Spurs Take Game 3! Wemby’s Big Game, Brunson Hero Ball, and More!

>> Coming up on the Zacklow show live from New York City, the spars are back in the NBA finals with a thrilling and somewhat bizarre game for win in Madison Square Garden a strange night with the president and attendance, lots of delays, all of that. It got dicey toward the end after an end, it'll be three in a very dicey in bounce play, but Steph Castle knocks down two free throws, he had a big three, Wembee had a monster game. We got David Jacobi and Kurt Goldspirit here, we're gonna do a three man weave and we talk about everything. What do the spars do adjustment-wise to sort of unlock Wembee rolling to the rim? How can the next counter that we get into the Xs and O's, we get into the crowd, the environment, all of it, and we have a series, there's nothing I love more than a game for the finals when it's 2-1, it is the ultimate swing game of the series, credit to the spars last night for coming out and winning in a very hostile environment, in a strange game, a strange night, a night like no other in New York City. So we have David and Kurt here, Jacobi and Goldspirit to break it all down, that's all coming up on the Zacklow show, all things, NBA finals, 2-1, Nick's pivotal game for, I cannot wait for Wednesday night. Welcome to the Zacklow show, we have a series, the San Antonio Spurs, with their backs against the wall, and the president in the building, oh boy, came back and won game three in Madison Square Garden, it's 2-1, they needed at least a split, this is the power of home court advantage, the all the spurs really need to hope for, is get it to 3-2, Nick's, now they want to be 3-2, that's fine, but if it's 3-2, Nick's, they win, you win game five at home, put all the pressure on the Nick's to close it out in game six in Madison Square Garden, they have given themselves a chance to at least do that with an awesome win, when be with a 32 point masterpiece in the biggest game of his career, Steph Castle with a three to put the spurs up by seven on a completely dead possession, and then two clutch free throws after a frantic Nick's rally and a sideline on a bounce plate that looked like it might be a disaster, and then Castle knocks down the two free throws, game over, and we get a delicious game four, game four, well, first of all, we have Kurt Goldsbury, and we have David Jacobi, we have a whole full crew take, it's just the freaking finals, how you guys doing? Great, how are you? I'm good, I got out of the arena last night, I got into the arena, and out of the arena, it took two hours to get in, fine, I get it, we're good with that once, we're good with it once, twice after a loss in game three, I'm not sure how Nick's fans would respond to that one, but we're good, we'll deal with it at once. The way out was a complete mess, I saw a woman get arrested on 32nd Street because cops wouldn't let her walk north, and she was not happy about it, and she kind of went out one of the cops, and it was one of these scenes where it was like, oh my god, what's going to happen? There's like a million people here, and it was a fun game, and now we get a game four, I would argue game four of a two one finals, maybe my favorite sort of swing game of the finals, because look, if it's two two, we know the winner of game three, it's game five rather, it's three two, they have a chance to win, and then after that, every game's an elimination game, a potential closeout game, those are like known commodities, two one has this glorious air of mystery, where it's either going to be two two spurs of rallied back and tied it up, or three one, and the nicks have a commanding lead, and so we get to live in this unknown for a couple more days. I can talk all about the atmosphere of the game last night, which was strange and loud. I actually was a slightly, like not this, I would say it was like a B plus A minus crowd. I expected an A plus intensity crowd. We can all go through the theories for that, including that they priced out all the real fans. It wasn't good, but it was not great. Jacobi, you're emotionally invested. I had a couple of moments when I thought in the fourth quarter, even if the spurs had a lead, oh my God, the nicks going to do this and go up three O, and it really is going to be a party. Did you have moments where you thought the nicks were going to pull the game out? You've actually already mentioned it. It was that Wimba and Yama possession, I think it was over a minute before Castle hit the three. That possession wasn't going anywhere. It kind of felt like he just wanted to dribble out the shot clock and just take 24 seconds off the clock and not even attempt to shot at the basket. It didn't have no one was moving. Nothing was happening, and I was thinking myself this is another late game collapse for the spurs. Outside, in the second half, that was the only time that I felt like, oh, this could actually happen again, and we could go up three O in the series, but I think just a response to your crowd thing, it was a very strange day in New York City yesterday, just all around. Because you're getting these reports of these glass structures being put up around eight city blocks, and then like Shams dropped an air pod and ran up on by security, and people are getting there three hours early, and the city is on fire. It's a Monday too, which is kind of a low energy day in the city, and it was a strange crowd. And I think there's a lot of the reason, and I don't want to lead with fouls and wraps or whatever. But like, it was just such a choppy second half. There was no flow to the game. There were no runs that like there's just really nothing to get up and excited for because you're watching reviews and you're watching free throws, the whole entire second half. Yeah, the replays completely sucked the energy out of the building. I don't mean to say it was not a good crowd, it was a good crowd. It just wasn't as like a fever pitch crowd as I kind of expected it would be, but the endless reviews, look, the challenges were all challengeable plays, some won, some lost, like smart coaching. It just completely drained the energy out of the game, which is that that happens. And I just, my only commentary is my personal experience, I just want to get out of the way because it must be mentioned, my personal experience when they showed the president on the jumbo tron was like, I'm going to, to my ears, it sounded like 75, 25 booze. It did not sound like a hundred percent booze raining down on the president. There were some cheers. There was some, they're screaming. I just, it wasn't, people were debating in the PC tweets, like, oh, booed out of the building. It did not sound like to me, he was booed out of the building. Kurt Goldberg, we talked about the castle three. I talked about the out of bounds play, nicks up to, I'm sorry, spurs up to with nine and a half seconds left. And castle in bounds and throws it to Deer and Fox, who has to tippy toe around the half core line, pass it right back to castle. And if Jalen Brunson were actually his listed height, he might have been able to deflect that past, but alas, he is not, and he did not deflect it. When you went, did you, when did you fear even as the spurs up it up like an eight point lead, et cetera? When did you, or did you fear it all like, uh-oh, the nicks might actually pull this off? Oh, it was terrifying. I went OG hit the corner three at the end of the game. I was still like, oh, the nicks are going to steal this like, they are so terrifying. I'm slightly rooting for the spurs, no shocker there, but I love this next team. And one of the reasons I love them is they're so cohesive. They never give up. They play so well, you know, shooting has been their strong suit all series long and all season long. Playoffs long, but they started off that fourth quarter, Zach with just a terrible three point shooting exhibition. I think castles three was the first made three of the quarter. I think the teams had combined to miss 18 or 16 three. So it was a, to Jacobi's point, very choppy, um, not exactly just shot making, uh, on display. But when Wembee blocks shaman at the rim, too, I thought that was another, there was another big boy moment for him, just asserting himself. I've always said, if they're going to win this series, he has to be the best player in the series. He wasn't in the first two games, uh, he was in game three. And the stat that really epitomizes this to me, Zach Lowe. They had one alley open the first two games to Wembee, um, they connected on four of those in game three. Most of them early, Deerin Fox not making a shot, it's not playing great, but he is making passes. Uh, they had four lobs and they got Wembee eight dunks and