Final Thoughts and Looking Ahead

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To learn more, check out acccenture. com slash Spotify. O the Zacklo show live from New York City The spurs 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 in attendance, lotots of delays, all of that It got dicey toward the end after an and Oi three in a very dicey inboundnce play, but Steph Castle knocks down to free throws. He had a big three, Weemy had a monster game. We got David Jacobbe and Kurt Goldsbury here. We're going to do a three man weave and we talk about everything. What do the Spurs do adjustment wise to sort of unlock Weby rolling to the rim. How can the Kicks counter that We get into the X's and ns, 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 two one. It is the ultimate swing game of the series, credit to the Surs last night for coming out and winning in a very hostile environment in a strange game and a strange night, a night like no other in New York City. so we have David and Kirk here Jacoby and Goldsbury to break it all down. That's all coming up on the Zachlo show, All things NBA finals, two one Nicks pivotal game for. I cannot wait for Wednesday night So we have series the San Antonio furgers with their backs against the wall and the president in the building Oh boy cameame back and won game three in Madison Square Garden. It's two one. They needed at least a split. This is the power of F court advantage that all the spurs really need to hope for. is get it to three two Ns. Now they want to be three two squur. That's fine. but if it's three two nicks They w win game five at home put all the pressure on the Kicks to close it out in game six and Madison Square Garden. They have given themselves a chance to at least do that with an awesome win. Wemby with a thirty two 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 mix rally and a sideline on a bounceplay 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 for Game four. Well, first of all, we have Kurt Goldsbury and we have David Jacobbe. We have a whole full crw take because it's the freaking finals. How you guys doing R 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 going with it once twice after a loss in game three. I'm not sure how Nicks fans would respond to that one, but we're we'll deal with it once The way out was a complete mess. I saw a woman get arrested on thirty second 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 U and it was a fun game and now we get we got a game for I would argue game four of a two one finals Maybe my favorite sort of swing game of the finals because 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 potential closeout game. Th those are like known commodities. two one has this glorious air of mystery where it's either going to be two two, sppurs have rallied back and tied it up or three one and the Kicks 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 dis like not dis. 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 was 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 the disperse had a lead Oh my God are the Nicks going to do this and go up threez 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 Wimbinyama possession I think it was over a minute. before Castle hit the three That possession like wasn't going anywhere. It kind of felt like he just wanted to like dribble out the shot clock and just like take twenty four seconds off the clock and not even attempt to shot the basket. that didn't No one was moving, nothing was happening. And I was thinking to myself, like this is another late game collapse for the Spurs. That was 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 in the series, but like Just to responond to your crowd thing It was a very strange day in New York City yesterday, just like all around You know, because you're getting these reports of like these Glass structures being put up like around like eight city blocks And then like shams dropped an airPod and ran up on by security and people are getting there three hours early and like The city's on fire. It's a Monday too, which is kind of like a low energy day in the city and it was a strange crowd. I think that a lot of the reason and I don't want to lead with fouls and reps 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 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 Um And I just my only commentary is my personal experience, I just want to get it out of the way because it must be mentioned My personal experience when they showed The president on the jumbot Tron was I'm going to my ears, it sounded like seventy five, twenty five booze. It did not sound like a hundred percent. booze raining down on the president. There was some cheers, there was some screaming. I just it wasn't People were debating in the PUC tweets like, o boooed out of the building. It did not sound like to me, he was booed out of the building Kurt Goldsbery, 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 When Castle imbounds and throws it to Dern Fox who has to tippy toe around the half court line, pass it right back to Castle. And if Jal and 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 did you when did you fear evenven as the sppurs open up like an eight point lead, et cetera. when did you or did you fear at all like uh oh, the Nicks might actually pull this off No, it was terrifying. When OG hit the corner three at the end of the game, I was still like, oh, the Kicks are going to steal this. like They are so terrifying. I'm slightly rooting for the spurs. no shock or 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 I'll playoffs sl They started off that fourth quarter Zack 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 eighteen or sixteen threes. it was to Jacobi's point, very choppy, notot exactly just shot making on display, When Wendby blocks shamot at the Rim to, I thought that was another It 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 he was in game three and the stat that really epitomizes this to me, Zach Low They had won Ali Up in the first two games to Wemy U they connected on four of those in game three. Most of them early, Dearan Fox not making his shots, not playing great, but he is making passes. They had four loobs and they got Weemby eight Dunkson layups. 