Victor Wembanyama: “We worked too hard and just gave up our lead. It hurts.”
Braindead offense in the 2nd half
wemby was just settling for pull-up 3s thinking the game was already over in that 2nd & 3rd quarter
That’s when we expect the coach to fucking step in and say stop the bullshit. Mitch is a fucking terrorist.
Pop wouldve sat your ass if you kept taking braindead 3s, superstar or not. Mitch would never
And here’s the big difference. The series would’ve been over last night, In a spurs sweep if Pop was still the Chief . Not correcting these young guys, throwing away an opportunity of a lifetime . They start smelling they own shit and it’s normal, they’re young but if it goes unchecked? You lose 29 point leads in the 2nd half of finals games .how hard is it to say” were up 20 with a 1quarter left, attack the basket,n make the refs make the call and don’t settle for outside shots”. Or, “If we get out of the game plan, you will meet the bench , up 30, or down 30 it’s not over, play smart and together”. That’s it! You don’t have chew a guy out like Pop, but damn if you learned anything from him, at least be assertive . Rhythmic basketball is Spurs basketball how do you not correct the bs
I thought Mitch corrected these players, like he did Bryant during the OKC series. I’ve been shouting call a timeout the moment Wemby was chucking heat check 3s.
Yup, his defensive game plan was horrible. Drawing up a mid range jumper for Deaaron fox in the final minute of the NBA finals is crazy as hell.
those were his bread and butter all season. his mistakes came earlier
Last game the Spurs closed the door on the Knicks partly because of a late Fox middy
Fox midrange on OG won them the last game, so I don’t necessarily think that play was the problem.
I was screaming at my TV (Wembanyama fan) when they kept on shooting 3’s even when it was clear it wasn’t working due to the law of averages hitting the Spurs HARD in the 2nd half.
It almost is hard to believe at the nba level. You have a massive guy great in the paint, so ….you shoot deep ?!?
Eh, he’s not a post up player, but the shot selection was horrible and the coach is at fault for watching this happen while sitting on his timeouts.
He’s not shaq but once the shots were not falling need to try something different
Wemy deserves part of the blame too. He’s the leader. He is projected to surpass Lebron and MJ for GOAT. If he wants to be in that conversation then he deserves criticism for not taking better control of the game.
Can we stop the GOAT comparisons
The Wemby goat talk is so draining
Projecting someone to be not only an all time great, but the actual GOAT, this early in their career is almost never going to work out. Things playing out perfectly the way it did for LeBron made people lose their minds.
He is projected to surpass Lebron and MJ for GOAT
What reality are you living in? What the hell. There is a chance, sure, but he is not projected to do so.
The basketball discourse on this sub is cursed lol
Agree but lets not forget the kid is 22 and still very immature. Coach should know that and fix things when he sees his superstar choking 3 with 20 point lead.
You can’t have it both ways.
If you want to call him the best player in the world, he has to take everything that comes with that. You don’t get to hide from criticism behind youth while also receiving that praise when things are going good.
Best player in the world doesn’t mean perfect though. He deserves criticism for sure but his coach should also be helping him
Ehh Bill caught plenty of flak when the Patriots did some bullshit and lost. Nobody said well Tom is the greatest it’s all on him. Your coach did some dumb shit and that affected the game. Also Wemby choked. Two things can be true
Why is wemby… with 5 seconds left on the clock, literally 35 feet from the basket when the knicks need to take a shitty shot. If wemby is down low he boxes OG out.
If wemby’s not in Brunson’s face he maybe makes that 3
Bro attempts them as if he was Curry. Man, you are 7 foot 4, what in the ever living hell do you think you are doing? Yes it’s good to have a solid three ball to stretch the floor but get in the paint and get the ball in the basket Wemby. He is often the only interior player for the Spurs on the court, Mitch is allergic to having two bigs on the floor at any point, so Wemby really can’t afford to be just playing behind the arc so often as if he’s a guard.
Costly decision making across the board from their team on offense in the second half. What an ugly watch.
You tall too but you ain’t KD either
feeling the three got them that lead, and when it went cold so did they
Hard part is they still had multiple chances to win…AGAIN despite the disaster class 2d half
0-27… Spurs fans I know your pain
I feel like we deserved the loss, is that how you guys felt?
