The Inside Guys and Draymond Green react to the Spurs' Game 3 win over the Knicks 🍿 | Inside the NBA

Boys and girls, we got ourselves a series. Welcome to Inside the NBA, uh, here on ESPN. Draymond Green is here, and Shaquille O'Neal is here, Kenny "The Jet" Smith, Charles Barkley. We are presented by Lilly. Well, a night that began with so much hope if you're a New York fan, it certainly did not end the way they thought it was going to.

Well, you know, the one thing about— we saw in Game 2, it was a lack of poise at times by the San Antonio Spurs. That poise was there were there throughout the game. Yes, they made mistakes. Yes, they didn't finish everything cleanly, but they didn't beat themselves. They didn't shoot themselves in the foot. They gave them an opportunity every possession down the stretch in the last 4 minutes of the game to say, hey, if we miss, we'll shake your hand, but we're not going to give you the game. And that was the difference to me down the stretch.

I can remember one time in the Finals, Robert Horry came in the locker room and said, Diesel, we following you. And I said, Rob, what do you mean? He said, Diesel, every time you come out with that energy, you come out throwing bows, acting crazy, it opens up the game for us. Victor started the game with a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm, and he had a great game. They followed. They still had a couple lapses, but they won the game. They got the monkey off their back. They're not gonna get swept. And guess what? The next game, pressure will still be on the Knicks.

Well, I think, um, down the stretch, they didn't make as many mistakes. It looked like there was a concerted effort for De'Aaron Fox to have the ball, making the plays down the stretch. De'Aaron Fox is a proven point guard. He has the most experience of the guys guys that's playing with the Spurs, and down the stretch they were able to close it out because they got looks at the rim as opposed to turnovers.

I actually think both of you guys are right. I thought that Victor coming out establishing himself, because when he gets going, that frees those other guys up because it makes them shade their defense like, uh-oh, we got to shade toward Victor because he's getting these dunks and lobs and everything. And that opens up things for Cass and all those other guys. But I, I've said all along, Ernie, I think the key to the Spurs is Darren— De'Aaron Fox. You go back and look, going back to the Golden State Warriors, when he plays well, and he's played very well the last few games, and those been the two closest games, and when they needed a basket, which we got mad at them, we thought they should have went to him in the last game. Yeah, because he like, because he, he, he to me is the key to the Spurs.

But the 12-point game for him tonight, just 4 out of 11. He did have 8 assists. I thought Stephon Castle—

Yeah, well, he's got him to a good start, but I'm talking about down the stretch. Fox made the plays down the stretch. Castle got off to a great start. I— the thing I didn't like about the Knicks, man, I don't think you can play from behind at the start of the game because you got to get to find a way to get your crowd into the game. But Castle got these guys off to a great start.

Yeah, I mean, that's a third straight game too, Chuck, that San Antonio's come out and thrown the first punch.

Yeah.

Well, Ernie, if you talk about Castle as we watch him score, the one thing that is being underrated and it won't be now because they've won a game, is his defensive prowess on Brunson. Making Brunson make and take tough shots. He is probably, there's probably 3 or 4 guys in the league, he's one of them, that is physical enough at the guard position where Jalen Brunson doesn't have a physical advantage on him. He can get by him, he can still make shots, but he's not overpowering him and that's leading to him shooting a low percentage.

And you'll see that Brunson had a 32-point night, but again, A lot of shots. Yeah, but 25 shots tonight.

Yeah, but I think, I think the Knicks are reverting back to the way they played. Too much Brunson eccentric, you know, when they were winning, when they were blowing out teams, sweeping teams, they would get Cat involved more to me because Cat, they didn't use Cat at all tonight.

11 points on 4 of 10 shooting.

They didn't use him, but I think they're becoming a little too, the last really in every game They've been becoming a little too Brunswick, Bronson-centric.

Bronson-centric?

Yes.

Yeah. Game 3 with all of this hype, all of this anticipation, and all of this energy in the building, it was absolutely bonkers here.

Spike Lee could have just did a whole film.

He should have just grabbed every actor here.

