Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Game 3 REACTION: Wemby Saves The Spurs’ Season With EPIC MSG Performance

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon and special guest Iman Shumpert to react from MSG to Victor Wembanyama’s epic performance to save the Spurs’ season. The guys break down if he can keep this up, how the Knicks can bounce back in Game 4 and where the series goes from here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. Hello, welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast.

We talk about the NBA, which we're doing early on Tuesday morning, right? It is Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning here after the Spurs broke a lot of hearts here in Madison Square Garden. Yes, they do. One of particular. All I know is when we left NBA today across the street and walked into this building through security, Shump was wearing a very nice, what was it, black and green ensemble. And the next time I saw him, he was wearing.

wearing a full orange suit with a Knicks colored side. And sit in court side. Almost in as nice and chair as their guy, Windows got. It goes with your logo a little bit. Yeah, that's right. Listen, I'm just going to say, we're starting off here, and we got window in a throne. And we're all over here and just chairs Jackson dredged up from somewhere. I don't know who's hosting the show.

A bunch of Samsung chairs and one iPhone. Exactly. One iPhone seat. One Apple seat. I do not apologize. Sim by Tims, Eamon Shumper, Band, McMahon. Howdy partners? All right. So the Knicks have played a brilliant first half in this game. The Spurs, I think, really tried to go back to basics. When inside to start the game went to a more traditional defense against the Knicks, which traditional against the Knicks means putting the center on Josh Hart. And they tried to go back to basis and go with simplicity. And they were having success. And the Knicks overwhelmed them. Up by seven, pushed it out to. 42. Second quarter.

I was scoring by 18 in the second quarter. And I thought they really had whim. needing to cover ground, you know, needing to close out. You know, OG had another blow by dunk on them. And they were just picking the spurs apart. That changed in the third quarter and it screeched to a halt in the fourth quarter. You know, plus the spurs made some big shots. But the second half was a brilliant defensive half by the spurs after they were really reeling. The second half was a very smart half from the spurs because in both quarters, they got

into the bonus very early. Yep. And therefore they lived at the foul line. And so the game ground to a halt, everybody here got bored out of their minds. There were 7,000 reviews. And the Spurs kept getting free throws, kept getting comfortable,

got the Knicks in a ton of foul trouble, which led to Mike Brown, deciding to have Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarks on the court for about an hour straight, which did not work. They did okay for a while. For a while.

The shamit Alvarado, Clarkson Trio was out there and they were doing fine for a while but I think he went road it too long and it turned on them. When it got to the, when it was 92.91 after three, he should have come back with his big guns to start the fourth quarter.

Got Jalen Brunson in there and went for it. Instead, he rode that lineup for another two, three minutes. The Knicks didn't hit a shot. The Knicks didn't hit a shot and kept fouling. Yes. And right. The Knicks had the Knicks had three fouls in the first 64 seconds of the quarter. Is that what it was? Yes. And they were in the bonus with over

nine minutes to go. And the spurt, again, it was very smart. Like the spurs attacked and lived at the line and, you know, coasted the thing out to a win. Yeah. So Mike Brown decided after the game to go after the officiating. Not surprised. 24 to 8 in the second half free throws, 24 to 8. When Binyama had six or eight of them in the second half.

In all honesty, before I talk about that, I just want to say, Stefan Kempel Castle is 21 years old. Victor Miamma is 22 years old. Dylan Harper's 20. Okay? He came into this building, which was crazy. High stakes, biggest game of the season, defining their chance to win this championship.

Still, we have a chance to win this championship. Castle and Wemianama go 19 to 32. They answered the call. Tough shots. 100%. After the second quarter went sideways, they were able to get in the locker room, gathered themselves,

and then come back and respond to it. And Harper, I don't know how many points he finished with. So good. 14 or something like that. Whenever he plays well, he's their second best player. But he had nine rebounds. Massive. Led them in rebounds. Monster. But remember, we complained the other night why San Antonio doesn't get no rebounds. Why did not get any rebounds?

Well, what we saw tonight was they're going to get rebounds because the Knicks kept the ball on one side of the floor the whole game. I'm not sure what this new thing is. Let's get rid of it. We called the cascan. I don't know if we've been talking about it and praising it too much and it made everybody feel like they need to be part of the game, but throwing the ball to the middle of the floor isn't just about cat getting in rhythm. It's also about not letting the defense load up.

