Category: NBA

Kings reportedly have had recent Domantas Sabonis trade talks with Hornets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Kings appear to be open to trades involving one of their biggest stars.

Sacramento has had recent trade talks with the Charlotte Hornets involving center Domantas Sabonis, but a deal appears unlikely before the 2026 NBA Draft on June 23, The Athletic’s Sam Amick reported in a story published Wednesday, citing league sources.

“Per league sources, Sacramento and Charlotte have had recent talks about Kings big man Domantas Sabonis. While a deal is not imminent and appears unlikely before the June 23 draft, sources say the Hornets have some interest in the 30-year-old, three-time All-Star,” Amick wrote.

“The problem for now, it seems, is that the Kings have been hoping to land one of Charlotte’s two first-round picks (they have Nos. 14 and 18) in the deal, and the Hornets have signaled a desire to retain their picks and discuss Sabonis later in the summer. Sabonis has two seasons left on his deal ($45.4 million next season and $48.6 million in 2027-28).”

The Kings originally acquired Sabonis in a blockbuster trade with the Pacers midway through the 2021-22 NBA season that sent former Sacramento guard Tyrese Haliburton to Indiana.

In four-plus seasons with the Kings, Sabonis has averaged 19 points, 13.1 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game on 59.3-percent shooting from the field and 37.3 percent from 3-point range in 265 games while playing a vital role alongside former guard De’Aaron Fox on Sacramento’s infamous “Beam Team” that went 48-34 during the 2022-23 season and secured the Western Conference’s No. 3 playoff seed.

Sabonis was limited to just 19 games last season as he dealt with knee and back injuries before undergoing left meniscus surgery in February.

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Warriors reportedly interested in adding LeBron James to create veteran Big Four originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

After all these years, could the two longtime rivals finally join forces on the same NBA court?

The Warriors have been rumored to be a potential suitor for LeBron James as the 41-year-old enters unrestricted free agency this summer, and it appears their interest is serious.

While re-signing with the Los Angeles Lakers, where James has spent the past eight seasons, is believed to be his preferred outcome, the Warriors have legitimate interest in signing the 21-time All-Star and creating a veteran Big Four with Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, The Stein Line’s Marc Stein and Jake Fischer reported in a story published Tuesday, citing league sources.

“Staying with the Lakers is widely believed to be [James’] preferred choice because he is so entrenched in Los Angeles now after eight seasons with the purple and gold,” Stein and Fischer wrote. “Yet league sources maintain that Golden State remains legitimately interested in adding LeBron to their Stephen Curry/Jimmy Butler/Draymond Green core coached by Steve Kerr … with the pitch presumed to include the idea that LeBron could commute from Los Angeles to some TBD degree without having to move his family.”

Another team mentioned as a possible James suitor is the Cleveland Cavaliers, where James spent the first seven years of his career (2003-2010) before leaving for the Miami Heat (2010-2014) and eventually returning for four seasons (2014-2018) and winning the franchise’s first championship in an NBA Finals series against Curry and the Warriors.

However, Cleveland might be less likely a destination for James this summer.

“The idea of a third stint for James as a Cleveland Cavalier is harder to envision not only because of the severe financial limitations that the Cavs would face in trying to bring him back to the Northern Ohio but the sheer distance from what has been established since the summer of 2018 as James’ Southern California base,” Stein and Fischer wrote.

James missed the first 14 games of the 2025-26 season with a lingering sciatica injury, but eventually returned and averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game on 51.5-percent shooting from the field and 31.7 percent from 3-point range in 60 games with the Lakers.

While it’s clear that James, who has not officially ruled out retirement this summer, is at the tail end of his illustrious NBA career, he still could be a very productive piece for a championship-hopeful team like the Warriors in his 24th season.

If he does decide to keep playing.

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Warriors' top priority in 2026 NBA Draft must be to shed their past failures originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Bob Myers is three years and 2,500 miles away from the Warriors and still catching strays about the team’s past NBA draft choices. It’s unfair to blame the former general manager, as the Warriors’ front office was not a one-man decision machine.

Nor is it a one-man machine now. Current GM Mike Dunleavy is surrounded by many of the same voices in Myers’ ears during his 10 years in that role.