layups, uh, and that to me really captures that he was a different dude in this win than he was in those losses. Yeah. I mean, they clearly came in with the directive of just throw the fucking ball up. Like, where they blitzed Castle at half port and he just, like, and I thought Castle, yet he had two or three bad turnovers, um, and a bad three shot foul on Ananobi and those are like the, he's become, I think, Castle has become prematurely a little bit of a polarizing player. Yeah. When Bill plays the Russ comparison card on him because he's just so young and I think he's just so big and so physical and plays so hard and smart defensively that I just, he is, his mistakes are loud and that's Russ. Yeah. But I, I just think he's been awesome and I thought for the most part, he played a very under control game and there were a lot of plays where he would get toward the paint into the paint and instead of forcing up a really tough shot at the rim, which he's been doing for the most part in the series, you would just make the simple kick out pass to Harper, who hits a three or then swings at the Fox who drives and throws a lob to Wemba Niam, all that stuff, but they clearly had a directive throw the lob. I thought, So Mb said better screens, which is something that Stan Van Gundy hit right after game one. Like if you're going to get set, if you want to get clean rules for the rim, you've got to hit people and force your guy to engage on the ball handler and give you a lane to the rim. I thought, I thought you did that. And 55% of his fuel goal attempts came at the rim last night, according to the glass. That's by far as high as number in the series. And look, a lot of the game is Mb32 points, cat 11 points and felt a little bit like a little bit like an afterthought. That said, the Nick scored 120 points for 100 possessions, which is a very good number. And that feels a little, I don't want to say misleading, but I wouldn't say that because that number is good, the Nick's had like a really good offensive performance. What they got was the Josh Hart game and it's always painful when they waste the Josh Hart game. When he hits three, they almost always win. And Anonobi just continues to hit everything in sight. And Anonobi for the playoffs is averaging 20 points a game on, I had it somewhere and now I lost it. It's like 57% shooting 47% on three or something like that and like two and a half stocks a game. He's been, it's hard to argue he's there been their best player because Brunson just does so much with the ball Brunson is shooting 37% for the series and we'll talk about his over dribbling, I think later. But Anonobi is awesome, but I do think that number is a little overblown. I'll tell you what I thought when I made in my notes, uh-oh, was when, when we missed that lefty layup with like 345 to go in the game off an offensive rebound that got kicked to him and it was just, it was uncontested and he bonked it. And then Brunson came down and drew a foul and made it one away at 102. That's what I thought, oh boy, that's going to be, if they lose this game, that's going to be the turnover again from game two. But they pulled it out and, uh, yeah, what else, I mean, like, what else did you notice, Kirk? Like, what else does this first change if anything in this game? Well, the other moment, the other OSHA moment for the Spurs, I felt like was going to swing the whole series was when that four point play correctly, by the way, got reversed. Keldin Johnson, what are you doing, pushing Mitchell Robinson into Victor Wemanyama, but they look like a Larry Johnson style four point play for the Spurs, uh, and then they wiped it off. It just felt like that that was going to be the moment that, that, that the series turned about credits of the Spurs. Uh, another point on OG and an OB and Brunson before I get quickly to, to the Spurs. And I'm going to ask Jacobi about this, OG's incredible, towns is playing great. Are we seeing too much Brunson? His usage has surged. His usage in the regular season is 30. His 40 is true shooting percentage in the regular season is 58. It's down to 46 and you can say that's playoffs to copes. Um, but for me, in the context of what Zach's laying out there with OG shooting the shit out of it, towns being great, um, bridge is being hot. Like, there's a path for the Spurs to get back into the Zach. If like they did to Ant Man and like they did to SGA, they can sort of take that lead guard and make him an inefficient scorer. Uh, and the other guys have don't have enough. The thing with the Knicks is that supporting cast is so good that, that, that group is just not getting enough shots. So if the, if the, if the Spurs are able to steal game two, I'm actually going to look at, at that shot distribution on the Knicks box score to Kobe and say, are we seeing hero ball from Brunson in, in the face of great supporting cast members? Well, a couple of things about that. Think about the way that you were previewing the series and the way that I thought about this series. I said before the series, and this isn't, you know, groundbreaking. I was like, this is not a Brunson series. They've got multiple guys that are bigger and stronger and great defenders that can move their feet. This is an OG and town series. Like they're, the, the Knicks are kind of like a little bit bigger to, to, to, to, to, you know, four than everybody else. Those bigger than Winvian Yama. Yeah. And I felt that really this was going to be less Brunson, uh, dribbling around and trying to get inside and little euro stepping and shooting one foot of fadeaways. Like, I thought there'd be a lot less of that than there is now. And I thought it was interesting because everyone's talking about Mike Brown talking about the fouls. But he had a quote after the game. He said, we just wanted to stand around and watch one guy dribble a ton. And then when the ball got passed, there were no quick decisions by the guy receiving the basketball. And like, what happened to all these like Brunson gets off the ball, goes down, sets a screen for the guy in the corner and then he cuts and then Brunson cuts off of that and he's moving off the ball. Like the stuff that they were doing in that 13 game win streak was not Kiro ball, Brunson. And down the stretch, we go to that under, under five minutes, that's just just what happens and it works. But I think there's a little too much of that in the third quarter in the fourth quarter when he was in. I think the third quarter, the beginning of the third quarter when the spurs were down seven and the crowd was really at a fever pitch at going into half time. And that's the cool thing about this series, by the way, I don't know what the biggest lead has been in this series, but every time any team looks like they're about to rest control of the game, the other team responds and gets right back into it. It's been like, these games just do not let them. They're so intense. And the biggest lead has probably been like 12, I think 14 for a hot second in game two. But if that got erased immediately. But yeah, the third quarter Brunson came out and I just didn't like their process at all. I thought he was just sort of wasting time hunting bad matchups, taking bad shots. And look, to give this, and Brunson, by the way, for the series, he's averaging 27 points for assists, for turnovers, his assists to turnovers are exactly equal, 37%. But again, grain assault, cat through three games is plus 31, Brunson through three games is minus 13. Something is just a little off, something was a little off kilter with the process last night. Too many tough shots, too much dribbling, too many possessions where they just wasted time getting to the point of everything. And part of that is the two ends of the floor are so different in terms of like Nick's offense versus spurs defense versus the other side of the floor. Nick's offense versus spurs defense. You kind of have to watch it with one eye on Wimbledon Yama at all times and your other eye trying to follow the ball. And I think the spurs are just mixing up where Wimbledon Yama is. And the simplest way to put it is when it's like starters versus starters, they don't want Wembe on towns, but they also don't want him definitively not on towns because they're scared of towns posting up their smaller wing players and that's all they have in their starting line of compared to towns anywhere, smaller wing players. And so they have Wembe just sort of tagging out, tagging out, tagging out, hanging out in the corner. And the Nick's are spending time figuring out how do we want to set up the chess board to best attack that. And sometimes they did it really smartly like they'll have like ideally, the ideal spurs possession is Josh Hart