For me personally, yes absolutely
Whatever defensive game plan the coach drew up that resulted in Victor guarding Jose like 3-4 possessions in a row was mind numbingly bad. Like I’m still in disbelief.
Doubled. They doubled Brunson at the logo. Leaving Wemby out there and no one to box out OG..
Every basket that went in the first half, clanked out the second half
The announcers even called it. You have to maintain discipline otherwise mentally being up consistently 10 is better than being up 30 while getting cocky
Bingo. Chucking mindless threes. Well deserved loss
When the lead was cut to 15, you could tell the Knicks were in their heads
Once the crowd got into it, it was over
Crowd was even trying when they’d get it to 25 then Spurs would get it back to 27 and 29. What an atmosphere
It helps that the Knicks gave them hope for many games with so many comebacks that the Garden crowd was conditioned to believe that they could pull it off
Exaxtly. This is the largest lead we’ve come back from but we’ve come back from multiple double digit and even 20+ point deficits over the years.
Most of those we were down 20+ in the fourth, this time it was only 15 going into the fourth
I just fucking love this team
This sub was mocking a fan celebrating cutting the lead to 22.
I swear some people on Reddit don’t even care about the game, they just care about talking about it. Must be a miserable life just giving up on everything
I went from reclined at -30 to sitting up at -15 to standing at -10. What a night, why not have hope?Believing is free.
Not just a fan, it was Taylor Swift. (I mocked her too and am eating my words.)
They would also mock her if she wasn’t animated. Just calling her a fake fan, fake celeb, there for the clout and aura.
It’s the ones who cheer when your team’s down that are real fans.
It’s always hilarious when people can’t imagine celebrities being fans of a team
You could feel the tension building on the Spurs side. Felt like no one wanted to take the reigns and initiate the offense, so they resorted to chucking.
That’s a coaching failure right there. He’s the one who’s supposed to have the reins.
In all honesty, they’re just too young. It’s a college style collapse. They don’t really have an adult on the floor. It’s supposed to be Fox but he’s not really good enough, he definitely doesn’t have the game to take over a quarter of basketball.
Should be Wemby within the next few yeaes, but he was so gassed in the 4th he couldn’t do anybody but chuck.
Wemby is likely at the lowest playing weight and best cardio for the foreseeable future. He’ll only add natural mass/weight gain into his prime years. I’m not sure how a 7’5 player will avoid being gassed but the formula for beating him is simple. Make him run basket to basket every possession and by the fourth he looks like he did tonight.
Yeah, it’s not just the dumb headed choke job plays (although that was a huge part of it) it’s even more than that, they look unsure when the lead starts to disappear and it’s been like that all series. Like you can literally see it on their faces, it’s not that they are scared, it’s more they’re unsure like, “Is it my turn? Wemby’s turn? Are we running a play or just looking for a shot?”
That’s why I think Mitch deserves a lot of the blame for the loss. He should know his team is young, that’s on you as the coach to calm them down and guide them.
I agree. If none of the players on the floor know what they’re supposed to be doing, that’s because they haven’t been given direction. Obviously I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, but it sure feels like a lot of Mitch’s strategy is to let the players figure it out for themselves. That might work for an older team like the Knicks, but not where your main players are 20-22. Sometimes it just feels like he’s being too lax and simply not giving them enough direction or support.
Yeah once it got under 20, I knew it was going to be fucked
“if it was a fight they’d have called it, if it was a race they’d have shot the horse”
yup once they cut it in half I was like this lead is not safe
and they kept chucking up 3s
Its funny. He made that comment about how their inexperience was their biggest strength and I found it pretty cool at the time. But as always, there is a reason why experience is so valuable in any discipline. They showed their inexperience and youth today.
A lot of that is on Mitch Johnson reigning them in. He absolutely failed as coach tonight.
That being said, I don’t think he could coach out the pure terrorism performed by Fox
They never should have been in a position for that too be the make or break in the first place but holy shit what is wrong with Fox
Eveyone is gonna focus on the stuff fox did at the end of the game but don’t forget when he had back to back unforced turnovers aswell. Just pure shit. No further analysis needed.
some of those were so careless. it felt like he just didn’t care about giving the knicks an extra possession because of the lead they had.
Lakers blew a 24 point lead to the Celtics in 2008 and they had experience and a coach with 9 rings at the time. Won the next 2 rings with most of the same team. Sometimes you just lose bad games.