But those following the Warriors need a convenient place to express frustration with the team’s unimpressive drafting since Hall of Fame executive Jerry West departed in 2017. So, Myers still takes heat, as do the father-and-son Lacobs, CEO Joe and executive vice president Kirk.

As will Dunleavy if this summer ends without brightness in the future.

“We’ll just draft who we think is going to be the best player for us with our franchise moving forward,” Dunleavy said last month. “That’s what we’ve always done. Particularly the last few years we were pretty good about it whether it’s first or second round, whatever. We’re a little higher this year, but we’ll take the same approach.”

This is Course Correction Summer for Dunleavy and the Lacobs. The 2026 NBA Draft/trade/free agency season is a pass/fail examination for the Warriors.

It’s a failure if they don’t utilize their first-round pick, No. 11 overall, to add a future franchise pillar through the draft or as part of a trade package.

It’s a pass if the Warriors arrive in training camp having added someone young enough to play both sides of back-to-back sets and talented enough to be no less than the third-best player on a contender. Someone with the goods to be one of three pillars now and beyond the Steph Era.

The Warriors entered the offseason with a massive talent gap between pillars Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler III and young regulars Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody. Kristaps Porziņģis has the tools, but his availability is forever fickle.

It has been 14 years since the Warriors drafted a player who ascended to No. 3 on a contender. Draymond Green, chosen in the second round of the 2012 draft, became an NBA All-Star and franchise pillar. Jordan Poole (2019 draft) was on that trajectory before his rise was dramatically altered by Draymond’s right fist. Jonathan Kuminga (2021 draft) had the raw skills but still is finding his way in the league.

Consider the quality of the third pillars in the 2026 NBA Finals. Dylan Harper is 20 years old and not yet a starter but already looks no worse than a future No. 3 for the San Antonio Spurs, behind Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle. Behind Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks is a virtual tie among OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges. Each of these veterans has been a terrific No. 3, depending on the night.

Look at the third pillar on some of the other teams to surpass 50 wins last season. Chet Holmgren is behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Derrick White is behind Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum for the Boston Celtics. Aaron Gordon is behind Nuggets stars Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray in Denver. Tobias Harris/Ausar Thompson are behind Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren with the Detroit Pistons.

LeBron James, behind Luka Dončić and Austin Reeves with the Lakers, claims the role No. 3 in Los Angeles. He’s the only post-prime player in that slot among the league’s top 10 teams – unless you consider James Harden the Cleveland Cavaliers’ No. 3 behind Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley.

Podziemski and Moody, along with Gui Santos, are the Warriors’ most trusted under-25 players, and each brings value, but it’s profoundly unfair to ask any of them to offset the likes of Holmgren, White, Gordon et al.

Knowing how crucial that would be to any chance of success, the Warriors began last season hoping Kuminga could fill the No. 3 role behind Curry and Butler. He sometimes looked the part. He often did not. The same can be said, for different reasons, of Porziņģis.

Last season was about knowing the Warriors’ core consisted of senior citizens by NBA standards and wishing the health would hold up well enough in the regular season for their legs to handle an extended postseason. That plan, risky from the start, backfired, leaving the coaching staff scrambling for rotations over the second half of the season.

Next season will be about regaining relevancy – fighting to bypass the Western Conference play-in tournament – while Butler and Moody recover. It’s about the front office taking steps to fill the star vacuum when Curry walks. Tanking once had its benefits, but fresh new rules are designed to thwart that approach.

“I’m confident we can get a good player,” Dunleavy said. “Hopefully, that player will have an opportunity next year to perform, produce, help us. Given the state of the injuries with Jimmy and Moses, my guess is they’re going to have more of an opportunity than maybe in another year.

“Again, the most important thing is just the long-term development, so (we must) make sure we get that right.”

The Warriors have nailed only one pick over the past eight drafts: Poole in 2019. The talented shooting guard played a significant role in the 2022 postseason that concluded with Golden State beating the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

Meanwhile, there have been such outright draft misses as Jacob Evans (2018), Patrick Baldwin Jr. (2022) and the costly calculated risk that was James Wiseman in 2020. Some of the first-round loses are easier to accept with second-round wins Gui Santos (2022) and Will Richard (2025) bringing value to Golden State’s rotation.

