Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - INSANE Game 2 REACTION: Knicks Take Command As Young Spurs & Wemby Collapse Late

Episode Date: June 6, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon, Iman Shumpert and special guest Stephen A. Smith to react on the court to the Spurs’ epic collapse to give the Knicks a huge win in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. The guys break down Wemby’s disastrous end to the game, the chaos that is to come at MSG and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We talk about the NBA, which we are doing late on Friday night after the Knicks got a one-point win to go up 2-0 in the NBA finals. We're going to make this introduction quick. Tim Bond Temps, Emon Shumper, once a nick, always a Nick, Van McMahon. And his first appearance, he waited until the Knicks were up to O in the finals, Mr. Stephen A. Smith. What are your emotions right now? I'm relieved. I would have told you I would be ecstatic and through the moon if they had maintained the 4th. point lead held on to it in that regard and then they just coasted to a game two victory.

But to give up that 14 point lead, I ain't going to lie to you. I mean, they were about to send the medics after me back there. I had to leave and then I walked back. I was going back and forth because one area they was up 12, another area they was up 14, another area that was up 9. And I was trying to move away to get to the space where I was when they were up 14. That's how it is. It was that crazy. But they ultimately held on big time mistake between when be in Castle with that turnover after the rebound and what have you. And you just look at the New York Knicks. They got cold.

They struggled. But in the end, they held on. They're up to O. They're going to the garden. And I don't believe this series is coming back to Texas. That's where I'm at with it. Now, I'll be more ecstatic tomorrow morning right now in recovery. But you've seen a lot of stuff in your career in the NBA in New York.

I don't, this has not happened. This chance is not happening. I will say this to you in all seriousness. you know, hyperbole aside. It's like being born in the Bronx, raised in Hollis, Queens since I was one years old. New York is where I'm from. It's who I am. It's my whole life. And I already know what I'm going to see Monday night. I have never seen in my lifetime, nor has any New Yorker seen

in at least the last 53 years. I mean, you was 27 years ago, we win the finals. We knew we didn't have a snowball's chance in hell against San Antonio Spurs with DR and Tim Ron and Tim Duncan and the crew. 1994, we thought we had a chance, obviously. It goes seven. You see John Starks in game six and he's balling. He was like, damn, he's that close. And then game seven, Pat Riley, you're acquired Rolando Blackman,

but then you don't use them and you just let John Starks go out there and shoot two for 18, 0 for 11 and never take him out the game. And it just broke all of our hearts. But that was the last time, 32 years ago, that we felt as a franchise. we had a legitimate shot to win the championship. This is the closest we've been and to be up to O after two road victories and for the next two games to be at the Garden

at Madison Square Garden, you got a chance not to even have to come back on the road to close them out and to feed off that adrenaline that New York. And when I say New York, I ain't talking about the garden. I'm talking about the entire city. You're going to see it shaking, reverberating. You go see it all.

To know that's coming, man, this is the closest we've been to championship in over a half century. I can't even put in the words what this feels like. I just can't. I just can't. Shum, okay, two games here. Both games, San Antonio's up. Yes. Inside two minutes to play.

Right. After Nick's blew big leads in both games. Knicks don't have the momentum. Let me say this to all of y'all. Because y'all know, by the way, y'all do a hell of a job. I'm a fan of this show. I'm very proud of y'all. Y'all know that.

Let me say this to y'all. We've seen a lot of teams. You see a lot of basketball. We know that the one thing this team is lacking is experience. So now I'm going to say to you what I just described they're going to encounter. You didn't win at home. Now you're going to go on the road in that environment with that youth. We've seen veterans fold at the garden.

What am I supposed to believe about youthful, exuberant, ignorant, young dudes, and I would say ignorant in a negative way? I'm just saying they don't know. They don't know what they're about to encounter. This is different. And that is why I feel the way that I feel. It's not just because of basketball. It's about just the overwhelming effect of being at the garden.

And what I believe that's going to have on these young brothers. I don't even think Brunson's played that. No, seven for 25. I don't know. He's had a poor shooting series that are up to roll on the road. Yes, 34%. But that's part of the experience and the mental toughness. Most people, you go out there, you shoot it bad.

