When the San Antonio Spur starting lineup was introduced, the loudest boos were for Victor Wembanyama. Before the national anthem was halfway finished, the loudest boos were for President Sex Offender. By the end of the night, the people’s ire was centered on the officials. And through it all, the Spurs did not care.
San Antonio played from ahead most of the night and this time, critically, finished ahead, winning 115-111 and making it a 2-1 series. Russell Richardson will dive more deeply into things in his recap, but I don’t think I’m stealing his thunder by saying this was the kind of game that has a feel unique to the NBA. The feel of some unseen agenda at work, one unconcerned with the merits of fair play.
Did the Spurs deserve to win? They did. They had the best player on the floor tonight, and he was the biggest difference. The Knicks have been playing string theory basketball for nearly two months; you don’t have a lead over them in the final two minutes of the first two games if you’re not a bit of the real deal yourself. The Spurs were physical. They were improved. They were lots of things, some of which I didn’t care for. At the end of the day, they are all they cared to be: Game 3 winners.
They were always going to come out swinging and, per usual this series, those early swings were connecting. Victor Wembanyama led San Antonio to their third first-quarter double-digit lead of the Finals (ordinals!), opening the scoring with a dunk, then dunking again, then single-handedly destroying an entire Knicks possession before blocking a seemingly safe Mikal Bridges corner 3.
The visitors were in the zone pretty much the entire quarter, with 11 assists in the 12 minutes. Early foul trouble for Jalen Brunson meant early minutes for Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarkson, after which the Knicks began chipping away at the lead. One reason they were down but never out: the Spurs either scored on their first shot or they didn’t score, period, going nearly the entire half without a second-chance point.
The prolific efficiency of Josh Hart and OG Anunoby kept the Knicks coming and the deficit going; a Brunson 3 over Wembanyama gave them their first lead at 50-49. As hot as the Spurs were in the first, the Knicks were hotter, hitting 14 of 19 shots while getting to the line 14 times in what became a 42-point frame (a franchise Finals record, and boy isn’t that sweet to type) and a seven-point lead at the break.
San Antonio was aggressive the first two games; this time they turned it up a notch. Wembanyama got away with a grossly unethical assault on Brunson’s head. On one Spurs’ set Castle ran baseline at Brunson like you’re taught to in practice — football practice. Devin Vassell gave Landry Shamet, minding his business, a bit of the extracurricular. Wemby laughed at a visibly pissed Brunson after his cheap shot. Vassell laughed after his dickery with Shamet. What a bunch of creeps.
And yet while none of those acts was deemed flagrant-worthy, even after video review, Brunson was called for a flagrant for being in Julian Champagnie’s landing area after a 3, a call Tim Legler immediately disputed. Maybe it was the assault and battery, maybe it was the magnitude of the moment, but the Knicks had a ton of different-wavelength turnovers, where the passer threw the ball to someone who didn’t cut when expected or who cut when it wasn’t. Still, heading into the fourth it was only a one-point game in the Spurs’ favor.
With Adam Silver in the arena the bluetooth was probably a little better than usual in the officials’ earpieces, so when the final quarter got going so did the whistles, putting San Antonio in the penalty faster than you can say “James Bowie was a nudnik.” Alvarado and Hart are both beautiful players, and probably people, but having two shooters who don’t wanna shoot — even making four 3s tonight, Hart never *wants* to shoot — against that defense is like waking up to a boa constrictor wrapped around you and nodding off again, hoping it all works out. However long that plan takes to fail, it’s gonna fail.
The teams went at each other back and forth, both relentless. Dylan Harper nearly put the Spurs up nine midway through the fourth, only to be stopped on the break by Anunoby, leading to a Brunson 3-point play that cut the gap to four. Soon after, a Brunson turnover ended with Wembanyama free throws, pushing the edge back up to eight. The stats will say the Knicks had offensive rebounds. That’s a lie. The Spurs seemed to move a little faster and jump a little higher when it came to the defensive glass.
Brunson checked in with seven and change left and took it to the cup for a lay-up, making it 100-95 Spurs. Video replay should be abolished, but in this game it saved the Knicks from getting screwed by the whistle even more times. The Knicks very nearly got a great look a few times, only for Wembanyama to erase the space. A Towns 3 would have made it a three-point game, but it wouldn’t stay down. A Brunson jumper at the buzzer pulled the Knicks within four.
As the clock passed the two-minute mark, Castle replied with a 3-point buzzer beater to make it 111-104. With precisely 33.3 seconds left, another Brunson 3, New York’s first of the fourth in 10 tries, made it 111-108. It felt like one more stop and the Knicks would find a way to tie it, take it to overtime, take a 3-0 series lead. De’Aaron Fox doesn’t care about our feelings. The rich man’s Avery Johnson pulled a ‘99 Game 5, hitting the jumper that felt like the nail in the coffin.
But this team doesn’t know when it’s dead. OG caught an inbounds tight in the corner, turned and busted out the Evan Fournier, making a difficult trey to cut it to deux. If Castle would simply have obliged by missing one of his two free throws with 6 seconds left, we could have looked forward to the drama of a last-second shot to settle a Finals game. Though knowing the Spurs, they would have fouled before letting the Knicks get a shot off. And Castle made both free throws anyway. Creeps.
That’s all for now. Check back in for Russell’s take. One day at a time, loves.
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