stands in the corner and Wembe can stand there and it's risk-free and he's guarding hard, but he's just really guarding that area. And the Nick's are not putting hard there. If he starts in the corner, they'll switch him out and put a shooter like Ananobi in the corner and they'll move cat around and they'll try to find a time and a possession where Victor is on one side of the floor and it's two Nick's versus two spurs and then they'll run like a Brunson town's pick a roll. If they see Victor is toggled on the towns, they'll attack that matchup that way and try to, and like, you know who's really good at this and when the ball started popping is Alvarado. Alvarado comes in and he's looking for Cat right away and he's looking for those matchups right away. And God forbid if Cornette is in the game trying to guard Cat, it's death and they just went to that over and over again in the third quarter. But I think like the plus and minus of this for Wembe and Yamas, this is a tough matchup for him defensively because the Nick's make it hard, they have one of the greatest stretch big men of all time. They move hard around, they move the chess pieces around and that's when they get into that blender of like the kind of blender that led to that Wembe epic block with four minutes left in the game. But that's when they're at their best when they get to that matchup early, trigger the action and then everyone else gets involved and I thought they kind of lost that a little bit and that's why Cat kind of disappeared from the game and I'm fascinated Jacoby. And they have to get him more involved again without kind of overdoing the mismatch hunting and all that and that's hard. I mean they're facing a very creative defense. I am this morning watched all of Cat's shot attempts and it was really interesting because Games wanted to, if he had Wembe and Yamma in front of him at the three point line, I felt very confident in his ability to sort of muscle and just ugly his way into the lane and get a layup and you know and one thing I've learned in this is defense play the year but not quick on his feet and when he's closing out, you can get past him. You know what I mean? OG. OG. Yeah, OG. OG. So the difference between the old that Shamit block was so frustrating because OG has mastered having Wembe and Yamma behind you but then just sneaking the ball over the top of the rib with two hands that just sort of like making it just just quick enough and like sneaking enough but then Shamit's trying to like finger roll thing and that's just going to get eaten up by him but towns when I watched his 10 shot attempts this morning, Wembe and Yamma was, I want to say around him for one or two of those and a lot of it was just oh Cornette here let me go or I've got someone else on me, I've got a size advantage, let me go and I thought that in game one and two. It was almost the opposite and I think the opposite they have him on heart now But there's something about town's last night lack of aggression that it's just it just can't It's not winning if he takes 10 shots. I'm gonna have it Yeah, and I thought there's some pet actions they could run for him that they did in game two that got him off for some Reason they didn't they kind of let go of that The other thing the spurs finally made runs and work a lot more defensively last night They put him in according to the tracking data at junius IQ They put him in 21 ball screens as the guy defending the screener that had been I think 24 combined in the first two games And you saw Harper go at him a lot using the cell as the screener and they would split and drive and Harper of five of 18 But the power he brings to the game is just something that no other I mean even Castle Is a little bit more deliberate than Harper in terms of just straight line power It is interesting by the way the spurs did not play the three point guards together much in the regular season They played 11 minutes together last night. You can see the spurs trying I mean, this is this is what the finals is supposed to be in a lead opponent Drag you out of your comfort zone and like champagne. He didn't really do too much last night Keldin Johnson, they kind of can't decide if he's good for the series or bad for this series I think there's a place for him in this series because he's the one Non-wembee guy that can physically at least make towns work a little bit And so when he and Wembee are on the floor together They can put him on towns and have Wembee instead of doing all this fancy stuff if hearts on the floor just guard hard and I actually think I think the spurs are Taking Wembee off of heart a little bit too easily like so what heart moves up from the corner to set a ball screen for Brunson And in OB moves to the corner to replace him You don't have to stay on an in OB you can still guard Josh Hart and yeah, they'll do a heart Brunson hard pick and roll Just drop back hang out in the paint like Josh Hart's not gonna hurt you from out there I think they're overdoing it with that a little bit, but Yeah, the the chess match in the series is awesome and those three point guards together the numbers aren't good But it's interesting that they're playing them They're playing them more and I actually like the Harper Fox The cell Wembee like that those four guys together. That's a good mix of defense offense size, but man, this is Just all these games do not let up. They're so fun to be at last night was a little bit weird to be at I guess Chikobie we should have the officiating conversation now because the spurs have a big free throw edge in the series They had a huge free throw edge in the second half last night 24 to 8 Mike Brown did the press conference thing where he's like I'm gonna give the spurs credit. They played great. I'm not gonna blame it on the officials But watch me now blame it on the officials and say this is like a historically anomalous thing that I've never seen in my entire life I never thought I would see it, but I'm not blaming the officials But if they do that again in game four, it's gonna be tough for us But I'm not blaming them, but if they do that he actually said if they do that what if they do what if they call foul? So, you know, what did you think Chikobie because you're you're a you're the nicks perspective here to some degree like But what did you think of the officiating? Well, I'm on like 17 nicks group chats and I just felt like as a fan base There was just way too much focus on the referees and I think that that you said like it was an a a Minus B plus crowd. I think that the crowd got into their heads too like on that bridges call on the rebound when he hooked his arm like The one thing I'll say about this in defense of Mike Brown and the nicks is I rewashed like the fourth quarter calls because one of the biggest things was those early fourth quarter calls, there's no point. There's only two minutes into the call for a sudden. Yeah, all of a sudden they're in the bonus and Those were fouls every time you watch clear fouls They're fouls, but it's also inconsistent with everything I've seen in this series Every time when Ben Yama goes to set a screen Towns has got two arms around him and you know if he's like any time you try to move your defender is just all over you So the physicality bar has been raised so high that I just felt those early calls which were definitely fouls We're just sort of like inconsistent when everything I've seen up to this point and it really put them in a tough spot in the beginning of the fourth quarter Um, I didn't have any problem with those calls the consistency is like it's it's impossible to keep track of what's called What's not called? It's just a whirlwind of physicality um the three polarizing ones were Women Yama mushing Bronson to the ground And not getting called for anything which I didn't notice in real time from my seat at the ceiling of Madison Square Garden I can almost touch this year which by the way I like those seats a lot of media complain about them. They're a great bird's-eye view of the game But you miss certain like the it's hard to see that happening and that was probably a foul obviously a foul um Kirk what did you think of the um Uh castle Smashes into Bronson and they review it for a flagrant and decide that it's not a flagrant Yeah, that's a good one. I first of all is a spurs guy I mean when we should have been called for that foul on Bronson It was a nasty sort of aggro move not quite the not not quite the nonchalant arrested after last night's game Because there was a lot of there was a lot of police action at that Don't wear a spurs jersey in Brontan park to my friends from Texas, but I'll say this dude That reminded me exactly of quarter Bryant crashing against