When the ball's in Jalen Brunson's hand and it's on the left side of the floor or on the right side of the floor, especially if he uses more than three or four dribbles, it's like you watch the defense load up. Wimby shouldn't be able to pass people off when he's on a mismatch. Sometimes he's matched to the corner. He needs to have to respect that. And he's able to float and pass people off so that he can get back in front of the rim and make things tight.

I just didn't. When you say it passed people off, reassign the defenders because the ball's not moving so he can get out of, he can get out of a spread position into a tight position. Exactly. But it's like you're, you're making it easy for him. You're also giving him rest.

Think about it. He didn't get any time off in the last game was pop, pop, pop, pop. And he was behind. Hey, he played the whole fourth quarter in this game. Well, and again, there were 7,000 fouls. There were 7,000 free throws. Right.

And there were a ton of reviews. I mean, there was no reason not to keep him out there. There's a ton of rest. And again, what do we talk about the first two games? Carl Anthony Towns completely outplayed Victor Wimanjama. And since Carl Anthony Towns got that fourth foul in the third quarter of game three, he's been completely invisible. He was not involved hardly at all the day.

I know he ended up with 10 shots, but he was not, to your point, in the mix in the game. And what did Victor do? Came out this first play of the game. It's extraordinarily aggressive. Dunk. He's dunk in the ball. As you say, you can tell how Victor is going to play. The first 30 seconds of the game.

This dude had three dunks in the first three minutes. And then there was one that was a driving layup after that in the first quarter where he had a look at a three. And he said, nope, I'm attacking. Yes. Put it on the floor. Didn't settle. And again, you know, that set a tone. The second quarter went sideways, but then they were able to.

But it's about the tone that's set at the start of the game. Because if Victor comes out and is looking like he's in cement and he's jacking up jumpers, the game is going to go. The spurs have gotten ahead in every game. They've done it for seems like the last two months. But the tone is set that way, right? Whereas today the tone is, I'm going to dunk the ball. And I'm going to go attack the rim. I'm going to get these guys in foul trouble, right?

A lot of the game was him drawing loose ball fouls, just because he was being aggressive attacking rebounds, to your point. And, yeah, Dylan Harper ended up with nine rebounds. But Victor Wenabahama got multiple fouls on loose balls for them to the Knicks just trying to hold them off. Like that, that aggression from him, that's what they need. And that's what the Knicks need from Carl Towns. that was just not existing in this game. Defensively, Jalen Brunson got picked on.

Yeah, they were hunting them. He got picked on. Dylan Harper, every time he saw him, went at him. Stefan Castle. Anytime he could get him in the ISO, he went at him. But I like the way Stefan Castle attacked tonight. He kept doing that slow gather. The reason he kept doing it was because he's not trying to side to side him.

They're driving him straight on. So it's... They got no worry about going over him, so they just go right into him. Exactly. And Shump, a lot of times, it's not like... I don't know what Brunson's numbers were, is like an ISO defender. You know, we're going to look those up.

But a lot of times it's not even that he gives up the bucket directly, but it's just that's what gets the blender going. That's how, you know, Victor caught four lobs night. He was one of three on lobs in the first two games. Because people are thinking, maybe I got to help or maybe I got to do this. Maybe and when that little flinch, that's all you need for somebody to seven,

five. And it's also Victor being in the paint. Yeah. If he's floating around the three point line, he can't get a lot at the rim, right? But if he's in the paint, it's always an option. Those guys are always looking for it. Played like a big.

And it was an emphasis for the Spurs. Miss Johnson pointed that out in the postgame press conference after game two that he did think that there were times when he was available on roles and they didn't hit him. I'm sure that he identified those and they reviewed that in the film session. That was obviously a heavy emphasis for the Spurs tonight. Well, listen, what were the story of the first two games of the series was the final two of the game, the spurs are ahead, and the Knicks made the place to win the game, right? Knicks missed 10 straight threes to open this quarter.

A lot of them, clean looks just didn't go in. And then final couple minutes, Stefan Castle throws in that bomb from the wing. His first bucket since the first half. I don't know if even saw the rim, but it doesn't matter. It went in. And then Deerrin Fox gets in the lane. They had a shot they very easily could have made to win game two. They missed it.

That's right. This shot goes in. And again, Deerrin Fox gets in the lane, gets double. teamed and hits a really tough mid-range jumper. Like that's why Deeran Fox, the vet, is on the team to step up and make that shot in that spot. The guy who's one clutch player the year before, right? Like those two shots are the five-point difference that the spurs had at the end.