Lil Mac, Draymond Green, Regina, Jay-Z. Did a 15-minute film right here in the Garden.

Any place you pointed that camera, you were seeing celebs in this building.

And—

Early on, as we pointed out, San Antonio throwing the first punch.

Yeah, throwing the first punch. But you know, I said at the beginning of the game, these Game 3s to me are always someone who is a caveat. And it was early on, it was Stephon Castle, and then on the Knicks side it was Jason Hart. So, I mean— Josh Hart.

Josh Hart.

So those two guys have been it, but get out of my way, Shaq. Shaq, this is what you thought changed the game.

No, it didn't change the game. That was a dirty play, period.

Listen, I like big guys letting little guys know, hey, this is the Finals. If I gotta run you over and go through you, I would do that. He came out with great energy, great aggression. He got 32 points.

This is what I'm asking for. This was nothing right here. It was just an accident.

And then Hart got the tech.

Yep.

Because there was no reason for him to go hitting the ball like that.

He's also standing over him too though. So what does Josh Hart do when he gets—

Oh my goodness. Shucks on you too. Watch your head, boy.

I'm not gonna lie. I wouldn't want to be a guard in NBA for the next 10, 15 years with Castle and Castle and that boy Harper out there.

Yeah, no kidding.

Damn.

8-nothing run for the Knicks. They get right back in this thing. Game is now 2 points, 42 to 40. And ah, one of those you just can't afford it in a finals game or any time, man, when you value possessions and you threw that one away. But the Knicks would re— respond and—

He was big today.

OG Anunoby, 49-47 is the San Antonio lead.

Brunson.

Knicks on top.

I didn't like the Knicks' ball movement and body movement.

Oh, go get that. Thank you.

Thank you.

Go get that. But I, I just think that right here, you know, Josh Hart was so big in the first half. That's why the Knicks had a lead going into halftime based on his play.

Yeah, they were up by 7 at the break after trailing by double digits in the first half. And, uh, in the second half, here we go.

Brunson.

Uh, really? Okay. And 1.

I think Castle may want to lower his pickup point on Jalen Brunson just a little bit. Get rid of a few of those that he's been getting.

But these are tough shots though, right there, Draymond. And when you get these young guys off to the races, Vassell, he shoots the ball. You know, you get Castle downhill, you get all of these guys. And then Wimby says, step out, 'cause now I got a couple of dunks, I feel comfortable.

Yeah. I was just getting ready to say that, Kenny, with the system, you know, once you get a lead on the system, you gotta put 'em away. 'Cause one thing they will do, they will keep fighting.

Clarkson again, the guy hadn't scored in the series.

Well, they didn't really play him, honestly. Came in, everybody who's coming for the Knicks, Ernie, has been ready to play.

This kid right here is special. Without question, Dylan Harper is special. Not a very consistent outside shooter, but man, every now and then he will connect.

And you know, I was disappointed in Knicks inability to get Karl-Anthony Towns involved. He's been the most valuable player in the series, and they didn't go to him at all in the first half.

Wemby was up there, by the way, on that alley-oop, and then for 3—

This was a great call.

Yeah, you think it's for 3, and you think they're gonna be up by 10, And no offensive foul on Keldon Johnson.

No bucket. And then, and then the Knicks came down and scored on the next play. So it was a 6-point swing. To see the Spurs respond to that was huge.

7-point game at this point with under 6 minutes to play.

Big body Brunson.

This is time of the, this is his time of the game.

This is his time. You know, he really, really tried to close it, but the Spurs again with the system.

Oh yeah.

You gotta put 'em away. Victor did a really great job of running hard to the rim tonight.

But like I said, I just thought the Knicks, I have no idea why they wasn't giving the ball to Big Cat at all. 'Cause he's been great. And this was just a Hail Mary.

108, 104, and then Castle knocks down the 3.

Yeah, that's what I say. He was big down the stretch early as well. I mean, Chuck, I thought he was big early and big down the stretch. He was big all game.

Here it is. 111, 108, and Fox.

Tough shot.

Tough shot. Baby Van Exel. See, that's the shot that I thought he should have taken in game 2.

