ESPN’s Brian Windhorst: What Spurs Did Right to Get Back into the NBA Finals

The Spurs lead the NBA Finals two games to one. Game 3 in Madison Square Garden was an event, the kind of night ESPN's Brian Windhorst compared to a Super Bowl, and it ended with San Antonio's young core stealing home-court advantage right out of the building.

That was the thread when Brian Windhorst joined Rich from, of all places, Stephen A. Smith's office. A studio lighting problem pushed him there, and he spent the first few minutes eyeing a Stephen A figurine he admitted was "mildly off-putting." Then the conversation turned to what actually happened on the floor.

Start with the scene. Windhorst said the area around the Garden was locked down, with the president in attendance, celebrities everywhere, and a security perimeter that Jay Williams told him made the whole night feel like a Super Bowl. The arena was packed 45 minutes to an hour before tip, and when the Knicks came out for their final warm-up, "it sounded like somebody just hit a game-winning shot." But Windhorst was firm that the spectacle did not decide the game. "It didn't affect the Spurs at all. If anything, it possibly inspired them." The president was gone by early in the fourth. It was a one-point game heading into the final quarter. "All of that stuff was irrelevant when it came right down to it."

What changed for San Antonio was Victor Wembanyama. In Games 1 and 2 his numbers looked fine, 27 and 10, but Windhorst said they were misleading. He was shooting 40 percent with 10 turnovers across the two games, trailing plays instead of leading them. In Game 3 he had his energy from the opening tip, three dunks in the first five minutes, four lob dunks for the night after just one in the first two games combined. Around him, the kids went off. Stephon Castle scored 18 in the first half on pure aggression and hit a huge three. Wembanyama and Castle combined to go 19 of 32. And when Mitch Johnson went small in the fourth, leaning on De'Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, and Castle, it was Harper crashing the glass, five rebounds in the fourth quarter alone, that kept a smaller Spurs lineup alive against a bigger Knicks team.

Then there was the officiating, which Rich pressed on hard. The Knicks took 10 fewer free throws overall, and the second-half disparity was 24 to eight. New York was called for three fouls in the first 65 seconds of the fourth quarter and was already in the bonus with more than eight minutes left in the period. Windhorst, open about his Knicks bias, did not pretend the night was clean. He pointed to a no-call on Wembanyama shoving down Jalen Brunson and to Karl-Anthony Towns getting manhandled by Keldon Johnson. The physicality ran both ways, he said, with the Spurs clearly targeting Brunson, and even Mike Breen noted on the broadcast that the referees might need to start calling more fouls. His read: the game was let go, then suddenly tightened, and the Knicks felt the swing more than the Spurs did.

Mike Brown made the officiating a centerpiece of his postgame. Windhorst, who has covered Brown for more than 20 years, saw strategy in it, a page from Rick Carlisle, who is historically great at working officials. He noted Brown took the opposite approach in 2007 with Cleveland, declaring a "no excuse team," then winning four straight. The Knicks players, notably, were not the ones complaining. Brown was, and Windhorst believes it was a calculated, possibly smart, move with a pivotal Game 4 on Wednesday.

Rich closed on a rules question that doubled as a complaint: why can't teams keep challenging if they keep getting calls right? Windhorst agreed it is unfair that success gets penalized, noted New York had two correct challenges go their way and might have wanted another in the final 90 seconds, and explained the league's logic is pace, not wanting seven reviews in a fourth quarter. The irony he flagged: the built-in stoppages from reviews and free throws actually helped Wembanyama, who played the entire fourth and stayed fresh.