So when Jalen Brunson and O. Jann and Obey threw in a couple threes, it didn't matter. But that was the difference. In game one and two, it was Jalen Brunson that made those plays. In game three, who was Sivan Castle and Darren Fox. So, Darren, Jalen Brunson's won them dozens of games in the last four years. But tonight, he goes 11 to 25. Wasn't that his best shooting game of the series?

He's going to shoot a bad percentage in every game in this series. Right. I know. Yes. Just because of the way he plays and the way the Spurs play. He's not, if he has a game where he shoots the ball, great, the Knicks are probably going to win by 20. He's shooting 37% in the series. Just like Shea struggled against these guys too. I know.

I'm just saying, in the fourth quarter, the Spurs went small. Three guards. Really, it was four guards. Well, the spurs often play four guards with Victor. Well, whatever. They're small in the fourth quarter. That's a small lineup for them. Wimby and.

Are you counting Champany as a guard? Yeah. Champany is a, I mean, all right. Well, here's lines. He's a light forward. They had Harper, Fox,

Castle. Castle, the cell. Yep. And Wembeyanobi and Carl Towns were out there. And they couldn't get the ball. Well, again, this all go, to me, it all goes back to Carl. It all goes back to Carl Town. We going back to game four of the Hawks series,

when they got him more involved and everything changed around, that's when the Knicks took off. And again, in the first six quarters of this series, he was the best player on the court by a country mile. And since that fourth foul game two, he has not been involved. I'm not saying they got to get him back in the mixing game four. They have to.

But also within getting him back involved, Carl Anthony Towns, you have to do your job. Yep. There cannot be a time where, There's a guard six inches shorter than you, able to keep you at the free throw line, and y'all are just arm wrestling. Yep.

Nothing's happening. If you aren't, you can arm wrestle for a second. You don't get the ball, run down to the post. You don't get it there, spinning pin. This has to be one, two. Get on the glass, which is what he was doing in the first. It's what he was doing. And it was doing.

It was like he just accepted it. He, in the first two games, he punished the spurs when the spurs put Wimby on heart by, playing bully ball and just beating up all the stuff shop was just saying yeah beating up the smaller guards bullying his way to the rim getting deep position man getting on the glass being big like showing the target attacking the rim talking with two hands i didn't understand it it was like he was leaning i don't know if he was exhausted but it's like you didn't do this the first two games you were moving around it was like he did the wimby it was like he turned into wimpy it was god strange

yeah they just start arm wrestling and asking the rest for calls and i'm just like Carl, they're not giving you the ball. Set a screen. Set a back screen. Set a flare. Do anything you can, but do not allow somebody that's six, five, six inches shorter than you to sit here and body you up. And we're trying to figure out what's a foul, what's not a foul. Who cares?

By the way, that was what the Knicks did to Victor, the first two games. Like this series is going to come down to that matchup. And it's not that Carl has to outplay Victor every game. But if Carl plays the way he did in those first two games, the Knicks are going to win the title. Straight up. If he doesn't, it's a toss up, and who knows what's going to happen. God, that scares me when he's. Listen, I know.

The last five games, the Knicks have played. The road team is one. The last four games. Got ghosts in here. Did you hear that? I did. Your pants are talking. That concerns me.

You or me. I don't know who it was. It was Victor. It was Victor. I didn't hear it to who? I did. It was a ghost. It was Victor.

The ghost. Ghost of Nick Fast. Coming to the next. Come in November. Hey, Wimby did have a little something to say to Shump. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. I don't know. I want to hear about this.

I don't know if you want to talk to that story. I ain't going to tell the details of it. But I do know that I was walking to go get my other suit. You know, I was already embarrassed enough. We lost. But Wimby's leaving his media. He gets up from his chair. He looks dead at me.

seen him look at me, but I figured he's just tall looking at the guy in the orange suit, whatever. He walked right up in front of me and Pete in my path and say, yeah. Yeah. A bubub, bu, up. Yeah, it was a nice little challenge. Yeah. And I thought about it.