People overreact to this shit hard and its tilting me.
Coaching isnt magic. Sometimes your team shits the bed. It’s like people think Mitch was telling em jack bad 3s in the huddle and run the TO plays.
People act like Fox is the veteran who should know better. This is his first actual playoff run.
Yeah the staff made some decisions you can second guess. Thats every close lose ever.
Spurs fans still claim TD should have been in on the Ray Allen 3.
At the end of the day none of the Spurs players played well enough in the second half to win that game and it still came down to a last second missed box out.
Its not that deep.
I’m still tilted and should go to bed lol
Mitch wasn’t telling them anything because he didn’t call a time out…
I wonder if Mitch made the call for Fox to take that shot lol
And ironic the 3 big experienced vets don’t have any playing time even when up by 28
Hopefully Fox with his youth can now get the experience needed as he grows into the league. Oh wait
I mean he’s right that it’s sometimes a strength to be young and hungry but I don’t think the whole team is hungry
Not disagreeing with what he said at all, I loved it. It is all part of the learning curve for them. I dont think they aren’t hungry, I just think they are inexperienced. The Knicks run and the Garden had them on the ropes. The entire team was rattled
They need to practice the basics. The Spurs are supposed to be a team that is know for their fundamentals. A simple thing like boxing out would have won them the game tonight.
What excuse does Fox have?
Played for the Sacramento Kings
No playoff experience
This series actually makes sense—Spurs are very talented but almost every team has to lose before they win. They’re simply not ready.
It’s almost like the universe did everything it could to force this rule to apply lmao
Take Fox back please!
3 first round picks will do it
For a second, I thought you were saying you were going to offer three first round picks for him and that’s….quite a King’s move
Calling Vivek right now.
NBA FINALIST SUPERSTAR GUARD UP FOR GRABS YO
DEAL! Get him outta here pls! Add KJ.. and get the coach too
The spurs wouldn’t be this far without Fox lmao, your young guards are amazing but they’ve floundered without him.
Would you be interested in a Zach Lavine
Danhausen’s curse went in effect in the second half (we haven’t been cursed mind you)
their coach actively watch their players make mistakes in the biggest stage. Like WTF is this coach.
In the coach’s defense, I don’t think anyone was expecting Fox to shoot there. No reason to call a timeout when you can waste a couple of seconds and get free throws.
Something has seriously happened to DeAaron Fox mentally he has turned into a HORRIBLE basketball player. They need to move his ass ASAP just awful
Mitch johnson has committed coaching malpractice you have to call a time out and tell them to STOP SHOOTING 3s and go back to the offense. He’s going to need some mentorship this summer
It’s years of playing losing basketball, and never having experienced playing in a winning setting with stakes anywhere as high as the Finals.
That may be it, he makes so many terrible plays
Move his 55 mil dollar a year ass? Nobody is taking the contract after seeing how he played this playoffs. Not unless you offer like 3 picks attached to him to get a couple less talented and overpaid players back. He has negative value at this point. His salary works for a Giannis trade but the Bucks will almost certainly ask for either Harper or Castle back in addition to a war chest of picks. And the Spurs will still be missing a primary ball handler.
Fox fixes a lot of structural problems and trading him away without getting redundancies doesn’t help you.
Yeah, Fox is a fucking veteran. Can’t really blame the coach on that one…Fox has to know what to do there. Insane sell job by Fox.
He should have done sooner in the quarter but here any sane person would expect your pg to dribble it out to kill clock
Wemby needs a consistent move he can rely on when everything is not going well.
A go-to move would save some of these losses lmao. Shit, if anyone on their team had one then that’s better.
Imagine if he had a skyhook
if harper extends his pull up game out to 3, he’ll be unstoppable. wemby himself is of course completely unstoppable when their sets get him into the right positions - i just think it’ll always be difficult to go to the big for an iso in crunch time when everyones allowed to foul and the screws are tighter. of course saying this all t-3 years before he wins his 3rd consecutive mvp averaging 36 14 5 3bl pg on 60+ ts
Ughh this is the most frustrating thing about this. I hate that this narrative is the automatic go to and I just knew the young spurs were different. I hate it down to my soul that held it together and then chose the finals to start playing their age. They handed the Knicks a ring.