The Warriors over the past four seasons averaged 43.8 wins and last reached the 50-win mark in 2022. They are a team – and franchise – in transition because none of their last three lottery picks is a pillar.

If their lottery pick, coming June 23, becomes a pillar directly or through trade, it will be a giant step toward exorcising the ghosts of failures past.

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The Knicks’ sluggish starts to games were a recurring problem in the regular season.

But by the postseason, they largely fixed their propensity to come out of the gate slowly. In these Finals, though, it’s returned.

They’ve fallen to early first-quarter deficits in each of the three games of this series so far. In their Game 3 loss Monday, they trailed by as many as 12 points in the first quarter. In Games 1 and 2, they trailed by as many as 10 in the first quarter.

“Yeah, we’ll have to figure it out,” Karl-Anthony Towns said Tuesday. “We’ll have to figure it out because in every game we’ve played here in the Finals, we’ve put ourselves in a position where we have to start fighting immediately. Every time we find a way to get back into the game, but we can’t trust that result is going to happen every single time. The Spurs have done a great job starting in the game, dictating the pace and dictating how the game is going. We have to try to be the first ones to throw the first punch.”

A major factor in that development this series is just how good the Spurs’ starting lineup is. That unit — De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Julian Champagnie and Victor Wembanyama — has a net rating of 25.0 points this postseason, by far the best of any five-player lineup that has played at least 100 minutes together this postseason. The Knicks’ starting lineup — Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns — is second, though much lower with a net rating of 11.2 points.

The Spurs have outscored opponents by an average of 4.5 points in first quarters this postseason, also most among all playoff teams.

“We didn’t do a good job coming out [Monday] night, not just in the first half but in the second half as well,” coach Mike Brown said. “We have to up our level of physicality, especially at the start of the games, and try to maintain it throughout the course without fouling.”

It’s an added burden to immediately be on the back foot and have to come back every night. Brown, on numerous occasions, passionately challenged his side to clean the issue up during the regular season. His players spoke repeatedly about it, too.

They cannot just bank on the Spurs unraveling, as they did in Games 1 and 2.

“I just think we need to be ready to go,” Jalen Brunson said. “Very vague thing to say. I think it’s very simple as well. Just need to be ready.”

They always say the series doesn’t start until a road team wins an away game on their opponent’s home court. Redundantly speaking, that thought process means this series started in Game 1 when the New York Knicks took the victory. After the “desperate” San Antonio Spurs won Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, one could argue that this series began a new start. The Spurs are still down 1-2 to a tough-as-nails Knicks team and will look to knot the series even on Wednesday night.

“I think everybody was feeling good. I didn’t want us to get too happy about one win… I think since the end of Game 2 we’ve still been confident that we’re gonna win this series. That’s what we plan to do.”

There’s a fine line between confidence and cockiness, but Stephon Castle encapsulated his team’s feelings after Game 3 and ahead of an always crucial Game 4. The series thus far has been each team trading haymakers, uppercuts, jabs, and body blows all figuratively and literally as fans on both sides reasonably argue that the match-up has been physical. As a result, each game has been fairly low-scoring for each teams’ standards. The combination of intensive and aggressive defense with the high variance of three-point shooting percentages of each team contributed to the slug fest so far even as the pace is still light years ahead of from the last time both of these two teams met in the Finals.

Defensively, the Spurs will continue to attempt to corral Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns while also hoping to limit the offensive success of OG Anunoby and Josh Hart. When Mikal Bridges and the Knicks’ bench finds a rhythm scoring, the Spurs had trouble keeping up so Game 4 will also be important that the Silver and Black continue to find bench scoring from Dylan Harper and Keldon Johnson. While Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson has had trouble finding an offensive role off the bench this series, the mild success he had in Game 3 can be a building block to ensure the Spurs get enough from the second unit to match the Knicks’ depth.

Offensively, while everyone from pundits to fans to the peanut gallery of Twitter has their two cents about how Victor Wembanyama should operate (low post or beyond the arc), the Spurs will welcome Game 3 Victor who was aggressive early and often down low while sprinkling an appropriate amount of threes when the shot was available to him. Nothing else needs to be said about Stephon Castle who is fast making himself a household name for casual fans and the national audience. Castle continues to be the aggressive engine that makes sure the Spurs stay that way on both offense and defense. Foul trouble continues to follow him, but it correlates to his style of play.