I thought about responding and saying something crazy. I realized I was just meaty and I was like, y'all play good at the end of the other. I also realized how tall he was. I was like, God, you're in flip-flops right now? Looked at him like that. But again, that guy has never. afraid to say something. It's really cool. Yeah. It's what you want. So you know what I got to do in that spot. Back when I was playing honestly, if a media guy says something to me, I have a little more

animosity. Like as a player, I didn't understand the dynamic of media. I really appreciate his ability to understand that we're critiquing the game. We might say something that he don't like this day. Tomorrow we might be back on his team as far as how he played. And listen, he always has the opportunity to have the last word. That's right. He's always. He's always. He's cataloging it, you know, he's not afraid to say it. I'll hold the mic like him tonight. Your hands aren't big enough to do it. He's like dangles in his hands.

He also like that. But no, okay, so the next five games the Knicks have played, the road team is won. Yep. The last four games, the Spurs have played, the road team is one. Well, you know what I always say. A series doesn't really start until a home team wins a game. I mean, that's apparently the new saying. You know, that's apparently the new saying.

The second, there's any drama with the name. and they're in any kind of bad spot, the existential feeling of doom comes down. That's true, but I'm talking about the way the Spurs handle. And you know what? That goes back to at the beginning of the game. This place

was going crazy. And then the Spurs do what they've done. It seems like every single game at the playoffs. They got out to a 10-point lead and the crowd immediately went, oh, no, what's going to happen? But then then it was all alive. I know. But this crowd has nothing to do with the Spurs.

with their best players 22, 21 and 20, being able to go up to OKC for game one and pull that out. No doubt. You're able to go back there for game seven. No doubt. And pull it out to have the second quarter go as terribly as it did. They got outscored by 18 points in the second quarter. This place was going nuts to go in the locker room and then come out and play the second half that they did.

And, you know, Wimby, he was talking about, you know, the way the castle closed that game. Obviously, huge three, huge free throws. And Wimby said, you know, some along the lines, if he's not the oldest player or even close to the oldest player in team, but he might be the most mature. And then somebody asked Castle about that, and Castle said, you know, I'm probably second. I don't go to bed at 9 p.m. like Wimby does or like he calls him like Vic does.

Yeah. But, you know, this, they have showed the competitive. He got to bed at 9 p.m.? Yes. No, he really does. He's obsessed with like getting 12 hours. He sleeps 12 plus a minute. I'm the guy does everything he possibly can't.

I don't know about 12, but he endeavors. That's what the lusageous. This comes in. He's going past his rim sleep. You can't do that. He's obsessed with him out. Just say it on TV, He'll hear. Yeah, not my.

Do your thing, win. Do you think, well? Listen, they proved it, though. They went into OKC, one of the hardest place to win. They won a game one and a game seven. After blowing, game three. After blowing game two as well. Like, there was a lot of reasons for this team to crumble, and they did not.

In this city tomorrow, there's going to be a lot of talk about the officiating. I jumped ahead of that, but Mike Brown elected to throw gas on it on the fire. Did you feel that the officiating? I mean, the game was very physical. And there was a point where the officials started making calls. You know, and some of those calls, like, you know, some of those calls were after reviews. When, like, they looked at it. Like, for example, the one where Wimmy knocks the ball out of bounds going for a rebound,

they looked at it. And Kat's clearly grabbing his arm and pulling it down. I don't know what you like, what do you want there? That is a foul. I was arguing with the fans too. I was like, y'all can't do this every call. Yeah, there were a lot of fouls. The game got very choppy.

I did not think that the foul calls were poor calls. Now, listen. There was two of them that they got let go. Okay. When Wimby grabbed Jalen. I was going to say that that's the one that. Follow through through. The spurs, the spurs were allowed to play physically in the game,

and they got away with it to a decent degree. Let me ask for this. Go ahead. So one binyama has two flagrant foul points because he has the elbow. Yeah. Four flagrant foul points, suspension. He will not get to four flagging. He won't get it.

But that should, like that, that should have been a whistle. That certainly, okay. My bad. Do you think it's possible that they will review that and give a retroactive flavoring phlegreiber? Absolutely. It's not a flavor. It's a foul. It was a foul.

And then Brunson clearly, you know, said something to him or barked at him or whatever. And then Victor smiled at him. And he laughed. But this is the part, and this is why the league has turned the way it's turned. See, I've had stuff like that happen to me, but that's when you're a big man that comes off the bench has a problem with that. That's Mitch Robinson coming in and putting an elbow. But you go, but when he checks in, you go right to the ref and you say, you clean it up or I clean it up. You saw him get hit in the face.