Shay Gilger's Alexander a couple times last round Where these guys are clearly instructed to be physical attack closing And then you know he shoved Jalen Bronson that's not in question. Could it have been a foul? Yeah, probably I mean it wasn't foul it was called a foul. It should have been flagrant a flagrant foul. I don't think so But then like I was on a text thread with some next fans and I was like this one's gonna piss you off Because then I forget who was shooting the three but Bronson got in the landing zone And they went to the monitor and I was like this is going to be a flagrant. That's the one I didn't like that after that I watched that one like 10 times last night. I've backed my hotel room and I don't know that I've seen a landing spot foul quite like that He jumps like sideways. He jumps toward the sideline because that's the angle Bronson is coming from and he doesn't Like his latitude or whatever longitude whatever whatever the right one is doesn't change like he jumps straight toward the sideline And I'm not really even sure what else you're supposed to do in that situation So I didn't like that. I thought that was a bad call It is worth noting the next word 25th and free throw rate in the regular season like and that's it's like It's like when the pistons would complain about free throw discrepancy It's like are you gonna acknowledge that you let the league and fouls in the regular season or is that just not going to be acknowledged so but that that call I didn't like the other thing is like Those I mean the nicks had won the turnover battle in the first two games That's a that's a that's a variable that they are built to win and half to win to win the series And they were minus five and turnovers last night and some of them were just fucking boneheaded throws right to the other team But like remember that one. I mean this one sticks in my mind because it was a live ball turnover that led directly to an And one where Clarkson just picked Devon of the cells pocket in the right corner Great moment for the nicks like a guy who by the way monster game for Jordan Clarkson off the bench Have a guy you don't necessarily expect much of certainly not on defense Cookies on Devon of the cell and then throws an outlet pass to nobody except step castle who then gets an and one I mean, that's like an instant gifted three points in a game that comes down to the wire out their turnovers were a little sloppy and I don't know what you call me. What else you want to talk about in the scanner. There's a lot to get into Well, I have to have this conversation with you and Kurt um When Wimben Yama elbow does read like that um, I got really angry and and I was surprised that there was no retaliation in that game or the next game from anybody wearing a Tim Williams jersey and I My blood is still a little bit boiling about this Bronson thing because I've seen it a million times which which Bronson thing The much one you think I'm talking about Yeah, like um What is he responding to what is that a retaliation for Like like I think he I think he's emotionally cake control and so Honestly, and I really I really I started drumming up a dislike for him like this summer And now it's just at a million look I cannot stand this guy. I hate his outfits. I hate his face. Wow Hair I hate everything about him. I just think here it is such a try hard Curated I when he goes to the park and he's drawing in the park with his friend He's like sketching a bush with like a graphite pencil. I just can't stand it and like and the idea that That Mike Brown won't be like hey Huck portie go in for 30 seconds and get kicked out of the game Because he just basically mush push punched whatever our best player and then castle comes and like oh Whether it's a flagrant or a foul it is the exact same thing that Carter Bryant did to Shay and then we have the Victor Wimba Nyama whispering in Bianbo and Plumley's ears as they go in like I just am really really I respect him as a basketball player and I respect the work ethic Um, I'm not saying he's a bad basketball player. I'm just you can't disagree with him. I when I say I can't fucking stand Victor Wimba Nyama. Can I disagree with you? That's my opinion I look at your opinion Kirk. Would you like to respond to this? Yeah, I mean Do you know the great things about this? How is your drawing game? How is your do you are you do you do Cole? Do you do crayon color pencil? Like what do you like landscape? What was that grammar C park? Where was he sitting there? I think it was a it was a fenced-off park, right? So that you could be getting the very strict about it. I'm a charcoal man. I mean, call me old-fashioned, but I'm a charcoal man. Look, the other thing, the Wembe side of this argument, and I'll take it is if you watch these playoffs from the Portland series through the Minnesota series, through the OK series, C series, and a little bit here, we're seeing a lot of grabbing and holding the victory Wembe Yama in plays that Spurs fans would point out and be like, "Dude, these are fouls if they're against Brunson. Nobody can hold Brunson like this every time he goes into the paint. Nobody can just yank on Shea Gil, just Alexander's arm. Every time there's a loose ball in the air. I have to stop you at the mention of Shea Gil, just Alexander. I have to. Did you guys see Sam Fressy's end of, yeah. Please tell us, yeah, please hold the floor on this. I cannot let this, I cannot let this slide. So Sam does incredible press conferences after every season. He answers every question. And the Thunder had been awesome about just like they don't duck, they don't make excuses, they don't duck from the loss. You never hear this player, well, Jill and Williams didn't after one game when he got injured, didn't talk to the media, but they all come out and they address the series. And here's what Sam Fressy said about Shea Gil, just Alexander and the dialogue about whether he's a grifter or a flopper or whatever. He's playing against six people, Fressy said. He has five defenders and the sixth defender is social media. It's a reality. He's not going to be the last player that the machine, the machine decides to target. Is that the villain from the last mission impossible movie, the entity, the entity decides to target, but nobody is going to handle it as gracefully. Okay, I can't, I cannot, I'm starting to deviate from the finals and whatever you're going to say about Wembe, who is getting involved and did elbow almost to capitate and I was reading somehow not get fine for, which I thought was insane. I just can't let this quote pass. Yeah. Am I the only one who's like, what social media, how about the head coaches of like half the NBA teams, it's not just, yes, you'll get the Zap Root or stuff on social media. Who fucking cares about that? Let's start wiping up the head coaches who have called it out. It's not, it's not this, he's trying to make it sound like it's just these imagined, these lunatics on social media and nobody else. And it's just these fringe people in Porsche has all these people attacking him on with these clips. It's people in the league. It's head coaches on the record talking about the, am I the only one who thought that was like a crazy quote? No, you're not. And I think you're exactly right. I don't know how many texts. If you search the word unwatchable in your iMessage app, many of the returning feeds will be one of your friends or colleagues from this league talking about Shake Ill just Alexander. Like this is just the conversation that people are having. Like he's the best guard in the world. Nobody's disputing that. But he flops like a soccer player. That's a fact. And nobody's attacking it unfairly. I think that is a fair point. In the same way that I just took Jacobi's point, yeah, Wembee should have been, you know, that's bullshit. He shouldn't do that to Brunson. Some of these dudes have these tendencies. And I think, yeah, I watched the whole press conference. I love when Sam Press to give these end of the year press conferences. I recommend everybody go watch it because it's really thoughtful stuff about basketball and the NBA and how he approaches the season. But that was like a misstep. And I think it reveals that it's sort of a paranoia about the thunder, how they feel like they're being disrespected internally. But I would be curious, Jacobi, this is for you. You're going to cook on this. What do you think of Sam Press, the defending SGA here? I understand it. I think this when you have a star player in an MVP and you're the general manager and you do these press conferences, you're going to want to kind of ride for your guy. And I do think that SGA does handle it with a lot of grace to be honest. He does. That's