It’s a learning experience. Spurs had a HISTORIC shooting from 3 first half. Law of averages bit them hard. They shouldn’t have settled. They’re a young team though.
The law of averages do not apply to OG
Of course. Anne Hathaway and Suni Lee powered. Also, Taytay just being a fan dancing courtside. OG got the rizz of all the baddies.
I understand that Anne Hathaway is Mother so that probably helps
Og fucking shat the mother toilet tonight and did not flush
Willy Shakespeare over here
Willy Shakespeare also loved Anne Hathaway
Hi can we be friends
It applies. His average is just 70% 😭
That’s when your coach needs to step in. Absolute disaster on the bench tonight.
You really kinda seen it coming. They’re a young team so they seen something that was working so they kept with it. But it was a result of that inside-out offense they like. 2nd half was outside-in 3pt shots where they didn’t drive as much. But that’s because Mike Brown adjusted, lived and died with the switches. You need to take chances down 29
The Brunson+Alvarado back court was sick. I thought it wouldn’t work out cause we’re so undersized at the back court. Alvarado is feisty and punches above his weight class though so we didnt get abused much on defense. On offense, having 2 ball handlers is such a pressure release on Brunson that got him on the flow.
Credits to Mike Brown for trying that lineup.
they scored less in the 2nd half than they did in either of the first 2 quarters
Thats such a crazy line lol
Absolutely frigid in the 2nd half. They were like 63% shooting after the 1st overall and from 3. Ended the game 42 and 40% respectively.
Gotta take a page out of Castle’s book and knock down those clutch freethrows big fella
And get yo ass in the paint you’re not steph curry
Everyone is Steph Curry until it’s time to be Steph Curry
All game I was yelling at him to GET IN THE PAINT 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
It’s like he doesn’t know how tall he is? Let the little guys shoot the threes for fucks sake. He’s got one notable important attribute and he doesn’t fuckin use it when it matters. Although, he was overworked and they basically didn’t have a coach
His height doesn’t matter in those instances though because he just gets bullied and can’t play through a ton of contact in the paint. Yeah he can shoot over anybody but he’ll also get easily moved off his spot by a guard.
This is the breaking point. Feels like this was a stunner to them
No team comes back from something like this
16 Cavs did after Warriors dropped 18 3s on them
Wemby isn’t LeBron.
Nobodu would have ever imagined Miami LeBron doing what he did to the Warriors
Spoken like somebody who didn’t watch what he did to the Celtics.
Before and after 2011 is a big difference
I don’t see the greatest version of a basketball player to ever touch the floor and prime Kyrie on the spurs. This is over. The refs/silver might drag their asses back to NYC one more time but it’ll end there
And let’s not forget: knicks fans were loud in SA before the Knicks even gave them a win. It is going to be an interesting scene now that its an elimination game.
The knicks also aren’t the 73-9 warriors though
That warriors team didn’t sweep a single playoff opponent during that entire run. Obviously one of the best teams of all time, but this Knicks team is damn good in their own right
Peak Lebron and Kyrie arent on the other side.
A 22 year old Wemby is not prime LeBron man, nor yet. This loss is an all time stinker that changed history in one way or another for the future
22 year old Lebron averaged 35/9/7 in the playoffs.
Edit: Nope, I’m wrong, he was 24.
That was 24 year old LeBron…22 year old LeBron averaged 6 turnovers a game and 40% TS in the Finals..
While getting swept
lmao that dude is so insane
Not a stunner, but I’m the spurs lost their soul tonight
I’d say their coach lost his job with this one, but I don’t know if their front office would do it.
I pray the Spurs keep him. He is their weakest link by far.
Spurs is probably not the kind of organization who gets rid of their coach for this alone but if he doesn’t show any improvement in game management next year they will surely need to have a conversation about getting someone else. Pop would have told them to cut the bullshit before the Knicks got it even below 20
bah gawd, that team had a family
Young team. If they figure it out they’ll be back to the finals. But this year it’s the Knicks series to win and very enjoyable to see as a neutral fan.
r/wallstreetbets would like to introduce wemby to $ROPE
Steph hitting 60 foot 3s during the olympics was his breaking point
Letting the historical comeback happen in a game that puts you down 3-1 has got to be all but the nail in the coffin. It’s not like you guys came back like this in game 1 lol
Did he get in his own head?