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 there was a final where they blitzed Castle at halfport and he just like And I thought Castle you had he had two or three bad turnovers and a bad three shot foul on N and Oi and those are like the become, I think Castle has become prematurely. a little bit of a polarizing player. likeike I don't like 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 H his mistakes are loud and that's Rusian I just think he's been awesome. I mean, 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, he would just make the simple kickout pass to Harper who hits a three or then swings it to Fox who drives and throws a lob to Wembenam, all that stuff. But they clearly had a directive throw the lob I thought Weemby said better screens, which is something that Stan Van Gundy hit right after game one. Like if you're going to get if you if you want to get clean rollles to the rim You got to hit people and force your guy to engage on the ball handler and give you a lane to the rim. I thought Um I thought he did that and fififty five percent of his fuel goal attempts cameame at the rim last night of accord cleaning glass. That's by far as high asest number in the series. and look, a lot of the game is Wenby thirty two points, cat eleven points and felt a little bit like a little bit like an aftersought That said the Nick scored one hundred and twenty points per one hundred possessions, which is a very good number And that feels a little I don't want to say misleading, but I wouldn't I wouldn't say that because that number is good, the Kicks had like a really good offensive performance. What they got was the Josh hard game and it's always painful when they waste the Josh hard game. When he's hits threerees, they almost always win. and Annaobie just continues to hit everything in sight. Anenobe for the playoffs is averaging twenty points a game on I had it somewhere and now I lost it. It's like fifty seven percent shooting, forty seven percent on threes or something like that and like two and a half stocks a game. He's been It's hard to argue he's been their best player because Brunson just does so much Ball Brunson is shooting thirty seven percent for the series and we'll talk about his over dribbling, I think later. Um But Anonobbe' awesome and but I do think that number is a little Oblown. I'll tell you what I thought when I made in my notes, uh oh was when Weemby missed that lefty layup with like three forty five 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 hundred at one hundred two. 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 Um, but they they pulled it out and uh Yeah, what else? I mean, like what else did you notice, Kirk? Like what else did this first change if anything in this game Well the other moment, the other O shit moment for the sppurs, I felt like was going to swing the whole series was when that four point play correctly, by the way, got reversed. Kelinon Johnson, what are you doing pushing Mitchell Robinson into Victor Wemonyama? But they look like a Larry Johnson style four point play for the Spurs and then they wiped it off. It just felt like That was going to be the moment that the series turn, but credit to the Spurs Another point on OG An andobie and Brunson before I get quickly to the sppurs. and I'm going ask Jac Kobe about this Ohjeez Incredible. Towns is playing great. Are we seeing too much Brunson? His usage has surged. His usage in the regular season is thirty. It's forty. His true shooting percentage in the regular season is fifty eight. It's down to forty six And you can say that's playoffs to copes U But for me in the context of what Zach's laying out there with OG shooting the shit out of it, Twns being great Bridge is being hot Are we seeing too much Bronson? Like there's a path for the Spurs to get back into this ack. Like they did to Antman and like they did to SGA they can sort of take that lead guard and make him an inefficient scorer and the other guys have don't have enough. The thing with the Kicks is that supporting cast is so good That group is just not getting enough shots. So if the if the if the sppurs are able to steal game two, I'm actually going to look at at that shot distribution on the Nicks box score to Kobe and say Are we seeing Hero ball from Brunson in the face of great supporting cast members Well things about that. thinkink about the way that you were previewing this series and the way that I thought about this series. I said before this 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 in town series. makes are kind of like a little bit bigger Two through two through, you know, four and everybody else knows biger than Win Binyama. Yeah. And I felt that really this was going to be Less Brunson dribbling around and trying to get inside and little euro stepping and shooting one footed fadeaways likeike I thought there'd be a lot less of that than there is now. And I thought it was interesting because everyone' talking about Mike Brown talking about The fouls, but he had a c 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 scream for the guy in the corner, and then he cuts and then Brunson cuts off of that and he's moving off the ball The stuff that they were doing thirteen game win streak was not Hero Ball Brunson. And down the stretch, we go to that under five minutes. That's just that's just what happens and it works But I think that there's a little too much of that in the third quarter and the fourth quarter when he was in I think the third quarter, the beginning of the third quarter when the sppurs were down seven And the crowd was really at a fever pitch at going into halftime 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 restst control of the game, the other team responds and gets right back into it. It's been like a These games just do not let up. They're so intense and the biggest lead has probably been like twelve I think fourteen for a hot second in game two But 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 to give this and Brunson, by way for the series, he's averaging twenty seven points. four assists, four turnovers. His assisted turnovers are exactly equal thirty seven percent. And again, grain of salt through three games is plus thirty one Brunson through three games minus thirteen Something is just a little off something was a little off kilter with the process last night, T many tough shots Too much dribling, 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 U in terms of like Nick's offense versus Spurs defense versus the other side of the floor Nick offense versus Spurs defense You kind of have to watch it withith one eye on Wimbonyama at all times and your other eye trying to follow the ball I think Birds are just mixing up where Wbbinyama is U And the simplest way to put it is when When it's like starters versus starters They don't want When beyond towns But they also don't want him definitively not on towns because they're scared of towns posting up They're smaller wing players and that's all they have and their're starting lineup compared towns anywhere, smaller wing players And so they have Weenby just sort of tagging out, tagging out, tagging out, hanging out in the corner. And the Nicks art spending time figuring out How do we want to set up the chessbard to best attack that? sometometimes they did it really smartly. like they'll have