correct. He's right about that. That's a fact. He does. He does handle it. He does. When he said that, I was like, yeah, you're kind of right. But one of the things that they're really struck me when he said that is we can delete these apps on our phones. It is a choice. It's one thing to be mad at the refs or the defenders or the physicality, the way we're talking about this series. But there's going to be noise on social media. There's going to be noise on social media. And I think it's sort of your job as a professional athlete and even a professional NBA executive to sort of disregard that. I agree with you that SGA handles the gracefully. Actually, don't think I'm probably on the low end of the continuum of anger about SGA's flopping. Like everybody like Brunson flops, like tons of people flop. He falls a lot. He takes a lot of very hard off-balance jumpers and whatever. Like I don't, like he's a little hard to ask in terms of if you reach, he's going to put his arms out. But like that's part of the game. And that's always been part of the game. Like I've never been riled up. But I just, I thought it was a little, a little much to just say, well, it's just social media and out of thin air, creating this narrative. And it's not actual NBA coach. Anyway, Kirk, your point was Victor is getting mulled. He is getting mulled. I get it. And I don't like I officiating over an X amount of series is going to eat is going to hopefully even out. And that's all you can ask for. Yeah, my thesis here, guys, is that the NBA does have an officiating issue. Like for me, it's a geographic thing on the court. Like the contact allowances, depending on where you are and who you are on the basketball court are wildly different. And this isn't be being a spurs homer. But again, if anybody yanked on guard, like they yank on Wembee, it would be like Flaker and Fells all game long. I think he gets frustrated. Jacobi, I do think you're right to an extent. He's a young guy who's going to make those kinds of hot headed mistakes. But I think he's expressing frustration. Even last night, we saw a couple of Fowls correctly called on towns for like grabbing his hand or hooking him in ways that you just don't see other players having to deal with nearly as often. I think that's just a reflection on a stature more than anything. But yeah, he gets frustrated. He's going to he's going to act out. And then at halftime, I thought that the point where Shaq was like, I don't know if you saw it halftime. Shaq was like, I'm proud of him for doing that. He should do that. Go for it, Wembee, young man. Not the most not not the most notable inside the NBA comment at halftime apparently from from my Twitter feed suggested. That was classic. You miss the game. And I got back to my hotel like, what Charles said? What? Legend. This is great. I want to pose something to you guys that was sort of like my biggest takeaway from game three, right? We all know what happened in game one to two, right? All of a sudden, Carlton, two towns is out playing Wembee, Yama and and Wembee, Yama, and you know, throws the ball off the step castle and then Fowls. And he has to sit with that, think about it and watch the film and everything. And just start the game. He gets what three dunks in a layup in the first seven minutes. And they're running these these great sort of like stagger screens like it just really felt like the first drive of a big football game when they've got the play scripted. It felt like they were obviously going to use him offensively actually setting screens and actually rolling. And in the Thunder series, I think it was game four. There was a while where they were just like, let's just throw the ball up towards the rim and let the nine foot guy be nine foot tall. And like I felt as the game went on, they went away from that. Like I felt like Wembee and Yama played well, but I do think if I'm a spurs supporter or a mixed fan, you're terrified of this, I think that you can do that for four quarters of basketball game. But they really only did. I tracked all his 18 shots today too. It's a lot from Fox, dunks on OG, after he pins him, another pin with an easy little drop in. And then he goes around OG and scores and gets an anew on town. And just sort of like the rest of his shots, he's taking a couple of threes. He's taking some mid-range shots. You know, he does get two more labs in the game, but like if I'm the spurs, like this does in the shack sort of reminding me of this because you always hear shag. The big man get in there and don't cut everybody. But that's sort of like antiquated way of like looking at the game. But when you're a shack, you can say stuff like that because you actually did that. Like I kind of feel like that way about Wembe. It's like you're nine feet tall. Just go near the basket. Catch passes. Like he had me one where he missed his own shot. He just tipped it back into his other hand. Like I don't know. I just feel like there's a lot of room. I think as Wembe gets older and more sort of polished, you'll see a lot more stuff around the rim and less outside. Yeah, 100%. Zach, I actually have an early stat that captures Jacobi's point. So the first two games. Go and then we'll take a break. First two games. Obviously, Spurs Luz, Wembe's average shot distance was 16 feet. It was the highest among all the players, like all the six or seven eight volume scores in the series. Game three, that number is 10. It's the lowest number amount. So it's just we're seeing it in the numbers too. We're seeing in the eye test. But yeah, go to the rim. Shacks right on this one. I want to talk more about that. Let's just see a quick break and we'll get back to the Wembe. Issue. This episode is brought to you by Michelop Ultra, the official beer partner of the NBA. The NBA Finals are here and every time the finals roll around, all the memories start to flow into my brain. LeBron's blog. on Andrew Goodall. I was there. I had a perfect angle on it. I almost had a heart attack on Fresno. I ran to a monitor to try to see if he actually got in and it wasn't a golden and I felt like I needed a big little bolter. I wish I had drunk a beer with my dad when we were watching the flu game together on our couch and just marveling at what we were seeing Michael Jordan do. And of all the amazing plays and moments that happened the best ones are served cold just like make a little bolter a superior light beer. It's even better. So they're getting people closer to the game with a chance to win tickets custom merch and more. Michel O'Boltra superior is worth paying for. And you're now at mcgloboltra.com/courtside. Mcgloboltra.courtside 25 to 26. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. Reson is 21 plus begins on October 1st, 2025 and ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods. The official rules at mcgloboltra.com/courtside for free entry entry deadlines, prizes and details. Okay, Wembe rolling to the rim, dunks, crazy putbacks. First of all, again, 11 of 18 from the floor, 32, 86, three blocks, including that epic one on Shamit with four minutes and change left. A plus response from Wembe after a gaff to end game two that we will all remember forever and we'll be in the highlight blooper reel, whatever of all. Like here, the pivotal turnover is an NBA finals history. It's the rolling to the rim thing is interesting because you mentioned Jacobi, the staggered screens that the spurs are running and told lots of different variations of them. Most of them have either castle handling the ball. One of the three guards handling the ball. And one of the screeners is whoever Brunson is on to get him involved in the play. That's often champagne. And the other is Wembe. And the reason that's interesting is because if champagne is in the screening action, he's dangerous. He flares out for threes and all that. But that means he's not spacing the floor, which is his number one value as a spur. He's kind of spacing the floors and moving shooter, but he's not like on the wings, dragging a defender out there. And it means that Brunson is in the play, which is good for the spurs, but also far from the rim. And kind of why that matters is because if you watch a lot of the roles where he doesn't get all the way to the rim or has a difficult time finishing, it's because the nicks who are huge on the wing, as you know, did earlier Jacobi with bridges, heart, and in an OB are just pulling way in of everybody else. And so and the spurs for whatever reason on a lot of these plays have Harper or castle, whichever one of them is not handling the ball, kind of in the dunker spot. So their defender is close to the paint. And he goes there and there's just a ton of traffic and he had one play where he caught