Nah he got in Mitchell Robinson’s head and acquired his free throw shooting
Classic rookie mistake
You never go full Mitch
Definitely. He got cocky. Its natural when its your first time making a playoff run
All that mountain climbing and training with the monks to be IN HIS HEAD AT THE FREE THROW LINE
Wouldn’t blame him. Knicks got momentum and MSG was loud.
I feel great
Same. In disbelief but it’s all good. We’ll be back
As do I. Blue and orange for life.
I always said the thunder hate was unnecessary (don’t check my comment history)
Best fucking day all year so far.
Wembys gunna have to eat some shit. He did the first half cocky shit which I loved at the time but then he played young in the second half, missed two big free throws and is in no mans land on that deep Brunson 3.
He and Fox both are just ball watching on that play.
This one hurts. But its part of the process.
Nothing is a given. It’s not crazy to think this will be the closest Wemby ever comes to a championship the rest of his career. Look how many greats in all of sports who never won a championship
I think he even said that in an interview. He’s not guaranteed a trip back. In 2012, who would have guessed Harden and Westbrook would never see the finals again?
If you can lose a 30 pt lead you are just not championship worthy
guys choked all they had to do was instead trying for 3….step in and make a 2 and get the foul.
Or at least wait 20 more seconds to try the 3. Knicks might’ve run out of time. We were in a hurry to give them the ball
Yea kill time and drain the clock I hate seeing all those celebrities on the floor celebrating and I am a Knicks fan..
Even Spurs fans had more faith in the Knicks than those celebrities LMAO
“We worked too hard” is honestly a good assessment. Had the Spurs just taken things slow in the second half, they would’ve won by 20+ and people would be clowning on the Knicks right now. Instead, they kept taking shots for no reason and went completely cold.
Should be up 3-1, damn right it should hurt
without the refs this series is already over
Without the refs, basketball could not be played
Damn letting my friends at the park know we can’t play this weekend
Refs in shambles
refs did not win them game 3 this narrative is tired
You’re right, it was mostly poor Q4 shooting from the Knicks, but the refs were a contributing factor.
Game 2 was egregiously bad though and Knicks barely escaped.
Lights were too bright
baguettes were too stale
Heads were too transparent.
Growing pains are part of the process. The fact that they are already here competing like this is a massive win for the future. Head up, Wemby.
[removed]
Why settle for threes? Like their offense in the second half made no sense
That’s been the Spurs game this season unfortunately. When the team is up, the inexperience really shows and they just stop running offense and just starts chucking shots
That’s their youth. Knicks had come back from leads similar to that. They knew they had plenty of time to chip away and that home court advantage would eventually help them. Spurs played the whole 3rd quarter under the assumption that they just needed to do whatever and coast to the end of the game. And before they knew it, the Knicks momentum was too strong before they could lock back in again
Can you imagine Coach Pop watching that collapse back at home? He would have told them that the next person to shoot a dumb 3 is benched.
Those clanked free throws were brutal
First thing they need to do is remember there’s two halves of basketball
“worked too hard” then starting chucking 3s with reckless abandon
yall passed out. lethargic basketball.
Lowest IQ team to ever make the finals
Need knicks to close this out game 5, Wemby might score 50 points in the first half and choke a game 6
Bye bye wemby, maybe don’t be such a smug cunt next season.
Can you relay that same message to your fan base?
I am obviously a biased Knicks fan but….. these kids deserve to be humbled. Win or lose this series they will be back, but there’s a cockiness to Wemby and Castle that is hard to fathom for a team that hasn’t accomplished jack shit besides squeaking by an OKC team that was missing an All NBA player.
Since this will get some traction, here’s my hot-ish take.
Every young team needs to lose before they win, it would seem. Growing up the ‘87 + ‘88 Pistons and ‘90 Bulls were the classic examples of this.
There’s a caveat to that though; if a team this young loses in ways that are either this dumb or this horrid, it can actually be fucking devastating.
I’m iN yOuR hEaD bOyYyYyYyYy
i genuinely don’t know how you bounce from such a poorly managed and played 2nd half.
bone headed as it got
Yeah this is music to my ears. Wemby is a great player but he certainly comes off as arrogant. It’s nice to see him humbled before he inevitably dominates the league.
Needs to be humbled like this