like ideally the ideal spurs possession is Josh Hart stands in the corner and Wendby can stand there and it's risk free and he's guarding Hart, but he's just really guarding that area And the Kicks are not putting hard there.ll if he starts in the corner, they'll switch him out and put a shooter like An andobi in the corner and they'll move Cat around and they'll try to find a time in a possession where ir. is on one side of the floor and it's two Nicks versus two spurs and then they'll run like a Brunson toowns pick and roll. they if they see Victor is toggled on towns. They'll attack that match upp that way and try to and like, you know, who's really good at this and when the ball started popping is Alvarado Cperado comes in and he's looking for Kat right away and he's looking for those matchups right away. And God forbid, if Cornett is in the game trying to guard Kat, it's death and they just went to that over and over again in the third quarter. think Plus and minus of this forinama is this is a tough match upp for him defensively because the Kicks make it hard. They have one of the greatest stretch big men of all time. They move hard around, they move the chest pieces around and that's when they get into that blender of like the kind of blender that led to that when 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 Kat kind of disappear from the game and I'm fascinated Jacob, like 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 um, This morning. Watched all of Cat's shot attempts And it was it was really interesting because games wanted to If he had Mbinyama in front of him, at the three point line. I felt very confident 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 to fense play the year not click on his feed. And when he's closing out, you can get past him. You know what I mean? L OG O O. Yeah. OG lo OG. So the difference between the that shhambit block was so frustrating because OG has mastered haaving Wimbinyama behind you, but then just sneaking the ball over the top of the ri with two hands like just sort of like making it just quick enough and like sneaky enough. But then Sham is trying this like finger roll thing and that's just gonna to get eaten up by him. towns When I watched his ten shot attempts this morning, When Medyama was, I want to say around him. for one or two of those. And a lot of it was just Oh, corornets here, let me go. All 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 obviously they have them on heart now, but there's something about towns last night, lack of aggression that It's just it just can't they're not it's not winning if he takes ten shots I'm gonna happ 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 treason. they didn't they kind of let go of that Um The other thing the Spurs finally made Brunson work a lot more defensively last night. They put him in according to the tracking data genenius IQ. They put him in twenty one ball screens as the guy defending the screener that had been I think twenty four 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 five of eighteen, 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 eleven minutes together last night. You can see the Spurs trying. I mean, this is This is what the finals are supposed to be in a leadite opponent drags you out of your comfort zone. and like Champagney didn't really do too much last night Keldin and Johnson, they kind of can't decide if he's good for this series bad for this series I think there's a place for him in this series because he's the one Non Wemby guy that can physically at least make towns work a little bit. And so when he and Weemby are on the floor together, They could put him on towns and have Wendby instead of doing all this fancy stuff. If Heart's on the floor just guard hard and actually think I think the spurs are taking Wemby off of heart a little bit too easily like So what Hart moves up from the corner to set a ball screen for Brunson and Anobbe moves to the corner to replace him You don't have to stay on Anonobbe. You can still guard Josh Hart and yeah, they'll do a hard Bruntson hard picking roll. J just drop back hang out in the paint like Josh Hart's not going to hurt you from out there I think they're overdoing it with that a little bit, but Um Yeah, 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 Bell Wemby like that those four guys together, that's a good mix of defense offense size, but man, this is 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 Jacobi, we should have the officiating conversation now becausecause the Spurs have a big free throw edge in the series They had a huge free throw edge in the second half last night, twenty four to eight Brown did the press conference thing where he's like I'm going to give Dpurers credit. They play great. I'm not going to 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 going to be tough for us, but I'm not blaming them. But if they do that, he actually said, if they do that They do what if they call f. So You know What did you think, Jacobbe? Be you're're you're the Nix perspective here to some degree. like what did you think of the officiating Well, I'm on like seventeen Nick 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 minus B plus crowd. I think that the crowd got into their heads too. like on that bridges call onn 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 rewatched like the fourth quarter calls because one of the biggest things was those early fourth quarter calls. there's they're the b They're in the b two minutes into all of a sudden Yeah, of a suden they're the bus. Those were vous E time you walk clear Fall A They're fouls, but it's also inconsistent with everything I've seen in this series. everyvery time When Binyama goes to set of screen Towns has got two arms around him and everything like anytime 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 fowlels. We're just sort of like inconsistent with 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 impossible to keep track of what's called, what's not called. It's just a whirlwind of physicality U The three polarizing ones were Webinyamo mushing Brunson to the ground and not getting called for anything, which I didn't notice. in real time from my seat the ceiling of Madison Square Garden. I can almost touch the ceil. 