The team says the job is no where near done after notching only one game against their Eastern Conference foes so expect the Spurs to come out and ensure that they return home to San Antonio with a tied series.

San Antonio Spurs(1-2) vs. New York Knicks (2-1)

June 10th, 2026 | 7:30 PM CT

Watch: ABC / ESPN | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)

Spurs Injuries: David Jones Garcia: OUT

Knicks Injuries: Mitchell Robinson: Probable

What to watch for:

Referee Mogging and Looksmaxxing

Free throw discrepancies are common fodder for next-day discussions on both sides of the fandom. In this case, the Knicks plead their case that the Spurs benefited from the zebras’ whistle in Game 3. Of course the Spurs won’t be focused on what the officials might or might not do, but they’ll adjust accordingly if whistles might be stifled or used more in Game 4. Their free throw percentage hovers around 80%, which is all they can ask for when taking advantage of the charity stripe.

De’Aaron Fox Aura Farming

De’Aaron Fox’s game-to-game stats swing as wild as Spurs and Knicks fans celebrations and outbursts after wins and losses. You never know what you’re going to get, but you know something is going down. While Fox shot 67% in Game 2’s loss, he was 29% from the field in Game 3’s win. The Spurs will certainly look to get him on the right side of the shooting percentage to bolster their offense behind Wembanyama’s orbit and Castle’s drives.

Clock that tea: Elmo still hopes both teams have fun

Experts and fans can cherry pick any number of stats and percentages that say the winner of [insert applicable game here] goes on to win the series [insert percentage] of the time. For the Spurs, they will solely be focused on stealing another win in New York to even the series at 2-2. Rain or shine, long security lines or not, Game 4 will see both teams come out with the same intense urgency seen throughout a competitive series that has lived up to the already high expectations.

A rowdy mob pummeled a San Antonio Spurs fan and snatched his jersey in a viral caught-on-camera beatdown amid the mayhem that broke out in Midtown after Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

The 39-year-old Spurs fan was walking back to his hotel just after midnight on Tuesday when the large crew descended upon him outside 306 West 47th Street, according to the NYPD.

Video posted on social media showed a man in a Spurs jersey walking down the street and attempting to run as the angry mob surrounded him.

He was punched, kicked, and had his No. 21 Tim Duncan jersey torn off his back in the melee — as hordes of Knicks fanatics swarmed Midtown, some wreaking havoc, after Monday night’s squeaker loss in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.

The Spurs fan appeared to try to fight back, but was forced to the ground and kicked repeatedly before trying to escape down a street as antagonizers chased at his heels, according to social media footage.

While running away, a member of the mob was seen kicking him to the ground, clips showed.

He suffered cuts to his face and bruising and was taken to Mount Sinai West Hospital in stable condition, cops said.

The NYPD released pictures of six separate people wanted in connection with the violent robbery.

Though none of the wanted individuals appeared to be pictured in Knicks merch, many fans clad in blue and orange were seen in the massive crowd closing in on the Spurs fan.

Some New Yorkers and Knicks faithful blasted the hooligans for the violence in subsequent videos shared online.

Police arrested 21 people overnight for offenses including assault on a police officer, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, resisting arrest, and obstructing governmental administration after trying to control the thousands of people gathered outside a Bryant Park Knicks watch party.

In a separate assault, dozens of enraged Knicks fans surrounded a Spurs fan on the streets and tore apart his Victor Wembanyama jersey.

Five NYPD officers were injured in the fracas, with some ruffians chucking glass objects at each other and police officers, and ripping bus signs and trees out of the ground to throw them.

Rowdy fans also climbed scaffolding, light poles, police cars, and NYPD trucks, causing “significant damage,” police said.

An investigation into the incident remains ongoing.

On the most recent Bill Simmons podcast, Simmons talked with J Kyle Mann about the upcoming NBA draft. You can listen to the entire podcast here (the draft talk takes place in the second half):

Simmons talked a lot about who he thinks the Utah Jazz might draft, and he thinks it could be Cam Boozer. Simmons seems very worried about all the issues that Peterson had at Kansas. The most interesting element occurs near the end, when Simmons asks Mann how he thinks everything will pan out. Mann says that he thinks Dybantsa goes #1 and that Peterson goes #2, and then Mann adds. “I think the Jazz take Peterson, I’ve heard they like Peterson, I’ve heard Danny likes Peterson.”

