The Finals — The Third Game (Recap)
Was it the officiating, the turnovers, Mikal Bridges’s disappearance act, a not-so-clutch fourth quarter, or that the Spurs played better? The answer: It was all of it.
For the first time since April 23 — 46 days ago — the Knicks lost a basketball game. They lost Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the first NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden in 27 years, 115-111. After a 42-24 second-quarter advantage, the highest-scoring frame in franchise Finals history, the Knicks had a disastrous second half.
The Spurs, powered by Victor Wembanyama’s 32 points, Dylan Harper’s nine rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox’s eight assists, exerted tremendous physicality upon the Knicks throughout the game. They were the better team in three of four frames, outscoring the Knicks 33-22 in the first quarter and 58-47 in the second half. Wemby netted 17 second-half points.
If you aren’t familiar with my writing, I rarely blame losses on how a game is officiated. I have certainly seen my fair share of obvious cases, like one game the New York Yankees played in Houston last September. Brian Walsh was the culprit that evening. This time, it was Marc Davis.
To be clear, I refuse to use officiating as an excuse for any losses this Knicks team suffers in this series. They are too talented to be regarded that way. However, as head coach Mike Brown pointed out after the game, the Knicks took only eight free throws in the second half, while San Antonio took 28. And still, it was a two-possession ballgame.
“I never thought I would be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free throw attempts in the second half to another team’s eight,” said a frustrated Brown. “I don’t think I complain much about officials or the fairness when it comes to the free throw attempts. San Antonio is a great team. They are a great team, okay.
“It’s going to lower our odds big time — big time — if we play Game 4 and in the second half, they get 24 free throw attempts to our eight. Maybe we were fouling. Maybe we were fouling. But they fouled, too.”
Ultimately, officiating didn’t directly cost the Knicks the game. After all, they turned the basketball over 13 times, allowing San Antonio to score 21 points off turnovers to their own seven. Also, despite some questionable calls, the Knicks still limited the Spurs to five fastbreak points and 10 second-chance tallies. New York even won the paint battle by two points.
Despite early foul trouble, Brunson scored 32 points, but he turned the ball over five times.
“We just wanted to stand and watch one guy dribble a ton, and then when the ball got passed, there were no quick decisions by the guy receiving it,” Brown said. “So, we have actions we can get into that we didn’t do a good job of getting into, first of all, but it’s not okay because you’re not going to be able to run plays all the time, especially with how physical [the Spurs played] defensively.
“Sometimes, you’ve just got to go by guys, but you’ve got to be smart. You have to take care of the basketball. You have to space right. You have to move the ball. You have to move bodies. We’ve done that quite a bit, and we didn’t do a good job of it.”
One key foul that didn’t get called came in the middle of the floor in the first quarter. Wembanyama, the biggest player on the court, shoved Brunson, the smallest player, from his neck to the deck. The play came off the ball, and despite being blatant, nothing was called. Even more frustrating, Brunson was later assessed a flagrant foul on a much less egregious play against Julian Champagnie.
Now, the NBA is reviewing Wembanyama’s no-call for a retroactive flagrant foul.
“I think that’s not basketball,” said Jose Alvarado, who spent his 12 minutes backing up his foul-stricken captain in Game 3. “That’s something that they have got to look at. But he got away with one. That’ll be the last one.”
I want to point out how the Knicks never gave up in this game. Down the stretch, as physical as the Spurs played, and as much as they tried to muddy the waters, they could not shut down the orange and blue. With 7:45 remaining, the Knicks successfully challenged a four-point play opportunity for Wembanyama.
Several minutes later, with 2:22 remaining, Jalen Brunson cut San Antonio’s lead to four points, but Stephon Castle answered with a three-point shot. Not long after, OG Anunoby visited the free-throw line, but only made one shot. Brunson backed him up with a running triple, Fox answered with a bucket, and Anunoby aced a side-out catch-and-shoot three, cutting the lead to two points with 9.4 seconds left.