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 it's hard to see that happening. And that was probably a foul, obviously a foul U What did you think of the, u Castle smashes into Brunson and they review it for a flagrant and decide that it's not a flgrrant Yeah, that's a good one. First of all as a Spurs guy. I mean, Weenby should have been called for that foul on Bronson. It was a nasty sort of agro move not right did not I' not quite the Let's not I was arrested after last night's gam because because there was a lot of There be too ice action at defin don't D don't wear a spurs jersey in Brian Park to my friends from Texas. But I'll say this, dude That reminded me exactly of Carter Bryant crashing against Shay Gildis Alexander a couple times last round where these guys are clearly instructed to be physical tack closing Uh, and then, you know, He shoved Sayen Brunson, that's not in question. It could have been a foul? Yeah, probably I mean, it wasn't a fl. It was called a foul. It was a flgrant foul I don't think so, But then like I was on a text thread with some Nick fans and I was like, this one's going to piss you off because then I forget who was shooting the three, but Berntson 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 like minutes I didn't like minutes after that. I went And that one. I watched that one like ten times lastess than when I back to my hotel room and I don't know that I've seen a landing spot foul Quite like that Um He jumps like sideways. He jumps toward the sideline because that's the angle Brunson is coming from and he doesn't Like his latitude or whatever, longitude, whatever, whatever the right one is doesn't change. likeike he jumps straight towards 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 Nicks were twenty fifth in free throw rate in the regular season. L's like it's like when the pistons would complain about free throw discrepancy. It's like are you going to acknowledge that you led the league and fouls in the regular season or is that just not going to be acknowledged call I didn't like The other thing is like, Those I mean, the Kicks 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 have to win to win this series And they were minus five and turnovers last night And some of them were just fucking boneheed throws right to the other team 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 whereere Clarkson just picked Devin Visll's pocket in the right corner Great moment for the Kicks like a guy who, by the way, monster game for Jordan Clarkson off the bench A guy you don't necessarily expect much of, certainly not on defense Cookies I'm Devin Visll and then throws an outlet pass to nobody except Steph 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. their turnovers were a little floppy and I don't know it's Kobo whatse we want to talk about in this scand. So there's a lot to get into Well I have to have this conversation with you in Krage Um When Wimbenyama elbowed Naz reid 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 timimbol' jersey And I But My blood is still a little bit boiling about this Brunson thing Because I've seen it a million times. Which which Brntson thing The mud, whichich one do you think I'm talking about? The mud mud. Yeah. L What is he responding to? What is that a retaliation for I think I think he's emotionally can't control himself Honestly. and I really I really I started drawing up a dislike for him. this summer And now it's just at a million I cannot stand this guy. I hate his outfits. I hate his face. I hate his hair. I hate everything about him. I just think he such a try hard curated But he goes to the park and he's drawing in the park with his friend. He's like sketching bush with like a graphite pencil. I just can't stand it. and like And the idea that Brown won't like, hey, huck Porty Go in for thirty seconds and get kicked out of the game. because he just basasically mush push, punched, whatever, our best player. and then Castle comes and like, oh, wh it's a flragrant or a foul. It is the exact same thing that Carter Bryant did to she. And then we have the Victor Wimbinyama whispering in Byombo and Plumley's ears as they go in. likeike 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 W women Yum You canot not disagree with me with my opinion Look at your opinion, Kirk, would you like to respond to me? I mean, How is your drawing game? How is do are you do you do coal? Do you do crayon? color p? like what do you like? Landscape wasas that Gamary park? Where was he s? Grammar I think it was it was a fenced off park, right? so that he could be could get in. They're very strict about it. I'm a charcoal man. I mean, call me old fashion, but I'm a charcoal man Uh, look. The other thing the wimpy 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 of Victor Emanyama in plays that Spurs fans would point out and be like, dude, these are fouls if they're against Brunson. Nobbody can hold Brunson like this Every time he goes into the paint. Nobody can just yank on Shay Gil just Alexander's arm everyvery time there's a loose ball in the air. Oh I have to stop you at the mention of Shay Giltus Alexander. I have to Did you guys see Sam Presti's end of your end of yourase. Please hold more on this. Yes. I cannot let this I cannot let this slide Um, So Sam does incredible press conferences after every season. He answers every question and the Thunder have 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, Jillen Williams didn't after one game when he got injured, didn't talk to the media, but they come out and they address the series And here's what Sam Psty said about Shake Gilis Alexander and the u dialogue about whether he's a grrifter or a flopper or whatever. Playing against six people, Psty said. He has five defenders and the sixth defender is social media. It's the 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 Missionmossible movie? the the entity, the entity decides to target, But nobody is going to handle it as gracefully. Okay. I can't I cannot I'm sorry to deviate from the finals and whatever you're going to say about Weemby, who is getting mulved and did elbow almost decapitate Oz Read and somehow not get fined for it, which I thought was insane I just can't let this quote pass Am I the only one who's like, what what Social media. The head coaches of like half the NA teams. It's not just yes, you'll get the zaprooter stuff on social media. Who fucking cares about that? Let's start lining 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 and Porschet 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 that amm 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 Gildas 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 Um, and Nobody's attacking it unfairly. I think that is a fair point. In the same way that I just took Jacobbe's point. Yeah, Weemby should have been, you know, that's bullshit. He shouldn't do that to Brunson Um, Some of these dudes have these tendencies. and I think Yeah, I watch the whole press conference. I love when Sam Presti gives these end to the ear 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 that was like a misstep. and I think it reveals Z sort of a paranoia about the Thunder, how they feel like they're being disrespected internally. but I would be curious, Jacobbe, this this is for you. You're going to cook on