We’ve heard this draft order from multiple sources, so it’s not entirely surprising, but it does confirm what many reports have said. June 23rd is right around the corner, and it’s going to be exciting to see what is going to happen.

On the Sean O’Connell Show, Krysten Peek joined the show to talk about all things NBA Draft, and she brought some incredible insight and intel. If you haven’t listened, make sure you do here:

If you don’t have a chance to listen, here are the different insights she brought:

• Wouldn’t surprise her if AJ Dybantsa goes #1 and Darryn Peterson goes #2
• Darryn Peterson is going in this week, if not already, to work out with the Utah Jazz
• She says it’s like an 85-90% chance that AJ Dybantsa goes #1
• The fact that nothing has been leaked from all 30 teams who have Darryn Peterson’s medicals points to him being A-okay, him being fine.
• She’s a big Darryn Peterson believer, and what she knows personally about him as someone who loves basketball. If he’s not the #1 pick, he is the clear-cut pick for the Jazz at #2. He fits well with Keyonte George. Both are ultra competitors.
• The Jazz brass have done an incredible job of improving players’ perception of the Utah Jazz and the city. They have brought in a lot of players to help with that and to build relationships for future opportunities to bring them on.

The number is somewhat stunning, considering how well Karl-Anthony Towns has performed up until recently in the NBA Finals.

He has logged 30 minutes across the fourth quarter of the three games of the series, and the Knicks center hasn’t scored a point.

Not a single field goal or free throw. He has only taken six shots and tallied one assist.

“It’s extremely important that he’s getting touches, that he’s involved, not just in the fourth quarter, but obviously throughout the ballgame,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said Tuesday. “I got to continue trying to do a better job of getting him involved throughout the course of the game, as well as late.”

Lately, Towns hasn’t been involved much, taking just 11 shots over the past five quarters. In that span, the Knicks have been outscored by 12 points.

When asked about his fourth-quarter donuts, Towns mostly sidestepped the question.

“We have a game plan, and we want to execute it,” he said. “So just trying to execute our game plan, especially when we get in the fourth, is vital, and just doing what I can to execute it at the highest level.”

Towns’ emergence has been a major storyline of the postseason for the Knicks, ever since Brown tweaked the offense to run more through Towns midway through the first round against the Hawks. The Knicks are 12-1 in the playoffs when Towns has four or more assists.

In Game 3, he had only one assist. An involved Towns typically means a productive Knicks offense. Their attack was not at its best in that loss, too stagnant and overreliant on isolation. They shot 36 percent from the field in the second half and notched a playoff-low 18 assists.

On Monday, the Spurs went away from using Victor Wembanyama on Towns and guarded him with smaller defenders. It worked for them. Now the Knicks have to adjust.

“Execute our game plan and get back to what’s made us special — that ball movement and getting the ball zipping around the court, and allowing it to judge who shoots the ball,” Towns said. “So I think we have to get back to the details and our fundamentals that made us special in the 13-game winning streak.”

Victor Wembanyama left Stephon Castle out to dry, giving him the ball with less than a second left on the shot clock, forcing him to quickly fire a 25-footer from the wing. The buzzer screamed and thousands groaned as the game-changing 3-pointer fell with less than two minutes left. 

When the 21-year-old next looked at the rim, he was standing at the free-throw line with 6.8 seconds left, sinking the clinching shots of the 115-111 win in Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden.

“He might be the most mature player on our team,” Wembanyama said. “He’s shown over and over again he’s capable and that we are right to put our trust in him.”

Castle inflicted even more damage before his late-game heroics. 

The second-year standout from UConn — who won the national championship in his only season with the Huskies — punished the Knicks perimeter defenders from the tip by attacking the paint at will, finishing strong at the rim and sending Knicks defenders scrambling in rotations.

Castle scored 18 of his 25 points in the first half — combining with Wembanyama to become the first pair of teammates who are 22 or younger to each score at least 20 points in an NBA Finals game — and also finished with five rebounds, five assists, one block and one steal in 38 minutes.

Dylan Harper, 20, set the tone in San Antonio, barely a year removed from Rutgers, now repeatedly bullying his way into the lane to put up 14.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in the NBA Finals.