Yeah. You don't have it going at the end of the game, squeezing that trigger. Don't want to, don't want to pull it. Ah, let me push it to somebody else. You're not making a jerk fade away. You're not making a Dirk fade away to tie the game with 40 seconds ago. Aggressive and the rockers out? Yeah. Not doing that.

You're not doing it. The confidence of the mentality to do that at end the game. and for the rest of the team to say, you don't have it going, we still gonna let you do this. It's a different type of way to leave up on the game. You know what I'm saying? That's how they win.

Well, yeah, but Brunson missed a couple of shots and missed a free throw. I mean, he walks out hitting the winning points in both games. I'm just saying Spurs, the Spurs had both games. They had the lead on their home court. Can't rebound. Listen, the Knicks took game one from the Spurs. The Spurs gave this one away.

And it wasn't just the turnover, which is just a, you know, know a brain fart that you make worse with another brain fart with a foul 40 feet from the hoop. But Wimby took two God awful shots in the last two minutes. So one at the buzzer was fine. That was a good look. You'll take that every time. The three-pointer that I think he even stepped out of bounds on was an awful shot. A, you know, want to be a hero shot. The ISO where you got nothing on Mitch Robinson, you just jack up a bad mid-ring. Those were immature plays. He did have a great second half. No.

He had a great two quarters or one quarter and ten minutes. The last two minutes, he stunk. That's fair. That's very. And this is a tough thing, though. When we put him in the conversations that we like to put him in, that's how we have to rate him. You get what I'm saying? It's like if you don't, if you, seriously no, if it's a guy, if he was a rotational guy, we wouldn't be putting this. That's true. But the other side to it is that, you know, when Barclay and Shack and

up there arguing at halftime. Barclay reminded Shaq that he got swept before he won the championship. He was young and he won to the finals against so did LeBron in 2007. Those are the two analogs to Victor. Not at all. Shaq in 95, LeBron and 07

Victor right now. I mean, it, I can't, I'm trying to put the way from my face. But that's the, that's the through line. The other thing, the other thing that I'm paying attention to, and this is what has me a bit excited. Game one, Josh Hart can't give you anything. O.G. and the Novi was spotty.

McKell Bridges only had nine points and they still won. And Brunson shot 12 or 31, right? Even though Kat was a model of consistency. Game two comes about. What happens? McHale Bridges plays out of his mind. I made a lot of noise about him when he was struggling. And damn it, I don't regret it. I don't regret it. I stand by it. Damn it. What we what I was demanding is what he gave. us tonight. That's what I want to see. You know, that's the kind of thing that'll make me forget all the damn asses they gave up for you. With two more games, you're never over. I'll never bring it up

again. I'll never bring it up again. But the point is, is that you saw him play. You saw Ananoby give you a 17. Josh Hart still struggling, etc. And they call Anthony Towns. They forgot about it once he picked up his four foul. They put him to the game changed. He comes back in

and you still forget about him. You don't get him the ball. After he kicked Wimby's ass the whole first half. You did. So I'm looking and then walked off the court and went like, he can't F with me. He can't effort me. So I'm looking at all this. Carl Town said those words. That's right. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. And I'm looking at it and I'm saying to myself, all of this

has happened, right? And you still won. You managed to win. So I don't expect that to happen at the garden. Familiar rims, familiar crowd, familiar noise. Even though it's going to be unlike anything anybody has seen, it's still somewhat familiar to the New York Knicks. It is nothing that the San Antonio Spurs are familiar with.

Yeah. In all honesty, this might end of just a learning experience for that like being in new york like just take out of it what you can take out time out the one thing i am going to say is victor wimbanyama over and over and over again has done things that we have never seen before that's fair so and look terrible last two minutes missed a great look at the buzzer i'm watching him walk up the floor he's walking off the floor he's clapping his hands i could see him you know he's already i could see him already getting in the in the mode What have we got to get ready for game three? We got to.

What do you tell Malika? Something like if you don't know that something's impossible, you can do the impossible. They got to do the impossible now. Well, they need to look at film and decide when they're going to get a rebound. They're playing small. And these second and third chances that the Knicks are getting them. Tapping the ball out. They are getting.