But the Knicks never scored again.
“We’re gonna be alright,” said Bridges, who blew a 2-0 lead with the Phoenix Suns in 2021. “We’re gonna regroup and learn from our loss.”
Bridges scored 27 points in Game 2 of the 2021 Finals, but disappeared in each of the next four contests. He scored 20 points in Game 2 of these Finals. Just like 46 days ago, when Bridges went six straight quarters without a bucket, the Knicks lost a game in which he only scored two points on five shots.
“Offensively, we got a little stagnant,” Bridges said. “We’ve just got to keep moving and spacing. […] It starts with me defensively. I think I did a bad job defensively. They scored a good amount of times when I was in throughout the game. For me, it starts with defense and feeding off of that.”
Bridges wasn’t the only Knicks player who struggled yesterday. Karl-Anthony Towns, who is averaging a double-double per game this postseason, scored 11 points alongside eight rebounds. However, he lacked the physicality necessary to disrupt Wembanyama’s flow.
The Knicks cannot always stop Wemby. Nobody can. As Brown pointed out after Game 2, he is an “iconic” player. However, a key reason for the Knicks’ success in San Antonio was how Towns made his presence felt. He is four inches shorter than Wembanyama, but he consistently found his way around and through him.
Drives and buckets like the ones Towns forced against Wemby in Games 1 and 2 cause the alien to slowly deteriorate, but a lack of physical pressure, like what he faced in Game 3, helps him break free. All night long, the Knicks struggled to dictate the pace of play and establish consistent schemes on both ends of the floor. That didn’t help Towns, either.
“You knew they were going to come out with a sense of urgency and a sense of desperation,” Towns said of the Spurs. “We should have started the game off better. We should have started the third quarter off better. So, you know, it’s back to 0-0.
“We didn’t do what got us 13 straight wins. That’s how you lose a game. We didn’t do what we’ve been doing for 13 [games]. We decided to do something different, and it ain’t going to work.”
When the Knicks were trailing the Atlanta Hawks 2-1 in the first round of these playoffs, Brown decided to revolve his game plan around Towns. This allowed the Knicks’ big man to become an offensive hub, spraying the rock all over the court. Even against Wembanyama, Towns is capable of commanding the Knicks’ offense. All he needs is a chance.
Next, Landry Shamet, who has been a sparkplug off the Knicks’ bench throughout these playoffs, faltered as well. He entered Game 3 with the best eight-game downtown shooting stretch in NBA playoffs history, but he went 1-for-7 from beyond the arc. After scoring at least 13 points in each of his last four games, Shamet was held to three, and his -20 rating was the worst on the Knicks.
Due to foul trouble, Bridges had to exit the first quarter early. Because the Knicks, already falling behind, were playing slowly, there wasn’t much Shamet could contribute. He operates as a catch-and-shoot guard, not a ball handler, so he thrives off pace, but not vice versa.
“Great process,” Shamet said. “Got some great looks, had a few that were down and out. Process over outcome. I’m more upset about some of the things defensively that I’ve been priding myself on. I had a few possessions where I didn’t do my job like I needed to. That’s fixable. Sometimes, the gods give you ins and outs, and the ball doesn’t go in.”
While Bridges and Shamet struggled, Anunoby and Josh Hart succeeded. Anunoby backed up Brunson’s 32 points with 28, five rebounds, and two blocks. He and Hart both finished with four three-pointers. Hart added nine rebounds and five assists, and two of his threes came in the first quarter, keeping the Knicks afloat early.
But nothing could fill the offensive hole the Knicks dug for themselves. If they want to win Game 4, they will have to elevate their game to an unseen level. But if this magical run has shown us anything, it’s that when these Knicks get testy — rest assured, they are — they become a force to be reckoned with.
The Knicks now lead San Antonio 2-1 in the NBA Finals. Game 4 is scheduled for Wednesday, June 10, at 8:30 PM (Madison Square Garden — ABC, ESPN App).