“For the most part, we kind of dictate where we want to go on the court,” Castle said Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. “I think that’s a skill that me and [Harper] both have, and it’s very useful. We’ve just got to keep continuing to use it.

“I don’t think we’ve let the defense force us to do anything all year.”

In Game 4, the Knicks need to try to make the unproven shooters beat them from deep, taking away the young guards’ confidence-building drives.

Castle has shot 5-for-14 on 3-pointers in the series but is a career 30.5 percent shooter from the perimeter. Harper is shooting 60 percent on 2-pointers in the series but is just 2-for-15 on 3-pointers in the NBA Finals, including two wide-open misses in the final 70 seconds of Game 3. 

“I feel like every night is not going to be your night,” said Harper, who had made 30.5 percent of 3-pointers in the playoffs. “[In Game 3], I couldn’t make a shot. That’s just the reality of the game. I’m going to keep on shooting them because [of] the confidence I have in myself, the confidence the team has in me.

“I can’t really hang my head too much because we’ve got a lot more basketball to be played.”

Josh Hart has been in their shoes. Throughout this playoff run, the veteran has been left alone on the outside and dared to make the opponent pay for it.

Hart wouldn’t reveal whether the Knicks would employ a similar strategy against the Spurs’ young guards, but part of the game plan is no secret.

“I’m sure we’re going to change some things and switch up some schemes to protect the paint,” Hart said. “Obviously, those guys are very dynamic when they touch the paint.”

The NBA admitted Tuesday it missed a foul call on Victor Wembanyama’s first-quarter shove of Jalen Brunson during Game 3 of the NBA Finals. And they are not going to do anything about it.

The league reviewed the play after San Antonio’s 115-111 win at Madison Square Garden and will not upgrade it to a flagrant foul, a person with knowledge of the decision confirmed to USA TODAY Sports' Lorenzo Reyes. This despite NBA head of officiating Monty McCutchen going on ESPN to acknowledge that the officials got it wrong.

Wembanyama shoved Brunson hard with both hands as Brunson tried to set a screen. Brunson didn’t fall all the way to the floor but he had to brace himself from the push, which drew an immediate reaction from the MSG crowd. Brunson got up and got in Wembanyama’s face before the game moved on.

No foul was called. No review was triggered at the time.

Brunson frustrated at Wemby 😳 pic.twitter.com/0xd2HO78NV

— ESPN (@espn) June 9, 2026

McCutchen addressed the missed call on ESPN’s "NBA Today."

“Well most certainly, I think we can all agree that a foul was missed on that play. We have a big part of our job is to, on-ball, off-ball exchanges between referees. We did a poor job of that here where we got two people on-ball and we don’t see the screening action. Lots of fighting over screens throughout the game and if we break down in our fundamentals, in even the smallest amounts, we have the opportunity to miss a clear foul, as we missed here.”

Replays appeared to show Brunson grabbing Wembanyama’s jersey before the shove, which may have factored into the league’s decision not to escalate. Still, Wembanyama’s reaction was to aggressively shove Brunson in the upper back and neck area, sending him toward the floor.

After the game, Brunson said it was obvious.

“Whatever you saw is what you saw,” Brunson said to reporters.

The ruling keeps Wembanyama at two flagrant foul points for the postseason, both from his Flagrant 2 ejection against Minnesota in the second round. Had the shove been upgraded to a Flagrant 1, he would have been at three points, one shy of an automatic suspension.

The contrast with how officials handled a similar moment later in the game was not lost on the Knicks. In the third quarter, with New York leading 71-67, Brunson closed out on Julian Champagnie on a 3-point attempt. Their feet tangled and officials upgraded the contact to a Flagrant 1 on Brunson. Champagnie completed a four-point play, the Spurs cut the deficit to one and went on to win.

San Antonio outshot New York 24-8 at the free throw line in the second half, a gap that left Knicks coach Mike Brown openly questioning the officiating.

“I never thought I would be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free throw attempts in the second half to another team’s eight,” Brown said.

The Knicks lead the series 2-1. Game 4 is Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No flagrant foul upgrade for Victor Wembanyama coming from NBA

It’s been pretty blatant.