this What do you think of Sam Presty defending SGA here? I understand it Um 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 h. He does. like that's correct. He's right about. That's a fact. He does. L he does handle he does when he said that, I was like, yeah, you're kind of right. But but one of the things that really struck me when he said that is We can delete these apps on our phones. likeike it is a choice Like you you know, like It's one thing like, you know, to be mad at the refs or the defenders or the physicality, like the way we're talking about this series But like Yeah, there's going to be noise on social media You know, there's there's going to be noise on social media and I think it's sort of be your job professional athlete and even a professional NBA executive to sort of disregard that I agree with you that S she handles it gracefully, I actually don't think I'm probably on the low end of the continuum of anger about SGAs flopping. L everybody like Brunson flops. L tons of people flop He falls a lot. He takes a lot of very hard off balance jumpers and whatever. likeike I don't likeike he's a little heart esque 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 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 mauled He is getting maulded. I get it and I don't like I offfficiating over an X amount of series is going 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. L for me, it's a geographic thing on the court. L the contact allowances, depending on where you are and who you are on the basketball court are wildly different This isn't be being a sppurs Homer But again, if anybody yanked on guard, like they yank on Wemby It would be like flavored fells all game long I think he gets frustrated. Jacobbe, 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 U But I think he's expressing frustration. Even last night, we saw a couple of fouls correctly called on toowns 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 U a reflection on a stature more than anything, but Yeah, he gets frustrated.'s gonna he's gonna to act out. And then at halftime, I thought 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 w be young man. Not the most Not the most notable inside the NBA comment at halftime, apparently from from from my Twitter read suggested That was classic. S you missed one classic game and I got back to my ownue like wait Charles said what? Legend is great huh proose something to you guys that was sort of like my biggest takeaway from game three, right We all know happened in game O one the twobe, right? All of a suden Carlinth through Towns is out playaying Wimbin Yama and Wimbin Yaman you know throws the ball off of Steph Castle and then fouls and he has to sit with that and think about it and watch the film and everything. to start the game He gets what. Three dunks in a layu in the first seven minutes and they're running these these great sort of like stagger screens like it just really it felt like the first drive of a big football game when they've got the plays scripted You know what I mean? 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, Throw the ball up towards the rim and let the nine foot guy be nice and tall. and like as the ge went on, They went away from that Like I felt like Wimen Yama played well, but I do think if I'm a sppurs supporter or a Nicks fan, you're terrified of this I think that You can do that for four quarters of a basketball game But they really only did. I tracked all his eighteen shots today too it's alive from Fox Dunkkss on OGF you pins him Another pin with an easy little drop in And then he goes around OG and scores and gets an an one on towns And sort of like the rest of his shots, he's taking a couple of threes. he's takaking some mid range shots. You know, he does get two more loobs in the game, but like O the spurs like This does and this S shaq sort of reminded me of this because you always hear Shq the big man get in there and don't cut everybody. You know what I mean? Like that' sort of like antiquated way of like looking at the game, but when you're Shaack, you can say stuff like that because you actually did that kind of feel like that way about Wy. It's like you're nine feet tall Go near the basket. fesike het have be w one where he missed his own shot. He just tipped it back in with his other hand Like, I don't know. I just feelt like there's a lot of room. I think as Wy gets older and more sort of polished, you'll see a lot more stuff around the rim and less outside. Yeah, one hundred percent Zach, I actually have a nerdy stat that captures J Kobe's point. So then go and then we'll take a break F first two games. Obviously spurs lose, Weemby's average shot distance was sixteen 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 ten. It's the lowest number amount. So it's just we're seeing it in the numbers two. We're seeing it in the eye test. But yeah, go to the rim. Shaack's right on this one. I want to talk more about that. Let's just take a quick break and we'll get back to the Wimby issue This episode is brought to you by Mclobe 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. LeBrone block on Andrew Gadal, I was there. I had a perfect angle on it. I almost had a heart attack on Fz Row. I ran to a monitor to try to see if he actually got in and it wasn't a goolten and I felt like I needed A Micalow Bltra. 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Multiple entry periods, see official rules at miclob Ultra dot com slash courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details Okay, Weemby rolling to the rim Dunks crazy put backacks firstirst of all Again eleven of eighteen from the floor. thirty two eight six three blocks, including that epic one on shhamot with four and four minutes in change left A plus response from Weenby after a gas 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 turnovers in NBA Fals history Um, It's the rolling to the Rim thing is interesting because you mentioned Jacobi, the staggered screens that the sppurs 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 Champanny And the other is Lembonyama And The reason that's interesting is because If Champannei 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 floor as a 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 F from the rim 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 Kicks who are huge on the wing, as you noted earlier, Jacobia with brridges Heart and An andi. are just pulling way in off everybody else. and so And the sppurs for whatever reason on a lot of these plays have Harper or Castle whichever one of them is not handling the ball kindind of in the dunker spot, so their defender is close to the paint He goes there and there's just a ton of traffic and he had one play where he caught it and Hart stepped up the Dunker spot guy And