That's our guy. you want me to hit somebody in the face you know what I'm saying but that's what it becomes and I don't mean to turn it into fighting or nothing like that but I mean your guys got a ride for you like if you feel if Jalen Brunson feels like he's alone out there he's gonna do something erratic he's gonna have something happen that's a mental left remember that game in Boston when perk came in when yeah uh uh jr had got into it with Crowder Crowder was doing a bunch of extra stuff with Braun it got a little too far past go. Braun Starr actually, you know, you saw him uncomfortable trying to drive because he felt like you're trying to hurt me. Yep. And once it gets to that point, it's like, hey, back off.

And it's time to call him Big Perr. Say something else. Cool, Perk, get in there. Because we ask the refs, we begged the refs. Now everybody shut up. Act like it's not happening. That's how we're playing. Cool.

Perk comes in, hit him with a nice shot. He gets up, act like he's going to get in Perk face. Perk takes a step up to let him. them know. I did it on purpose. It's a statement. Get off him. After that, Braun's able to play freely. There you go. Refes clean it up right away. Brian, shoot free throws right away. Well, and again, to me, like, yes, the officiating is going to be a story because the Spurr shot a lot of free throws. But the Knicks had terrible offense at the start of the third

quarter and the start of the fourth quarter, and they committed some dumb fouls to get in the bonus. Now, the Spurs, again, to go back to the Thunder series, I've been very amused for the better part of a month at the pearl clutching that went on, especially during the Spurs Thunder series about how all the thunder they commit all these fouls of the poor Spurs. The Spurs play just like the Thunder. They're incredibly physical. Stefan Castle, who I love watching play. It's phenomenal defender.

He fouls all the time. He flat ran over Brunson. I didn't think it was a flagrant, but he, he met him over. And same play that Carter Bryant did DeShay in the last series. Well, except for Brunson was facing him. But after Carter Bryan did that, Wimby looks at Carter Bryant. There's the video. I'm proud of you.

You know, at the end of what was it, at the end of game five, Wimby whispers to Plumling and Beahow coming in a hard fouls. Yeah, I mean, look, that's only hard fouls. That's their style of play is as physical as anybody. 100%. It's his physical. And the NBA, first off, we, as NBA fans, we ask for this. Oh, no, for sure. We said it was soft out here.

We're not saying start calling fouls. We just saying make the adjustment. The game has become tougher. We're not going to cry about it. Don't beg for the rest of calls. OK, C plays up to. touch, up the foul, they don't respond. You flail your head back. They still stab at the ball. No foul. They run out there. They get the ball. They lay it up. The Knicks play the same way. The Spurs play

the same way. That's why y'all are the last team. And that's, and to me, though, it's not about the fouls as much as there were some dumb fouls that the Knicks committed that got him in the bonus, but it also was just poor offense. And again, I go back to the start of that fourth quarter. Mike Brown, you cannot come back after four minutes of Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarkson, which already was way too much and have them out there at the start of that quarter. It's a disaster. Like you cannot, he got lucky with that in game two. He got high in his own supply in this game. He went to it again. And that's where the game was lost. Start of that fourth quarter, they didn't score for almost four minutes because you can't have those guys playing six

straight minutes in the finals game against this kind of team. Like that, that's just not good enough. And I've never seen Deuce McBride look that uncomfortable with like bringing the ball up or making plays, penetrating. He seemed really uncomfortable like all he wanted to do was shoot three. and I felt like he should have recognized immediately. Jaylon Brunson is in foul trouble. I need to switch my game over, becoming a little bit more of a distributor. He did that when he was playing in Miami.

I've seen him have plenty of games where he's penetrated, made the right pay, made the right reeds. He's got to get back in his bag and do that, especially if Jalen Brunson's his struggle. All right. So we're going back to Texas. The question is, we're going back tied. We're going back 3-1.

What version of Carl Town showed up in game four? The question is, what kind of suits you got for game four? No, game four, I'm wearing my jersey, Nick fans. I got a technical foul and a flagrant two in my pocket. You know what I'm saying? If y'all need me, y'all got me. Hey, if Wembe puts his hands on Brunson like that again, they might Mike Brown and sub you.

I might have to just run on the court, take a step on Marbury fine. All right, well, I am intrigued. Yeah, I am now, too. We got a series. We got a series. All of a sudden it's a series. Sure is.

All right. Thank you to Jackson. and our other producers here. Thank you to McMahon, Shump, Bontems. Thank you for watching, listening to The Hoop Collective. The Geisers.

We're talking to you soon. Adios amigos. Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if.

Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.