Yeah.

He had the same shot in game 2.

Fox on the right. OG and a no-beat. Look at this out of the corner.

Listen, great shot. Harper did a great job of not fouling, putting your hand up. Hey, he hit the shot.

After those 2 castle free throws that we talked to him about, not seen here, but significant nonetheless. They give him a 4-point lead, and that iced the game, 115-111.

The free throws were huge, but the thing that I was interested in is how fast Fox tried to get him the ball for them free throws. So he must be their guy down the stretch that they want shooting the free throws. He knocked them down.

It is now a 2-1 series as the Spurs come to New York and win at the Garden. Home team hasn't won a game yet. Let's hear from both coaches.

There were opportunities for fouls to be called to at least try to even the free throws out. Now, we didn't play good. San Antonio played great. We could have played better. There were a lot of things that we didn't do that we've done— that we did in Game 1 and Game 2. But to go 24 free throw attempts in a second half, that's 48 for the game if you think about it the way that they called that second half, compared to 8. All the shots we took, we got fouled 4 times, roughly, for 8 free throw attempts. Again, I don't complain much. I never thought I'd see that in an NBA Finals game.

After Game 2, Victor said he was gonna use the way that game ended to fuel him and to fuel you guys. Just what do you think allowed him to kind of have the bounce back he did, and what did you guys do to maybe put him in position to succeed tonight?

Yeah.

I'm sure Victor has numerous sources of motivation. And I don't think any of us are surprised or would expect anything different than a strong performance and him being on his front foot in terms of being in attack mode. You know, for me and the staff, our job is to help the guys. There's no momentum. There's no carryover. We learn what we saw and experienced from the previous game. And now plural, when you get into series, you got to settle in and the clarity that comes from watching the tape and arguing with your staff and trying to help the guys is the job. And that's what we'll continue to do, and we'll have the same approach in the next 48 hours.

You look at this, 35-5 at 22 or younger in Finals history and victor on there with, you know, Magic and Kobe. So Mike Brown's point about free throws. Okay, so San Antonio made more than New York took. Draymond Green, uh, in this game, 25 for 32, 18 for 22. When you hear what he had to say, do you see what he— the point he's making, especially talking about how many free throw attempts in a half that they got?

Well, he should stop that we didn't play well. You can't go back—

Well, they played more. San Antonio played very well.

Yeah, we can, um— well, he can say— but his point was they did not play well enough to win the game. The Spurs outplayed them tonight. Listen, referees gonna miss some calls. That happens. But officiating did not lose this game. Mike Brown, you know I love Mike Brown, but he said it first, we did not play well. Yeah, could we have got more free throws? Of course you could have. Maybe, well, was there a bad call here or there? But the bottom line was he should have stopped at we did not play well enough to win.

Ernie.

That's why they lost, not the free throws.

And points off turnovers, 21 to 7 in favor of San Antonio.

Ernie, when I was good enough to lead my team to the finals, one time I had a bad game and Phil Jackson said, "What's wrong?" I said, "I didn't get no calls." He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Real champions don't complain." And he walked off. Mike Brown knows better. He's won with the Warriors. He knows what it takes to win the championship. I agree with Chuck. You didn't play well. You should have played better at home. Everybody's expecting, you know, the blowout. We're here in New York. Everybody's celebrating. He should have stopped that. We didn't play well. Real champions do not complain. Sorry, Draymond.

Oh, no. All good. I'm sorry. I love Mike Brown as well. The referees usually side with the more aggressive team. Victor Wembanyama started the game, 3 of their first 4 possessions, he had dunks. All series long, when Victor Wembanyama has rolled, it's been like bumper cars. He's getting tagged right here. He gets another tag. Draymond Green. Now he get 5 or 6 lobs today. So I blame the Knicks for that. If you're aggressive, if you're not letting him roll to the rim, then they're not penetrating to get to the basket and they're not getting more foul calls.