Wendby stopped 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 Weemby who relocated for a three. So I'll findine. he gets a three out of it Ideally you would love to script the offense so that Brunson is the guy, the defender in the dunker spot because oney doesn't see him. He'll just run right over him and dunk Champanne 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 and parcel of how the Kicks 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 handlers think And like I said earlier, I think one of the counters that the Spurs made last night was Castle just making the simple kickout 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 firstse 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 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 go It's you got Moss over and over again. if you get if you get him away from the low manan who's tagging him or whatever the other opponents that 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 Wimby Dunk differential, which is looking at his dunks versus his jump shots. It' sort of an expression of of his passive nature sometimes. In game one, he had four dunks and twelve jumpers. These are attempts, not makes fourour Dunks and twelve jumpers and dunks and lie upps, I should say, attempted. twelve jumpers, four Dunks and layups in game one In game two, it's almost even. eleven dunks and laps against ten jumpers and in game three guys. eleven dunks and labs 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 always los as Jacobbe pointed out. It's pinning guys down like He doesn't have to have the best footwork. He has so many physical gifts Uh he just needs to to be stronger. And if I had one point to say like, what are we learning about Weemby'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 Um all playoffs long And that's, I think the reason why we don't see it Jacobbe all four quarters long is like he 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, whoeverver it is has to come up with a game plan that gets that sort of dunk differential to be in the right sort sort of order. He needs to have more shots in the paint than he does outside of the paint U Zach going forward. Yeahah. and then so the last point I'd make is and this is sort of a minutia thing, but going at Brunson like they did He had four fouls too. That was a 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 champanne 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 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 Anonobia 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 a long 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 And we've never seen it again Uh they've obviously avoided that since, but yeah, the Brunson the Brunson Fouls were were an issue, but like I just why I know it's boring 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. likeike there are a couple of times where Weemby got it and probably could have dropped it off to Harper who's a powerful finisher. That Dunk Harper had cut F from Corette was like, holy cow off two feet. that guy's like jumping off a trampoline. U 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 bothoth 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 of it. So that's just like a a fun thing to watch. We probably should talk about Speaking of Nick's lineups, we haven't mented bridges at all Yeah 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 best sort of like all offense all shooting lineup, which is the starting lineup but shamit in place of heart that did not play a second in this game because their rotation got jumbled. That lineup is plus forty one in twenty three minutes in the playoffs. L it's just like an explosion. on the court it turned game to. in the second quarter, we didn't see any of it. And I'd 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 Ns like down moment in a while 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 bellweeters for the team and they go through these stretches where They're kind of not involved or whatever. and like we haven't had that in a while and we had it again, Jacobbe. Like they're the guys who it always seems to come back to them A few thoughts on that Part of it is Brunson just dribbling the air out of the ball for eighteen seconds. And I think you know, you know, we're all sort of older. Like I remember the old school point cards d, you know what The Bridges has zero points. You look up like M I get him a ball. you know, like I get him involved. And I feel like there's a little bit of onus on Frson to be that guard to you know spread the ball around, get off the ball more than he does. and one thing about Listen, the Nicks were just on fire for the last month and a half, right? You know But do you remember when Duce M Bride in game four and Philly had like seven threes in the first half Or Landy Shamot was eleven for thirteen and They say like role players play better at home The role players for the Kicks did not play better last night. you know, And I think with no bridges, Cham it one for seven from three. A couple of those are pretty good Lable But who it look too And yes, I expected some of those to go down. Du sort of like doing nothing for eight minutes in this game was a little bit of a concern Um Clarkson played well and so of Alvarado I expect that to be a change for game four. I just don't I don't think they'll be as hot as've been for the last month and a half, but I think a few nicks just kind of like Really late in egg last night. This summer, Fanou is the best place to bet on goals. Including equalizers. Uhuh. Boies? Yeah, headters. Every goal is worth more on fan dou. So let there be goals. You customers get three hundred fiftyteen bonus bets guaranteed when you bet five dollars for seven days. twenty one plus in present and select dates. First online real money wager only, minimum five dollar wager required for seven consecutive days. five dollars first deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expiire seven days after receipt r supplyies f terms at famoolot com sllash sportsboard. Gambling problem call one eight hundred gambler or one eight hundred My reseset. 