If somebody's time, it's like, it's supposed to be one shot now. And if we're going to do that, a seven and a half foot aliens got to have a big rebounding game. He can't have a single-digit rebounding game. And he sure as hell cannot have a four-shot first half. Yeah, it's tough. And they won the, and they lost the game tonight. Darren Fox had a good game. He got hurt.

You saw him a little bit gimpy at one point, but he still gave you 20. And then you got Dylan Harper, who's just an absolute stud. And one played 34 minutes, another played 32 minutes. So that's good. But you just look at San Antonio right now. And even though Wendy came on strong in the second half and what have you, they still lost this game. The New York Knicks are figuring out different ways to win. And game two was the game that you knew San Antonio.

had a level of urgency. They were on their home court. They were coming for you. And you still held them off. You had a lead in the first half. You had a lead late in third quarter. I'm looking at those things. And I'm saying if this happens at the guard in San Antonio's not coming back from that.

Yeah. All right. Well, congratulations to your daughter who's graduating tomorrow. Thank you. Oh, congratulations. Save your energy over the weekend. You need to rest up. Because you're going to need it next week.

Let me test them right now. I don't have to have any sleep before Monday. Let me tell you something right now. Monday. I can literally stay up all Sunday night and I will not be tired Monday. Bouncing up to walls. Not Monday. Not Monday any other day, but not Monday.

Monday I expect to see something I've never seen before in my lifetime in New York City. That's what I'm expecting. And I think everybody should expect that it will be unlike anything that we have seen. Get ready for it. It's going to be wild. It's going to be wild. Thank you for stopping by. Keep up the great work, fellas.

Appreciate you. Thank you. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal. Activia contains over one billion probiotics per serving to survive and reach the gut alive. When it comes to gut health, Activia is the number one family doctor-recommended probiotic yogurt brand. Choose Activia, feel good from the inside out.

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Bring it with SAP Grow, AI Cloud ERP for any size business. 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. Wayfair, every style, every home. Okay, welcome back. Stephen A is whirling dervish. I want to say that one thing I'm going to be paying attention to is if there's any injuries for the spurs coming out of this. We saw Castle. He was banged up.

Tweek his knee. It looked like an ankle, I thought. Whatever it was. Lower body, it was some lower body injury. It landed on McHale Bridges' foot while he was flam and trying to get a foul. It almost looked like his knee hyper-extended a little bit. Hard to tell. And then it looked like Fox.

He definitely tweaked that ankle again. We didn't talk about it at all. The Fox really delivered. He played his ass off tonight. That's the thing. I can't get happy for it because that's Fox. That's what you're supposed to do. Tape it up.

Go out there and do what you're supposed to do. And Shump was with Fox in the second. I know. Yeah, we talked about that after game one. And look, we're real critical of him the way he's played. He delivered, and he was the reason that they had a chance in the game. Like he was the only thing they had going for a long time. But that tweak on the ankle didn't look great.

He couldn't really. He was hobbling around late. He was trying to gut it out. Castle was only out there for that one defensive possession late. He didn't play for several minutes. I mean, it just, it's already a difficult spot the spurs are in. Makes that much harder. So, Shump, you watch a ton of film.

What are you going to be, what are you going to be looking for? Well, for me, I need to look tonight to see. One, I want to rewatch their shot selection in the fourth. But when I look at them, I truly don't understand the non-rebounding. Like, I get playing small. I think they have two or three threes off. Yeah. Backbreakers.

That's what Josh Hart was talking about with, who was it, O.G. He was walking with these. Mitchell Robinson on that video today. They were saw on the show, yeah. He's like, yeah, like, I make the rebounds that break teams. And it's like they all broke them over and over. I'm like, you cannot give Landry Schemitt two extra shots at a, what? Two extra attempts at three while everybody's flying around.

He's no business threes. I'm like, that's their game. This is, he doesn't have to, he doesn't need a play call. He just needs to be able to see the rim. And it's inside out three off of a rebound. It can just demoralize everybody. By the way, Landry Shamet's playing the best basketball of his life. I told you.