Ernie, I wanna say this, 'cause you said something earlier. Mike Brown got to get his team together and ask, "Dude, why are we getting punched in the face first in every game?" Like, the Spurs have gotten off to great starts in every game. You're trying to win the championship. You come home, you got one of the craziest environments I've ever been in, and you still come out and you get off to a bad start. They need to— you can't play from behind. Even though they got lucky in the first two games and won, for some reason they're coming out not ready to play.

Might have been a little unrealistic to think that you can win 15 straight games, you know, in the NBA playoffs, so— You're going to have to go through some type of adversity to win an NBA championship.

There—

I don't know many championship teams that have not. So this is part of it. And I had said at the beginning of the game, 10 seconds in Game 2, this could be a different complexion of what's going on here. But this is why you play these games. And you—

it is the first of 4.

This is a great— It is in the first of 7.

This is a great—

piece of work here.

Yeah, but I also think he didn't play as well tonight.

Well, because they didn't give him the ball.

But I also thought when he had opportunities, he didn't force the issue. I thought in games 1 and 2, at times, Chuck, I thought he forced the drive, even though I thought now he drove and kicked the ball instead of drove and put his shoulder into the deep.

I would like to see the Knicks do for him what the Spurs do for Wimby. Get him going early, 'cause it opens up everything. Because if Carl gets going, Cat gets going, that's going— that freed up Castle tonight when Wimby got going. It freed up Harper. It freed up all those guys. If the Knicks— if you get Cat going, that puts Wimby— that puts Wimby on his heels. He was going downhill the whole night after getting off to a good start. You got to meet him. Halfway.

Wemby, 32 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 blocks on the night. And when we come back here on Inside the NBA presented by Lilly, you will hear from Wemby as the San Antonio Spurs cut into that New York lead. Oh, look at that cute kid, man.

Look at that cute assistant kid right there. It is 2 games to 1 here in the NBA Finals.

Performance of the night brought to you by Microsoft 365 with Copilot. And for the 5th time in this—

Thank you.

His first playoff appearance in his first Finals.

Thank you.

He's got 5 games of at least 30 points. He went for 32 tonight.

Jeez, thank you.

And he broke it down too with like 9 points in the first quarter, then 6 and then 7 and then 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Last time I seen this, Shaq, Snoop, it was Snoop coming down, kicking down early on Draymond Green.

Me and Charles had this. Had this conversation earlier. I think a lot of people, especially the world, they get misconstrued when I'm talking about big man. Don't want you to be like me. I want you to have a certain mentality. The same mentality that I saw him have, the same mentality that I saw Patrick Ewing have, that Draymond has. He came out with a lot of energy and a lot of effort. I seen in the last series, whenever he's high in scoring and playing like that, the team plays well. That's all I'm asking him to do. I'm not asking him to be me. I'm asking him to have that mentality 'Cause this is what it takes to win a championship.

Can I add to that?

Yes.

There's a mental physicality.

Thank you.

And also, and meaning when he goes after things, it's the same as being physical like Shaq. So when he has a mental physicality, it changes the game. It makes people change their mind in what their decision might be. Because, no, he's coming, I'm not driving now. So now I have to come up with a whole different plan. But when he's not mentally physical, you go in there and you try things and you make other things happen.

But two things though. They got him the ball early, it got him going. He always plays better when he gets going. But also, I blame the Knicks because they let him just play one way. They never went to Karl-Anthony Towns early. He didn't get his first shot till the second quarter. Period. So when you're a great player, they can't let you just play on one end of the floor. Cat had outplayed him in both games. You come out, they says, we gonna get Wimby going. Well, no, let me get Cat going, then we can go even steven. And I thought, listen, Knicks didn't play well and Wimby played fantastic.

While I ponder mental physicality, we invite you to listen to Victor after the game.

You obviously got Knicks fans very riled up throughout the game. At one point, there was a colorful chant directed towards you. It seems as though you may be New York's newest villain. Is that kind of the ultimate compliment?

I guess.

I'm nowhere near Draymond Green level, though.

Second row. Hey Victor, Liam McCune from Sports Illustrated. Appreciate you taking a couple minutes. Yesterday Luke told me that he liked playing in road playoff environments and especially tough ones because all that adversity really makes a team come together. Do you feel like your team came together tonight in the face of a rockin' MSG crowd?