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He's been outstanding defensively I think he only had one turnover last night. likeike he's just not forcing anythingything And there was that one play where you got the ball in the post and like four guys were on him and he was just sort 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 U very much last night. The one thing they get out the one thing um, I think the Ns could do if they just need a simpler thing to do is They could hunt Fx like the Surs are hunting Brunson. L Fox is clearly not one hundred percent and probably not close to one hundred percent And the Nicks have only put him in fifteen ball screens as the guy defending the screener in the entire series and that you know, they the Spurs put Brunson in twenty one last night. I think that's a little a little place. Um that the Nicks can pull, but honestly, like As a neutral fan here. I'm kind of glad the Surers won in the game last night because now we have a chance at us we get a special a special game for and like look for a young team. That was a hell of a response. And can I tell you? But I started to think, all, maybe this just have this in them. Can I tell you what I saw the day before the game? I walked from Grand Central. I got into Grand Central with my little roller bag on my way to my hotel. And I realizeed, oh, I'm going pass by the hotel where the Spurs are staying at some point I So 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 Uh this was like clock at night or something like that Um And between them, they had, I'm going to conservatively estimate fourteen 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 who o my God, I can't believe downown zo two in the finals Live your life, takeake your mind off the game get some nice clothes. God knows how much money they spent and then trailing behind them was Mason pllumly with one shopping bag. And I was like, Mason, like, come on man. L like what else you got to do? Just go out and have a little Aave a little fun Um The other thing that happened last night u And I didn't realize this until I got back and I was re watchatching the game So on on Saturday, my daughter had a swimmat. And I volunteered at the swim meet. And my job was I got an orange vest And my job was to be the male marshal at the swim meet. And my main job is There's like an eight foot wide hallway opening when you come out, the swimmers come out of the locker room where I got to clear it 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 to bump into the parents. And so my job is basically to sternly tell parents I know you want to watch your kid raace. You got to get out of this There was one guy I had to tell like six times in the course of the swim meat. And by time number four I'm just straight up rude. I'm like,y man I've asked you like bunch of times now. C 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? just It like James Lelitzk, likeike what rich powerful guy that I fucking annoy by just kicking 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 very nice woman. Like, I gott to get you out 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 plus stopping game for the two unnamed spurs First of all, respect the vest you have a vest on? You haveange vest on Yeah, you have an orange vest. Rpect the vest It's a thankless job. The swim coach was like, thank you for doing this thankless job. And I was like, arere you kidding I love it. I get to be rude to these entitled adults. It's fucking awesome. Like No shockingly the rules also apply to you, sir. L 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 Yeah, there's some things about the game. There wass just like it was a really weird game last night for a million reasons. likeike 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 because there was some like violence and some like cop interactions and stuff that got weird. but like Albarado ending up in . Boomberg's lap You I see that? I didn't see that? I didn't see that from my seat Oh yeah, he goes to he goes to save a ball from going out of bounds and he's like literally sitting up the a flap I thought Bloomberg was hurt, dude. That was a pretty violent one And then like DJ Call's on his phone the whole time. It was just like I don't know, mayaybe the president fell asleep, mayaybe he didn't I don't know, who knows, you know, it's hard to tell rage It's hard to tell if he's asleep because he has like sort of a downcast view of of like his in general where his eyes are facing. It's 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 everyone was like, that's a terrible idea. And the first thing I thought of was not anything to Ferus. It was like Josh Hart diving for a loose ball fucking kicks the president in the face or something like that.it, you got to put between Tracy Morgan and Fat Joe becausecause I would pay All of my money just to watch a live stream of those three miced up watching a playoff basketball game. It would be a lot of celebs in the crowdliz they have those he everyveryone 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 Glass enclosure Very bizarre. The whole vibe was bizarre in ways that u It's just hard to explain to it. I mean, getting in was not that bad, honestly, like I was it was Obviously much worse, but The arena was full forty five 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 eight hundred forty two tip time if there's like fifteen percent capacity and that didn't happen at all. They were they were in the building. but it was it was It was just strange and u Yeah. I mean, prepare now. we got thirty six hours of like, did Trump curse the Kicks discourse that's going to dominate the airwaves in lieu of actual basketball analysis. I do 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. You know what I mean Like I like you remember like when Taylor Swif would go to Chief's games and they would like show her too much and like make it too much and Taylor Swift. it really wasn't really impacting the game You know what I mean? Like They showed him during the anthems. You have the president in the building and you're doing the national anthem the two hundred and fifty year anniversary of the country. like show the guy You know, and like we can we can talk about whether got boot 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. And we can talk about basketball in this podcast. thought I thought he'd say something after the game that would inflamed Everyone, but it was all kind of whatever He did' say that Steven 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 The finals are always 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 inssane. 