Spurs know what they're gonna do, because you
Just look at that last play where you think, okay,
you want Wenby to take the last shot, especially because
Wemby was so good the last five or six minutes.
(23:49):
But what does Wemby do? I'm getting rid of the basketball.
Whoa dude, what are you doing? Right? Castle's running up
the court, not turn around, like nobody was ready to
rise to the moment there. Nobody was ready because I
don't know the Spurs know who their clothes out guy is.
Who they want the basketball to go to. You think
it's Wemby, right, they gave it to him tonight. He
missed the jumper, didn't try to get to the hoop,
had some time to do that. The Spurs, their youth
(24:11):
and their inexperience has crushed them in these first two games.
And nothing bigger than that moment, because that was a
panic move by Wemby. Dude, just fine, no one's coming
after you. You are all alone. You are good man.
No one. You can dribble the ball up court. You
have plenty of time. You have ten seconds. That's an
eternity and I'm just getting I can't hold onto it
(24:35):
and I gotta get rid of it. It's like my dad,
but my Dad has forty dollars in his pocket. I
gotta I gotta go spend it, right, I gotta go
spend it dad, Dad, take it easy. No, I gotta
get rid of it. I can't do it. It weighs
too much in my pocket, Dad, it's two twenty dollars bills.
It weigh nothing. I can't do it. I get it.
But like how fast he had to get away from
he passed the ball when his teammate's not even looking like,
what are you thinking at that moment?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I mean watching that repeatedly. It's like Castle does a
flashback right as Wemby Corral's it. So maybe in that moment,
Wemby thinks, all right, here's pushing up the court instead
of keeping his dribble. But now you put the situation
where it hits Castle square in the back. You're patent
pending T shirt for the ball imprint on the back,
(25:16):
which is pretty good. How great of a T shirt
that couldn't be. I don't know how big a market
it is, but it's New York. Any they would sell
the Spurs T shirt, the Castle T shirt with the
back of the basketball, the picture of the basketball hitting
him on the back. It's got to be all New
York though, because I can't have it look like full
like a Spurs jersey. Well, it would be the Spurs color. Well, No,
(25:39):
I think it have to be a steff Castle jersey.
I would kind of have to be a stepf Castle jersey. No.
I think there's a novel to the impront of the
basketball on the batch. No, it's good. I'd wear that
shirt every day. Buddy. It hits him in the back
and then Brunson just happens to be coming by back,
you know, as if he was going to just check
Wemby to stop his dribble. But he ends up the beneficiary,
(26:01):
picks up the ball and then hits one of two
free throws. But in the moment, right, you're expecting more
of Daron Fox. But certainly when min Yama has been
one to bring the ball up, we've seen it, right,
remember the heat check three. I'm old enough to remember
that one. Just the last series that brings the ball
up and just says forget it, I'll do it myself,
the full Fanos kind of thing. So yeah, just in
(26:26):
those big moments, we've seen Brunson do it for several years.
So the pecking order on where the ball should go
well established in New York. I would like to think
after eighty two regular season games, a couple of big
playoff series, you've kind of figured those things out, regardless
of how big the moment is, that you're still going
(26:48):
to be able to play within yourself in the moment.
But clearly that has not been the case, and being
able to close things out. They did a great job
to battle back from the fourteen point deficit after earlier
giving up another twelve point leads. So the ebb and
flow and consistency of the Spurs certainly has not been
there for these two games. Not that either one of
(27:11):
these squads has been brilliant for a full forty eight,
but you know, you come away with this one, and
you had the chance to go and stop the tide.
You had a chance to stop the Nixon four chance
and at least bring it back to even heading back
to the garden. Instead, you came up small in the
(27:32):
final moments. So let's listen to a little bit of
wemby talking about the final turnover the end of the game.
Here's Victor webbin Yalla from just a few moments ago.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I threw that away. I messed up. We didn't pay
great as a team. We needed to win that game.
This game was ours. But at this point it's done.
It's yes. Am I gonna regret it? Yes? Of course?
Am I going to use that to fuel me and
to fuel using game? Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Vic. In terms of being blurry, was that limited to
the last three possession or did you get the start
you wanted to? How did you feel? Sorry? Can you repeat?
In terms of being blurry, you said things were blurry?
Is that was that just the last three possessions or
was that sort of the issue all all night?
Speaker 3 (28:12):
I would say the last three possessions. I think we
need to put ourselves in better conditions. Were digging ourselves
a whole? That's been the theme so far, Victor.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
On the last shot specifically, did you guys get what
you were looking for coming out on that play? And
how did the execution go? Did you like the shot
you got?
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Yeah? Of course I like the shot. But I feel
like in this moment, you need to shoot the score.
And in moments like this is like results matter more
than process, if you know what I mean. We just
need to score. I need to score. That's the whole point.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So there's Wemby taking responsibility for it. And again I
said this a couple of times. The silver lining for
the Spurs is that maybe now you get Hulk Wemby
after a couple of days off, a little bit of
chance to reset because you know he's tired, right, you
know the Spurs are tied. You see it during the
games when Wenby can only play a certain number of minutes,
he's got to sit for a while. You see the
Spurs they go through spurts where all their SATs are
(29:09):
short or they're way off, and you go, what is
happening here? And you can tell that they're guessed before
they get a final run, a final emotion. You know,
like I said, they're built on their defense, their energy.
But you know that's the one silver lining I would
say is that, Okay, maybe you get Hulk Wemby in
game three. I like that one statement because he also
got his shot in at Philadelphia and Joel embiid blank
(29:30):
the process. We need results, right, because we talk all
the time process and learning and these different iterations. You
don't often get these kind of shots, and it would
be nice if if you got at least in that
little moment from when bin Yama the recognition of hey,
we we had this game, we could have won this game,
(29:51):
and there's no guarantees for any of this, Like that's
what you know, the the old hey, you know, sometimes
you gotta lose and then you'll you'll come back. And
I'm not trying to quote Air Smith here on it
late on a Friday night, but he goes, well, you
had to go through them, or the bulls had to
go through the pistas. No screw that. You don't often
like it doesn't work that way that you necessarily get
(30:12):
back what We got eight different champions the last eight years, right, yeah,
it was eight in thirty years before that. So the
idea that okay, well we've got this great nucleus, it's
gonna ride, well, you have no idea. So hopefully when
min Yama as he's you can hear him getting a
little bit ticked off with himself as he's kind of
processing this, that that hopefully there there's that sense of
(30:34):
urgency for a full forty eight. We need you more
than just the fourth quarter exit out about a Fresca
exit swelling dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon Live from the
Fox sports radio studios time out to find out what's
trending in the wide world of sports. So someone who's
been called the Mike Brown of Fox Sports Radio, he
likes to walk around the hallways going who the
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