The Spurs, after Jalen Brunson’s huge fourth quarter carried the Knicks to their Game 1 victory, have made a clear effort the past two games to be as physical with Brunson as possible and rough him up. It seemed to cross the line a few times, though no flagrants were given. 

Most notably, Victor Wembanyama shoved Brunson to the ground by the back of his head as Brunson was trying to set a screen on him in the first quarter of the Knicks’ 115-111 Game 3 loss to the Spurs on Monday night at Madison Square Garden. Brunson got up and jawed at Wembanyama while the play was still ongoing, but not even a common foul was called. 

Other times in the first half, Stephon Castle and Carter Bryant lined Brunson up and trucked him while pretending to go for rebounds. Those were both called common fouls, but neither was upgraded to a flagrant.

At the end of Game 2, De’Aaron Fox pushed Brunson, got in his face and sparked a brief scrum. 

“I think that’s not basketball,” Jose Alvarado said Tuesday of Wemby’s shove. “That’s something that they gotta look at. But he got away with one. That’ll be the last one.”

While Alvarado’s sentiment is nice, it’s not exactly a shock that the feisty and brash backup from Brooklyn was ready to talk tough.

It would not be wise for the hardly 6-foot Alvarado to try to fight the 7-foot-4 Wemby. 

And the Knicks don’t need to start fighting. What would be more impactful is if they help Brunson fight through all that physicality. 

Brunson has shot just 37.0 percent from the field and 31.8 percent from deep along with 13 turnovers across the three games of the Finals. The Spurs have succeeded — where every other team this postseason has failed — in preventing Brunson from being at his best. 

The Spurs are picking up Brunson the full length of the court, causing the Knicks to get into their sets much slower than they’d want. They are holding, pulling and bumping Brunson off the ball to make it harder for him to get open. When he has the ball in his hands, they are getting right up into him and daring the refs to make a call.

It all led to the Knicks offense growing stagnant Monday — a problem that had disappeared since Games 2 and 3 of the first round against the Hawks. 

“We just wanted to stand and watch one guy dribble a ton,” Brown said after the game. “And then when the ball got passed, there were no quick decisions by the guy receiving the basketball.”

Brunson’s usage rate was at 38.4 percent Monday, up from his mark of 31.3 percent for the entire postseason. Across the three games of the series, he’s taken 44 shots after touching the ball for six or more seconds — the next closest in the Finals is Fox at 13 shots. 

On Monday, it felt like Brunson was trying to force his way through all that physicality rather than allowing his looks to come more organically. It’s hard to remember the last time he had as much of a reaction as he did to Wemby’s shove. 

What only made it worse was a lack of help from his teammates — Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges, after their terrific first two games of the series, were nonfactors. They shied away in crunch time, and the Knicks offense as a whole was content to watch Brunson try to play hero ball.

The Spurs were able to double and blitz Brunson without others making them pay for it, like they did the first two games.

The slow decisions and lack of movement by Brunson’s teammates allowed his defenders to recover after pressuring him. And their screens have not been effective at taking Brunson’s defenders out of the play. 

“There’s a way for us to do things we have to do, the things that we’ve done throughout these playoffs,” Brunson said. “They’re just game plan discipline. I don’t think the discipline we had in those situations was good enough. We just got to be disciplined in those moments.”

The 13-game winning streak showed just how dynamic the offense can be when there is an emphasis on ball movement, spacing and quick decisions. 

The Knicks got away from that Monday.

“We have to play to what our concepts or play to what our strengths are,” Brown said. “It’s been pace, it’s been space, it’s been getting the ball reversed, it’s been touching the paint, and more importantly it’s been making quick decisions. There were a lot of times where the decisions weren’t made quick last night. One guy caught, held, held, held, held, held. Now the defense settles in. Now you’re in trouble.”

Trouble for the first time in 45 days.

The NBA is letting them play — at least with Victor Wembanyama in this one instance.

The Spurs star will not receive a flagrant foul upgrade for pushing Knicks star Jalen Brunson in the first quarter of NBA Finals Game 3, The Post’s Stefan Bondy reported.

Wembanyama will stay at two flagrant points, which he received for a flagrant 2 penalty after throwing an elbow at the Timberwolves’ Naz Reid earlier in the playoffs. If Wembanyama had — or does — earn two more flagrant points, he would be suspended for one game.