Landry Shamet, he was almost out of the league. Mike Hell Bridges, this is their series. Well, and Landis Shamet in for Josh Hart, that lineup that with the other four-nick starters, has been an unstoppable lineup in these playoffs. And we talked about it coming in the series against Oklahoma City. The Spurs could leave a lot of people alone. And especially when Josh Hart's off the court, they've got Ducey right out there. They got Landry-Shammett out there.

and they got the rest of those guys out there, the rest of the Knicks starters out there. They got to guard everybody. Alvarado will have a three if you leave them open. Well, and Landry actually depends. He's a guy they'll leave open, though. That's like Alex Caruso,

Jose Alvarado. That's like Josh Hart. They'll leave those guys open. But when they have McBride and Shamit and the rest of the Knicks starters out there, they have to guard everybody. And the way Carl Towns has played, now as we talked about,

he got pulled out of the game plan after got those two fouls from Tony Brothers in about 20 seconds in the third quarter. But with Carl Townes playing like that, the Knicks, the Spurs can't do, though. We're going to stick Victor on Josh Hart thing. They have to guard him with Carl Towns. And that's totally screwed up their game plan. Every time they do that, Cat either plays bully ball or gets on the glass.

And listen, man, is Cat right now the MVP of the series? Oh, yeah. Through two games? I think so. He, it was shocking how just how much he died. dominated Wimby in the first time. How about that dunk on the baseline? Yeah, blew right by him and then letting him know about it.

And again, Wimby was weirdly passive. I asked Mitch Johnson, you know, like basically like, why did he only have four shots in the first half? And he basically said, I've got to put him in better situations. He's got to definitely be more aggressive, demand the ball, be more aggressive. And he did say, you know, there were times he felt like, you know, especially on the roles that the guards could have in the ball, but like four shots in the first half from a face of the league. Face the league ain't a part-time job. You cannot do that in game two of the finals when your team's down one-oh.

Now, they still had a chance to win the game, but the first half was a massive feeling. Well, again, what have we been talking about the energy? Well, you guys, the energy was not there. You guys know how I feel about Victor, okay? I don't need to go over that. But you don't get awarded to face the league. You win to get face the league. That's right.

And as a championship coach in New York said, put away the anointing oil. It's an old Bill Parcells line. Maybe we need to put away the inoint oil for Victor Wimonyma until he lifts that trophy. Well, and look, in both these games, it was the same exact script. Nix had a big lead. Spurs make a huge fourth quarter comeback, led by Victor. Look like he had a chance to steal the game, both games. And then jump is all over it.

It's like Brunson just knows how to make a play. trust him and they trust him to make the play and he trusts himself to make the play. Like that shot, that's a super hard shot down to fade away jumper over four guys all taller than him. He knew it was going in. He was going in. And he's going in. I think they've done a great job defending him. Like one of the things that really stood out to me in the first quarter was just how aggressive they were defending him 94 feet, making him work to, you know, avoid eight.

Because they were giving up all these. They were doubling him so hard that he was moving the ball and they were getting clean looks. Yeah. The double team led to some of those three. And then the two biggest shots of the series. The two biggest shots of the series, the one over Vassel and then the one you're talking about tonight. Just ridiculously tough shots by Brunson who's, you know, Cajon is dropping and getting it done. And we got to talk to.

We haven't really talked about it at all. I mean, you mentioned it. Just a disastrous final 45 seconds for Victor. I mean, the shot in the corner was terrible. And then I'm sorry. Sorry, the turnover is just an inexcusable mistake. Fowl to comp. I mean, on top of the foul.

Like, Steph Castle is not looking at him at all. I was still. He throws the ball and then he runs into him. Like, he just can't do that. I was still gasping about the hitting his castle on the back. And then I realized, oh, my God, he also fouled. Yeah. Yeah.

Again. Oh, my God. And then because of the missed free, because of the Miss free throw, he, they get a redemption shot. And like Tim said, that was the one play that was okay. I mean, it was a little bit of a tired shot, but it's still a decent look for I went back and walked. The shot wasn't short. It was long.

I mean, it wasn't, he could have made it. The thing that bothers me, he's supposed to shoot eight of those a game. That shouldn't be the first time that you're raising up over whoever the hell it is. I don't care who's guarding you. Nobody can get to your release point. Whenever you want,

these little four or five turnovers that you just like to have, just take two dribbles and shoot over people. Like, why do you have to? because he's tired. I mean, they're tired turnovers, right? Like, it's not, if you watch him, if you're not aggressive. But it's because the energy's not there, right? And like the energy just hasn't recovered from the beginning of that OKC series.