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. That's fine. Like but it's such a circus that you get there three hours before tip. There's so much going on. There's so much extraacricular stuff that the game starts and you're almost like, Ohh yeah, there's I forgot that we're all here for the basketball game And you wonder like the players must feel That sort of saying like I got to remember this is just a basketball game. likeike I I know we got to wait three hours, the tips late. There's all this pomp and circumstance. I just got to focus on being fortunion is like normal basketball g 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 game. We're 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 If it goes back to two, holy shit Even if it goes back three one, the sppurs have done enough to put themselves in position to win one home game and force the Ks to play here for the title all the pressure in the world on them to try to close out the series And when you fall behind twoz at home, that's really all you can ask for. Now they want to get two two, That's fine. They can definitely do it. They the total point differential in the series is Nix plus seven. So it's a very close series Just getting yourself in position, win game five and force them to do it under pressure in game six I mean, Jacoby, you 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 p, man. Come to the game. I'll give you my press p. I don't want I don't wantan to I don't, that'sillgal. I't want my head against against the ceiling And also like you can't cheer and you can't have a beer Like what's the point of going to the game if you're just to 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 Mannx Chris Manox and I looked at each other like Is this This is a industry f that' what's happening here maybe it was I'm going say it's probably a non alcoholic beer. It must have been. It was not. we checked what beer it was and it wasated. Oh wow The finals brings out a lot of weirdness. It just does. I don't know, Kirk, any concluding thought? What what did you miss here? I mean, I have a whole list of notes that I can be able for a day of trying to find a comp for the Ns in the entire history of professional basketball in terms of like Pretty good team. likeike, you know, I w fifty three games on a great like six to net rating or something 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 I found a couple, but we can table that for a day because the spurs are back in the series. any what did we miss, Kurt 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, toowns is plus twelve point five. I think that's really weird. I looked up while Jacobi was talking about all the dribbling air out of the ball Jalen Brunson has dribbled the ball one thousand five hundred and ninety times in these three games. Stehen Castle rank second at eight hundred And thirteen. I wonder 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 driribbles per touch and he's getting one hundred touches. So he's up there, but he he is the by far 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 herero Ball and if the spurs win game four, I think that discourse is going to get a little louder. I mean, obviously the Nicks need Brunon to be the the straw that serves the drink, but it might be doing a little too much strawing and not enough stirring. Um And then, you know Lastly, I think What Mr. Johnson did in the fourth quarter using challenges and timeouts to keep Weemby in the game for the entire duration of the fourth quarter, which to my understanding was the first time that happened all playoffs. I think even in that OKC overtime game, Cornet played in the fourth quarter The sppurs are really hard to beat in those Wemy minutes. And if they can make this science of getting Cornet in at the exact right times against the right lineups and they they don't turn it over. That's the last the last st. That was the by far the best sppurs turnover game of the series seven turnovers or something like that But the S spurs have a roadmap now. And as a bias Spurs observer, I think they they got to keep doing what they're doing. And to your point, excellently framed M, if they win game four All bets are off U Weemby plus ten for the series. minus seventeen when he's off the floor. So Cornet, you know, do the math Um They don't really have a good alternative to Cornet. I mean, it's just they would have to be so small that I'm not sure they wanted to goo that route But yeah, the timeouts were interesting because there was the one timeout he took right after a challenge When the Kicks did the thing where they sort of moved the chess pieces around to the point that Wembey toggled ono towns And then they cleared that side of the floor and ran a Brntson toowns pick and roll. is exactly what they want Um And then u Weemby blitz, Brunson turned the corner and got a layup. and Miss Johnson called the time out and I was like, is he mad Or is this just u Is this just like a rest Wby timeout? Maybe maybe it was both, I guess. Yeah, I got a weird stat for you. Goldsbury First 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 Pretty shocked And to yeah, to paraphrase Kenny Atkinson as we wrap up Analytically the series is tied. Oh stop. Nope. We're not going back there. We're not going back. Analytically this deal is tied guys. It can't be tied. There's only been three games. You can't be one just you just don't know the analytics, ack. You don't know the analytics thing you're t baby. I'm playing checkers. You're playing four D chess. I misread you. Yeah, the transition defense has been outrageous on both ses. I mean, An anobi, I feel like has two outrageous transition defensive plays every game Bridges had one where he sprinted black back and deflected a past. againgain, 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 end the game, which is a whole different story U David Jacoby, mismatch recorded last night, right? That's going to be my listening when I go get my fatass to the hotel gym Today that in Bill'spot. I got a lot I got a lot to look for 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 u in Food News every Friday Look at that, lien KG, what do we got from you this week? You did a big fun review, you picked Spurs in seven, I think was your pick. It is. and I'm committed to write a game five look ahead piece, which now is going to happen. There was a time where I was 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 going to 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 to have a long series here. All right, David Jacobbe, Kurtk Coldbury. 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 game after game four, whatever is happening. I don't know. Thank you guys. talkal to you soon. All right, that's it for today's edition of the Zach Lo Thanks to the great David Jacoby and Kurt Coldbraay 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 Low 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 Glow Show twenty twenty one over in P presresident select states for Kansas an affilation with Kansas Star Casino or eighteen and over in Presididenton in DC, Kentucky, O Wyoming, gambling problem. Call one eight hundred gambler or one eight hundred My reset. Call one eight eighty eight seven hundred eighty nine seven seven seven seven or visit ccpG dot org slash chat in Connecticut or isisit MD gamblinghelp dot orga in Maryland. Hope is here Visit gamblingHelpline mA dot org or call eight hundred three two seven five zero five zero for twenty four seven support in Massachusetts or call one eight seven seven eight Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York for Louisiana, call one eight seven seven seven seven zero, seven eight six seven