With throngs of celebrities including President Donald Trump, Mayor Zorhan Mandami among others packing into Madison Square Garden for the first NBA Finals game in 27 years, the New York Knicks laid an egg, and now find themselves in a series after the San Antonio Spurts answered their 2-0 series lead with a 115-111 victory over New York on Monday night.
The game itself will best be remembered probably as the Flagrant Foul Game, as twice the Spurs could have been called for Flagrant One Fouls that left Knicks guard Jalen Brunson peeling himself off the court, but they were not called.
Then there was the moment when Spurs guard Julian Champagnie tripped over his own two feet, which just so happen to be under Brunson's stretched out legs. Champagnie sold it as Burnson stepping on his ankle and was rewarded as Brunson was called for a Flagrant foul.
Brunson would have to spend much of the fourth quarter on the bench with four fouls on the night as the Knicks went stagnant offensively.
Coach Mike Brown went on a full court press against the officiating in his postgame comments saying "I never thought I'd be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free throw attempts in the second half to another team's eight."
While Brown can call out the refs all he wants, the fouls weren't the main reason the Knicks couldn't get the job done in Game 3.
The facts are the Knicks were straight up outplayed by the Spurs.
Victor Wembanyama, who struggled against Knicks center Karl Anthony Towns for much of the first two games of this series went off. A 32-point performance for the 7-foot-4 All Star, as he completely took over. Give credit to San Antonio because they decided to free up Wembanyama, moving him around and peeling him off of Towns whenever possible.
As a result, the Spurs who looked so stiff at the start of the series, had a better flow offensively. Not to mention they were knocking down their shots. San Antonio was shooting at 60 percent from the floor in the first quarter, and wound up shooting 46 percent from the floor by the end of the game.
As for the Knicks, they were neutralized offensively. Towns was ineffective. While he finished with 11 points, he didn't dominate the floor like he did the first two games. Mikal Bridges, a hero in Game 2 was a goat in Game 3 with only two points.
Bruson who led the Knicks with 32 points, struggled most of the night, hitting on 11-of-25 shots.
The Knicks were a putrid from downtown in the fourth quarter, missing on their first nine shots, and ending the quarter 2-of-14 from beyond the arch.
The Spurs nailed the shots they needed. Especially Stephon Castle who drilled the game wining three-pointer, and finished with 23 points. De'Aaron Fox also had his best night of the series hitting a bucket at the end to ice it.
So here are the Knicks up two games to one, and now they face a must win situation in Game 4. Only once in NBA history has the road team won the first three games of a series like we have seen here. That was in 1993 when the Bulls won the first two games of that series in Phoneix. Then the Suns came back to win Game 3 in Chicago. The Bulls would win that series in five games.
If the Knicks can't get back on track in Game 4 on Wednesday, they could be in big trouble.
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