it and heart stepped up off the dunker spot guy. And when we stop and kind of was like, I don't know what to do. And he kicked it, I think to Harper, who drove and then found when we relocated for a three. So fine, he gets a three out of it. But ideally, you would love to script the offense so that Brunson is the guy, the defender in the dunker spot because when he doesn't see him, he'll just run right over him and dunk, but Champagne is not useful there. He's they need him on the perimeter. So it's this sort of like cat and mouse game of like, where are the defenders who's there? But it is part part and parcel of how the nicks built this team is like they're just huge on the wing. And they're at least they're in early. They're pulling in hard and they're making him think they're making the ball in there's think. And like I said earlier, I think one of the counters that the spurs made last night was Castle just making the simple kick out pass instead of forcing something in the paint. And when that help comes, trust the next guy to make the play. But yeah, I mean, clearly this first came out with the directive of just throw the fucking ball up and good things are going to happen for us. And I would expect them to having seen the evidence, just go even more in that direction, Kirk and in game, game four. Yeah, they have Randy Moss, maybe throw a couple of deep balls, right? It's you got Moss over and over again, if you get if you get him away from the low man who's tagging him or whatever the other opponents are doing, but they just got to figure it out. It's like the existential strategy for the spurs for the next decade. One way I've captured this in my own notes is what I call the Wembee dunk differential, which is looking at his dunks versus his jump shots. It's sort of an expression of his passive nature sometimes. And game one, he had four dunks and 12 jumpers. These are attempts, not makes four dunks and 12 jumpers and dunks and layups, I should say, attempted. So he was 12 jumpers, four dunks and layups in game one. Game two, it's almost even 11 dunks and layups against 10 jumpers. And then game three guys, 11 dunks and layups and just seven jump shots. So he's he's a lot harder to guard when he's getting those touches deep in the pain. It's not all these lobs. It's Jacobi pointed out, it's pinning guys down like he doesn't have to have the best footwork. He has so many physical gifts. He just needs to to to be stronger. And if I had one point to say like, what are we learning about Wembee's future this series? It's like this dude needs to get stronger because there are players who are bigger than him that are pushing him around all playoffs long. And that's I think the reason why we don't see it Jacobi all four quarters long is like he's not strong enough to endure all of that beating that he's getting down low. But you know, I think Sean Sweeney, Miss Johnson, whoever it is has to come up with a game plan that gets that sort of dunk differential to be in the right sort of order. He needs to have more shots in the paint than he does outside of the paint. Zach going forward. Yeah. And then so the last point I'd make is this is sort of a minutia thing. But going at Brunson like they did, he got four fouls too. That was the thing we didn't say. And they got him in foul trouble. And I think that's why they have those three guards out there. No, they can't hide. There's no champ any out there for you to sit on. Wherever the ball comes to you and whether it's going to be Fox Castle or Harper, there's no soft spot for for for our man Brunson to hide. And I think that got him in foul trouble, which is a huge point of that third quarter. And we had, we had some brief minutes with Anatoby at center and some brief minutes, like a hot second without both Brunson and Kat. Remember way back it feels like six months ago, I think it was game two of the Hawks game when Mike Brown went along stretch, two long stretches with Brunson and Kat on the bench together. And they got rolled and it was like, well, it's worked well for us in the regular season. And I was like, kind of hasn't. And we've never seen it again. They've obviously avoided that since. But yeah, the Brunson, the Brunson fouls were an issue. But like I just what I know it's boring. Just watch the dunker spot because I don't know why this. I mean, there's value in having a guard sitting down there as a release valve. Like there were a couple of times where Wendy got it and probably could have dropped it off to the Harper who's a powerful finisher. That dunk Harper had on a cut from court. That was like holy cow off two feet. That guy's like jumping off a trampoline. But then it's also creates a lot of traffic. And there was another play where instead of one of them in the dunker spot, they had Castle and Harper both on the strong side of the floor, both out by the sideline, kind of doing some fake screening action to distract the defense and somebody got a dunk out of it. So that's just like a fun thing to watch. We probably should talk about speaking of Nick's lineups. We haven't mentioned bridges at all. I the foul trouble he got in early. I think just took him out of the game. And we did not see one second of the Nick's best sort of like all offense, all shooting lineup, which is the starting lineup, but sham it in place of heart. That did not play a second in this game because their rotation got jumbled. That lineup is plus 41 in 23 minutes in the playoffs. Like it's just like an explosion on the court. It turned game two in the second quarter. We didn't see any of it. And I have to go back and watch like how could they have involved bridges more or whatever, but I think the fouls just took them out of the game. And it's interesting because every time there's like a little bit even when like regular season now every we haven't had a nicks like down moment in a while, but it always seems and when they were like in a little bit of a rut in January and then again in March, it always seems to center on bridges and towns. Like those are always the bellweathers for the team and they go through these stretches where either kind of not involved or whatever. And like we haven't had that in a while and we had it again Jacobi. Like they're the guys who it always seems to come back to them. Well, a few thoughts on that part of it is Brunson just dribbling the air out of the ball for 18 seconds. And I think, you know, you know, we're all sort of older. Like I remember the old school point cards. Like, you know what bridges has zero points. You look at me like, man, get him the ball. You know, like I get him in balls. And I feel like there's a little bit of onus on Brunson to be that point guard. So you know, like spread the ball around. Get off the ball more than he does. And one thing about that, listen, the nicks were just on fire for the last month and a half, right? You know, but do you remember when Duce McBride in game four and Billy had like seven threes in the first half or Landy Shamit was 11 for 13. And they say like role players play better at home. They role players for the nicks did not play better last night. You know, and I think with no bridges, Shamit won for seven from three. A couple of those are pretty good luck. Well, I expected some of those to go down. And Duce sort of like doing nothing for eight minutes in this game was a little bit of a concern. Clarkson played well in sort of Alvarado, but I expect that to be a change for game four. I just don't I don't think they'll be as hot as they've been for last month and a half, but I think a few nicks just kind of like really laid an egg last night. Imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Zelda Miss technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plum, dewey hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Mavily, New York. - Maybe it's Mavily. - I will give, to Kat's credit, I think his defense has been unrelenting the whole series. He's been outstanding defensively. I think he only had one turnover last night. He's just not forcing anything. And there was that one play where he got the ball on the post and like four guys were on him. And he was just kind of like throwing his elbows around and you thought like here comes the bad cat, like crazy hook pass turnover like the old days. And it's not, it's not coming. And yeah, Bridges just didn't do very much last night. The one thing they could, the one thing I think the next could do if they just need a simpler thing to do is they, they could hunt fox like the spurs are hunting Brunson. Like foxes clearly not 100% and probably not close to 100%. And the nicks have only put him in 15 ball screens as the guy defending the screener in the entire series. And