The Spurs big man, with a little less than five minutes left in the first quarter of San Antonio’s 115-111 win over the Knicks, shoved Brunson in the head from behind, sending the New York guard to the Madison Square Garden floor.

Immediately, former NBA star and ESPN/ABC analyst Richard Jefferson called for Wembanyama to be called for a flagrant 1. No foul was called on the play.

NBA senior vice president of referee development and training Monty McCutchen said on “NBA Today” earlier on Thursday that while the league missed a foul on the play, it would need something “clear and conclusive” to upgrade the play to a flagrant 1 or 2.

“I think we can all agree that a foul was missed on that play. A big part of our job is on-ball, off-ball exchanges between referees. We did a poor job of that here, where we got two people on-ball, and we don’t see the screening action,” McCutchen said.

“If we break down in our fundamentals, in even the smallest amounts, we have the opportunity to miss a clear foul, as we missed here.”

The shove has drawn sharp criticism from a number of former NBA players, including ex-Knick Stephon Marbury, who labeled the play “dirty.”

Even Mayor Zohran Mamdani chimed in, saying the play should have been a flagrant.

Wembanyama and Brunson will be back on the Garden court for Game 4 on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.

The NBA has ruled that Spurs star Victor Wembanyama will not be assessed a flagrant foul for his actions in Monday's Game 3 win over the Knicks.

The league determined that Wembanyama's shove of Knicks guard Jalen Brunsondid not meet their criteria for the center to be assessed a flagrant foul retroactively. 

 

No foul is called as Victor Wembanyama shoves Jalen Brunson pic.twitter.com/awN400ir13

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 9, 2026

Wembanyama and the Spurs dodged what could have been a series-shifting moment. If the Spurs center were assessed a flagrant-1 foul, he would be one flagrant foul away from a mandatory one-game suspension in the NBA Finals after he was given a flagrant-2 foul after he threw an elbow on the Timberwolves' Naz Reid in the second round of the playoffs.

The NBA's ruling is not unexpected, and eyes will be on Game 4 to see how tightly the game will be officiated after Knicks head coach Mike Brown criticized the officiating after Game 3 and guard Jose Alvarado sent a warning to Wembanyama and the Spurs, saying "that'll be the last one." 

Game 4 will emanate from MSG on Wednesday before the series shifts to San Antonio for Game 5 in San Antonio. 

The Knicks may have overlooked the Spurs after becoming the third road team in NBA Finals history to take the first two games of the series.

At least, that’s what Karl-Anthony suggested was one issue in their Game 3 defeat.

“The details that made us special, we were too relaxed in them, and we didn’t execute them at the level that you guys are used to seeing,” Towns said Tuesday. “So doing that and also just the fundamentals of what our team is and how we play, we didn’t do that for 48 minutes. It’s something that has got us that 13-game winning streak.

“Playing around with the game against a great team, you’re asking for a disaster, and that’s what we got.”

The Knicks had talked plenty after Game 2 of playing with desperation with a 2-0 series lead and treating the Finals like the series was 0-0. They had done a remarkable job of handling success and avoiding complacency throughout the franchise record playoff win streak.

But they lacked that sense of urgency in the first Finals game at MSG in 27 years.

They started each half poorly. The Spurs scored the game’s first seven points and led by double figures after just 4:26. The Knicks recovered to build a seven-point lead at halftime, only to see San Antonio start the third quarter just like the first stanza, ripping off a 15-4 burst.

“I just saw us not executing the little details that made us special,” Towns said. “The game they brought to MSG yesterday, we didn’t meet their level.”

It manifested itself in the Knicks allowing a playoff-high 115 points and producing a playoff-low 18 assists.

They also committed 13 turnovers, many of them unforced, leading to 21 Spurs points.

Team captain Jalen Brunson echoed Towns that the Knicks were lacking when it came to minor things. One of them was sending the Spurs to the free-throw line 32 times.

While coach Mike Brown was critical of the officiating — the Knicks attempted 10 fewer free throws than the Spurs — Brunson didn’t use that as an excuse Tuesday.

“There’s a way for us to do things we have to do, the things that we’ve done throughout these playoffs,” he said. “They’re just game plan discipline. I don’t think the discipline we had in those situations were good enough. We just got to be disciplined in those moments.”