Yes.

At home, it really feels like playing 6 against 5. In here, it feels like playing 5 against 6. But, and I agree with Luke, it really shows what teams are made of.

You know what?

God, I love that kid.

Maybe I'm overthinking this.

I love that kid.

Possibly.

But I'm looking at him and I'm looking at the expression on his face when he looks up when he's answering these questions. And it's almost like, yeah, Look, I heard all the stuff after 2 games of this, that Victor's getting his butt kicked by Karl-Anthony Towns, and that how will this 22-year-old ever handle a crowd like this in Madison Square Garden? And he had kind of that knowing look like, "Okay, I'm here, I'm ready," and we took care of business tonight.

Well, they played very well. He played very well. But this was a must-win for the Spurs, not the Knicks. They got to get— Now the pressure switches back to the Knicks. All the pressure to me is the Spurs had to win the game. The Knicks did not have to win the game. Now I think for the Knicks, they gotta come out ready to play Wednesday, 'cause if you give away, go back to San Antonio 2-2, it's gonna be a different animal. But if they win game 4, they'll be fine. But they have to win game 4.

You know all about the ebbs. All you guys do know about the ebbs and flows of a playoff series, and now you gotta win, or now you've got one to play with. But yeah, you look ahead to Game 4, Shaq.

What I love about the situation, especially with the Spurs, of course it's a high, high-powered situation, but you have to embrace the moment. You have to step into the moment and say, "Okay, we didn't play well. We know we gotta do it." And the Spurs, they came out, listen, great crowd. I've never heard it this loud in Madison Square Garden. They're thinking one at a time. They took care of it today. They're gonna go focus now. Pressure is on the Knicks, but the pressure is also on the Spurs.

Yep.

You don't wanna go down 3-1. So if I'm the Spurs, I'm saying, okay, this is what we gotta do. We know we can win on the road. We know we can beat this team, but we got, again, you earn it. You have to embrace the pressure. If you have any doubts in your mind, you will not win ever.

I think what the Knicks need to figure out is how to get Jalen Brunson playing better. Um, through 3 games, he has not played well.

Yes. Thank you, Draymond.

Out of shot. Uh, some— sometimes empty calories. They need to figure out how to unleash him. And the answer to unleashing him is giving the ball to Karl-Anthony Towns.

Thank you.

Stop leaving him in front of the defense trying to figure it out. And then they'll give themselves a better chance at going back in San Antonio up 3-1.

And also, Underdog, who's the best stat guy in the world— oh Lord, I just lied. Uh, he said to me, the Knicks been down at least 8 points at the end of the first quarter in every game. That can't happen. Like, like, it can happen one game, it can happen two games. It's happened three games in a row where they've been down at least 8 points. That's what I said earlier. That's the number one thing. They got to do the thing with Brunson, number one, but they've got to fix that.

Apparently, uh, TK, uh, in the truck says, and I don't recall because there was a lot of yelling going on at halftime, did you make a prediction at halftime?

I thought the Spurs were gonna lose.

That's right. Give me them damn keys to that house today. Look, shit, I'm all ears.

First of all, man, I told you tonight, this series is a wrap.

You think it's a wrap?

Oh, hell yeah.

You're down 5 going into halftime.

Down 5.

Down 7.

Down 7.

Down 7. Oh, this thing is over.

I think it's over.

I'll bet it.

I'll put my house against your little house.

What'd you say?

Well, my house bigger than yours.

Usually when we talk about realty, it's a 10-day close, man. I want your ass out tomorrow.

Get out of my house. I'll tell you what, I'm such a good dude, you can stay in my guest house.

Oh, that's the guest house.

Okay, okay. Hey, you can't use the pool or the tennis court, but you can stay in the guest house.

Okay, thank you, sir.

We're gonna take another break. No, I appreciate that, Pamela.

Oh yeah, appreciate you, man.

The great Christian Bale.

These 11s? Yes, in case we miss.

Kenny, where are your socks?

Where are my socks?

I'm Don Johnson, bro.