they, you know, the spurs put Brunson in 21 last night. I think that's a little, a little place that the nicks can pull. But honestly, like, as a neutral fan here, I'm kind of glad the spurs won the game last night 'cause now we have a chance at a, we get a special, a special game for him. Like, look, for a young team, that was a hello response. And can I tell you what I started to think, oh, maybe just have this in them. Can I tell you what I saw the day before the game? I went from Grand Central. I got into Grand Central with my little roller bag on my way to my hotel. And I realized, oh, I'm gonna pass by the hotel where the spurs are saying at some point. I saw, I said, I texted some people. We sat down in the lobby. We had a little, little meeting. And in came two San Antonio players who shall not be named. This is like eight o'clock at night or something like that. And between them, they had, I'm gonna conservatively estimate 14 shopping bags and that they were dragging up to their hotel room. And I was like, I love it. Like, you're in New York. The shopping scene is better than it is in San Antonio. I like that you're just not in your, you're not in your hotel room, like, sulking, being stressed out. Like, well, oh, my God, I can't believe found 02 in the finals. Live your life, take your mind off the game, get some nice clothes. God knows how much money they spent. And then trailing behind them was Mason plumbly with one shopping bag. And I was like, Mason, like, come on, man. Like, what else you got to do? Just go out and have a little, have a little fun. The other thing that happened last night, and I didn't realize this until I got back and I was rewatching the game. So on Saturday, my daughter had a swim meet and I volunteered at the swim meet. And my job was I got a orange vest and my job was to be the male martial at the swim meet. And my main job is there's like an eight foot wide hallway, the opening when you come out, the swimmers come out of the locker room where I got a clear of parents at all times because it's just, it's just for the swimmers. Kids are like running around. If there's parents in the way, they're gonna bump into the parents. And so my job is basically to sternly tell parents, I know you wanna watch your kid race. You gotta get out of this. There was one guy I had to tell like six times in the course of the swim meet. And by time number four, I'm just straight up rude. I'm like, hey man, I've asked you like a bunch of times now. Can you just get out of here? And I'm watching the game back last night. That fucking dude is in the second row right behind one of the celebrities and he's on TV the entire game. And I'm like, who is this guy? It's just, it's like James Deluxe, like what rich, powerful guy that I fucking annoy by just kicking him out. And look, I'm ruthless. I had a friend who was trying to sneak in there and watch the meet. I was like, hey, I'm sorry. It's a very nice woman. Like, I gotta get you out of here. You're making me look bad in front of all these people. So I see this guy to you. I'm like, oh my God. What did I do? But yeah, spurs shopping, A-plush shopping game for the two unnamed spurs. - First of all, respect the vest. Are you having a vest on? - I haven't had a vest on. - Yeah, you have an orange vest. Respect the vest. It's a thankless job. The swim coach was like, thank you for doing this thankless job. And I was like, are you kidding? I love it. I get to be rude to these entitled adults. It's fucking awesome. Like, no, it's shockingly the rules also apply to you, sir. Like, I know that you're probably not used to that, but here I am with my vest on, but God only knows who the hell he is. He might run Goldman Sachs for all I know. There's some things about the, there's just like, it was a really weird game last night for a million reasons. Like, the whole like getting in stuff and like the announcements during the day. And like, I just want people that aren't here that like see the most extreme clips of the fans. That's not like the normal New York City experience. You're seeing the sort of like the, you're not seeing the bell curve of New York. You're seeing the very extreme ends of it 'cause there was some like violence and some like cop interactions and stuff that got weird. But like, all barato ending up in former Mayor Bloomberg's lap. - Didn't see that, I didn't see that from my seat. - Oh yeah, he goes to save a ball from going out of bounds and he's literally sitting up to the reverse lap. - I thought Bloomberg was hurt, dude. That was a pretty violent one. - And then like DJ Khaled on his phone the whole time. It was just like, I don't know. Maybe the president fell asleep. Maybe he didn't, I don't know. Who knows? It's hard to tell if he's like strange. It's hard to tell if he's asleep because he has like sort of a downcast view of like his, in general, where his eyes are facing it's hard, it's hard to tell. There were rumblings that, I have no idea if this is true or not, but there were rumblings going around that he wanted to sit courtside and that everyone was like, that's a terrible idea. And the first thing I thought of was not anything to Ferris, it was like Josh Hard diving for a loose ball. Fucking kicks the president in the face or something like that. Obviously, you got to put between Tracy Morgan and Fat Joe because I would pay all of my money just to watch a live stream of those three micro watching a playoff basketball game. It would be good. A lot of celebs in the crowd. They have the, he, everyone thought he was going to leave in the middle of the first quarter. He stayed, I think, for almost the entire game in his little class enclosure. Very bizarre. The whole vibe was bizarre in ways that it's just hard to explain it was. I mean, getting in was not that bad. Honestly, like I was, it was obviously much worse. But the arena was full 45 minutes before TIP, which is like what they were worried about is if, oh my God, if he's late or the crowd can't get in, are we going to start this game at the 842 tip time if there's like 15% capacity? And that didn't happen at all. They were, they were in the building, but it was, it was just strange. And yeah, I mean, prepare now. We got 36 hours of like, did Trump curse the next discourse that's going to dominate the airwaves in lieu of actual basketball. I don't want to say that like this whole thing with him and sort of what he brings to the table could have gone a lot worse. Like I, like you remember when Taylor Swift would go to chiefs games and they would like show work too much and like make it too much Taylor Swift, it really wasn't really impacting the game. Like they showed him during the anthem. If you have the president in the building, you're doing the national anthem in the 250 year anniversary of the country, like show the guy, you know? And like we can, we can talk about whether you got booted or cheered, who cares. But like it really didn't impact my viewing experience as a basketball fan. As much as I was terrified it was going to, like we can talk about basketball on this podcast. I thought he'd say something after the game that would inflame everyone, but it was still kind of whatever. - He did say that Stephen A Smith doesn't have the attitude to run for president. - I didn't want to mention that. I did not want to mention that. - Zach. - Zach, the finals are always talking for. The finals are always weird because it's such a show. Like I always tell people my favorite round of the playoffs to cover in person is the conference finals because the stakes are super high, but it still feels like almost a normal NBA game. Like there's more people, there's more media, but it's not insane. The step up from the conference finals to the finals is like it goes from a basketball game to a complete circus where you cannot get any real work done. And that's fine, like I, but it's such a circus that you get there three hours before tip. There's so much going on. There's so much extra good stuff that the game starts and you're almost like, oh yeah, there's a, I forgot they were all here for the basketball game. And you wonder, like the players must feel that sort of same, like I got to remember this is just a basketball game. Like I know we got to wait three hours of tips late. There's all this pomp and circumstance. I just got to focus on being approaching this like a normal basketball game. That felt like tripled last night. And just in terms of like we got, we were in the arena so early because we all got there so early. We didn't even know what to do with ourselves for three hours, three, four hours. And it's like, oh, that's right, there's a game. We're all here to watch a game. It was a very strange atmosphere, but