And again, this is a guy who's never played nearly as many games. Nearly this many minutes. He's averaging 40 minutes a game now. He never plays that many minutes in the regular season. He played 22 minutes in the second half of this game. Luke Cornett got a very brief cameo in the middle of third quarter, got yanked back out. Mitch Johnson clearly knew. We got two days off after this.

This is the series. We got to win this game. I'm riding this guy to the end. And, you know, like, look, you could say the final minute of this game, those are tired mistakes. He ran out of gas. And like that's what happens when you're going through. Like we say, we've been saying this for a month. There's a reason the young team never wins in the end.

Sheld you know this. This starts to happen. You never, you cannot prepare yourself for what it takes to win for a playoff series. Oh, no. The difference between winning four and eight games. playoff games 8 and 12 huge

the difference between winning 12 playoff games and 16 I mean I've seen it you lived it 12 to 16 is a whole other mountain these battle four are hard

it's different but it's a the one thing that I can say they've won on the road every series they have to watch film there's

there's not an X's and O's there's not an adjustment for the night Like I felt like game one we could talk some adjustments. There's no adjustments for this. It's inexcusable young guy stuff. You know what I mean? It was young guy stuff.

It was why can't we get a rebound? And can I call you out on film and you hold yourself accountable to say, you're right, I could do more. Because that's what I think they're going to see when they rewatch this. They're going to say, why did I do that? That was bonehead play. And then Victor's going to say, why did I compound the mistake? Why would I do that?

Like, these are the things. that it's like you take all these things away it's a total y'all up six up eight you know what I'm saying you're at home you're gonna get the whistle it's I I for the life of me I'm as I was watching it they were coming back but even during the comeback I'm like why can't y'all get a rebound I don't get that it's not like they are they are a pretty small team and they're playing small that's fine and and against like we talked about against the thunder the thunder even smaller right so the spurs look big against them do you play this next team You got O'Jananobi. We haven't said his name.

OG's been. OG's been great. Josh Hart. Like these guys are all big physical wings. And like Julian Champani and Devin Seller are not getting rebounds over those guys. Especially OG and Hart. Like that's a significant disadvantage. You can't get a rebound.

You can't put a forearm or somebody. Well, no, I agree with you. I'm just saying like this is where the Knicks advantages are coming into play. I think. Like they're just bigger and more physical across the board. Even when you look more fit for sure. When you look at Jalen Brunson.

Every play, if he can get a bump on win, he gets the bump. He's creating contact all the time. Every time. I don't care what's going on. If they see him, they bump him. If they can, they just grab his shoulder constantly, constantly wearing on them, wearing on them. And I just look at San Antonio and I'm just begging them. Like, why don't y'all do?

That's what y'all do. This is y'all DNA. Well, and then Fox tried to come over here right here. Can't do it at the end. And, you know, a little push and a little shove him with Brunson. And then he got into it with Big Brunson. Yeah. You know, Big Brunson.

Big Brunson didn't seem really blessed. Every Nick fan in America was yelling, Rick, get back to that bench. And all about, by the way, how many Knicks fans were here tonight? How many Knicks fans were here? I tried to walk back in. More about the thousands of fans. See, I don't know how many there were in total, but there were thousands down here. I had to walk past them all.

And you loved it. To walk back in. No, I faked like I was on the phone. Once and Nick, always a Nick. Yeah, it got crazy too. Well, it's going to be crazy on Monday in New York. Shump, we'll see you there. Thanks for stopping by.

I'll beat it. I got to the live show. Yeah, live show. Boy, I'll tell you what. The Knicks drop 3-0. Are y'all doing a live hoopah collecting? Yeah. And you're invited Tuesday night.

Oh, yeah, it's going on. Gotham Comedy Club. Oh, God. Oh, God. The Knicks are up 3-0. I love a good comedy club. Yeah, man. Oh, my God.

Oh, man. Three-O, baby. Shump. Bontems, thank you to our producers behind the scenes here, Jackson. Thank you to Stephen A. Smith. And thank you to Juvie and Sumatra, who really run Stephen A. Smith's life. And if you know, you know. Have a great weekend, Nix fans, Spurs fans.

It's going to be a tough one. We'll talk to you next week. Adios amigos.