we have a real, a real finals. The road team has not yet lost the game in the series. And look, if it goes back two, two, holy shit. Even if it goes back three, one, this verse have done enough to put themselves in position to win one home game and force the nicks to play here for the title with all the pressure in the world on them to try to close out the series. And when you fall behind 2-0 at home, that's really all you can ask for. Now they want to get 2-2, that's fine. They can definitely do it. The total point differential in the series is nicks plus seven. So it's a very close series. But just getting yourself in position, win game five and force them to do it under pressure in game six. I mean, Jacobi, if that, you'd have to come to that game. you'd have to find a way to be at that game. - I can't afford it, I cannot afford it. - Get a press ball as man, come to the game, I'll give you my press ball. - I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to be at the legal side. - I want my head against this, against the ceiling. And also like you can't cheer and you can't have a beer. - That's true. - Like what's the point of going to the game if you're just like have a laptop out and take notes? That's what I do here in my office when I'm watching the game last night. - I did see a media member last year game one of the conference finals, drinking a beer on press row. And I remember Chris Mannix and I looked at each other like, how what is this? - This is the industry for it, that's not happening here. - Maybe it was, I'm gonna say that's probably non-alcoholic beer, it must have been. - It was not, we checked what beer was and it was not. - Oh wow. - The finals brings out a lot of weirdness. It just does, I don't know, Kirk any concluding thought, what did we miss here? I mean, I have a whole list of notes that I can people for a day of trying to find a comp for the Knicks in the entire history of professional basketball in terms of like pretty good team. Like, you know, it went 53 games, not a great, like sixth in net rating or something that becomes a supernova team in the playoffs to win the title. And let me tell you, it's hard to find a good comp for them in that sense, but I found a couple, but we can table that for a day because the spurs are back in the series and he can, what did we miss, Kirk? - I got three like orphan stats that I'll give you that I think are pretty interesting. - Perfect, Brunson is a minus five net rating in this series as you pointed out, Towns is a plus 12.5. I think that's really weird. I looked up while Jacobi was talking about all the dribble in the air out of the ball. Jalen Brunson has dribbled the ball 1,590 times in these three games, Stefan Castle ranks second at 813. - I wonder where last night would rank in like dribbles per game for Brunson for the whole season. I tried to look that up and I couldn't figure out how. - I looked it up, I have it here. It's not as highest. There have been many, many more than, he's averaging about five or six dribbles per touch and he's getting a hundred touches. So he's up there, but he is the bite of the dominant dribbler in this series. And again, that goes back to this. That's sort of a quirky stat. This usage surge, those act. Like it is bordering on hero ball. And if the Spurs win game four, I think that discourse is gonna get a little louder. I mean, obviously the Nick's need Brunson to be the straw that serves the drink. But it might be doing little too much strawing and none enough stirring. And then lastly, I think what Miss Johnson did in the fourth quarter using challenges and timeouts to keep Wembee in the game for the entire duration of the fourth quarter, which to my understanding was the first time that happened to all playoffs. I think even in that OKC overtime game, Kornet played in the fourth quarter. The Spurs are really hard to beat in those Wembee minutes. And if they can make this science of getting Kornet in at the exact right times against the right lineups and they don't turn it over, that's the last stat. That was the by four of the best Spurs turn over game of the series seven turnovers. They turn them something like that. But the Spurs have a road map now. And as a bias Spurs observer, I think they got to keep doing what they're doing. And to your point, absolutely framed. Man, if they win game four, all bets are off. - Wembee plus 10 for the series, minus 17 when he's off the floor. So Kornet, you know, do the math. They don't really have a good alternative to Kornet. I mean, it's just they would have to be so small that I'm not sure they want to go that route. But yeah, the timeouts were interesting because there was the one timeout he took right after a challenge when the Knicks did the thing where they sort of moved the chess pieces around to the point that Wembee toggled on the towns. And then they cleared that side of the floor and ran up Brunson town's pick and roll. It's exactly what they want. And then Wembee blitzed Brunson, turned the corner and got a layup. And Miss Johnson called the timeout. And I was like, is he mad? Or is this just, is this just like a rest Wembee timeout? And maybe it was both, I guess. - Yeah, I got a weird staff for you, Goldsbury. - Spurs had five fast break points. - Yeah. - In the game. I mean, a lot of it was because the second half was so choppy, right? But like, I was pretty shocked. - Yeah, and to paraphrase Kenny Atkinson as we wrap up, analytically this series is tied. - Oh, stop. - No, we're not going back there. We're not going back here. - Analytically this deal is tied, guys. - It can't be tied. There's only been three games. You just don't know the analytics, Zach. You don't know the analytics. This thing is tied, baby. - I'm playing checkers. You're playing for the chess. I miss red you. - Yeah, the transition defense has been outrageous on both. I mean, Ann and Obie, I feel like has two outrageous transition defensive plays every game. Bridges had one where he sprinted black, back and deflected the pass. But again, these games do not let up. The intensity is off the charts. I cannot wait for game four at the world's most famous arena. I expect an even better performance out of the MSG crowd. Those who can afford to attend the game, which is a whole different story. David Jacobi, Miss match recorded last night, right? I get that's going to be my listening. When I go get my fat ass to the hotel gym. Today that in Bill's time, I got a lot to listen to. What else are you recording? I can't keep track of everyone's schedules anymore. - We do Thursday nights. So I'll have a nice Wednesday watching the game and not having to stay up until one in the morning afterwards. And food news every Friday. - Look at that. - Do it a little bit. - KG, what do we got from you this week? You did a big fine review. You picked spurs and seven, I think was your pick. - It is. And I'm committed to write a game five look ahead piece. Which now is gonna happen. There was a time where it's like, maybe I won't have to do that, you know? - But I have to do it. So look for that, I would guess Friday. - Yeah, there's a big party that I was gonna go to the night of game five if there were a sweep. I'm out of my RSVP is officially no. I'm ready and willing to have a long series here. All right, David Jacobi, Kurt Goldberg. Thanks for waking up early after a long, long night. We will see you back here on this show after, I don't know, whatever Thursday morning, I think after game four, whatever is happening. I don't know. Thank you guys, talk to you soon. All right, that's it for today's edition of the Zach Loach. So thanks to the great David Jacobi and Kurt Goldberg for their time and analysis and humor. Thank you to Mike, Billy and Jonathan as always on production. Thank you to you all for listening to and/or watching the Zach Loach show. I'll be back around this time Thursday morning after attending game four at Madison Square Garden. It'll either be two two and holy smokes or three one and nicks on the verge. Either way, we'll break it all down. Maybe talk some NBA draft trades, who knows. Thank you all for listening or watching the Zach Loach show. 21 are over and president select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas, Star Casino or 18 and over in president DC. You can tuck your Wyoming gambling problem. Call one in 100 gambler or one 800, my reset. Call one 888, 789, 777, 777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut. Or is it mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland? Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelpblindma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24/7's important Massachusetts. 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