Craig Carton BLAMES Derek Jeter for Knicks Loss?!

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
One little loss does not define New York, nor does it define the New York Knicks. We'll take some calls. We'll get to the watch parties later on this afternoon, and the embarrassment that was New York City residents beating the crap out of two or three handful of Spurs fans, which is something that we usually reserve for Philadelphians, the animals that live in Philadelphia. We're supposed to be above that, but we're not, apparently. I know it's only a handful of guys that are being stupid, but when you see the video and the video goes viral, the video and the commentary with it is not, it's only a handful of bad people.
Those are New Yorkers, no better than Philadelphians. And I've always prided myself, Big Mac, we're so much better than people from Philadelphia. Not last night we weren't.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:43)
No, we weren't. And that's how it goes, man.

**Craig Carton** (0:45)
Don't be shocked. It's not going to be a watch party, and they're supposed to be tomorrow night by the Garden.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:50)
Yeah, they were supposed to be there. We're going to clear it. I don't know if they'll do any more at Brian Park, that's for sure, but we'll see. But if, you know what, honestly, I don't know if they have to cancel, but if they do, we've got nobody to blame but ourselves. Correct.

**Craig Carton** (1:00)
You can't blame Trump on that one, he ain't going to blame on anybody. Right. It did appear that he fell asleep during the game.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:05)
It appeared?

**Craig Carton** (1:05)
It did.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:07)
Was it the sheep jumping over a fence above his head?

**Craig Carton** (1:10)
But have you saw that too?

**Chris McMonigle** (1:11)
I did.

**Craig Carton** (1:12)
Yeah. Unbelievable.
You think at any point, Jim Dole is like, Mr. President, you're embarrassing us. It's a great game.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:23)
You disrupted the whole city for this.

**Craig Carton** (1:24)
How do you fall asleep when there's 18,000 people going crazy, right?

**Chris McMonigle** (1:29)
I don't know.

**Craig Carton** (1:30)
But it is what it is. Let's take some calls right now. Ross is in Bergen County on the fan. Ross, good afternoon. How are you?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:38)
What's going on, guys? Love the show as always.
Listen, here's my thing with the loss last night. Obviously, like you said, Craig, at the end of the day, as bad as they played, even you look at the first half as bad as they played, they were up seven going at the half time, right? Here's the thing, though. You look at the first three games, the fact that not only have they dropped all three first quarters, they're by like six points or more last night, I think was by seven as well. That's why the second quarter was so good. But what my biggest fear goes back to the 2024 second round against Indiana, I was obviously the first of the two against the Pacers. That was the year we ran out of gas, went the distance with them, where we were up 2-0, albeit the differences we had at home court. But we started 2-0, game three was a close loss, game four was a bot loss. My biggest fear is where you give them an inch in game three, let them back in the series, and they take a mile in game four, and all of a sudden now you're looking at a best of three. Going back to San Antonio, but one other thing I'll say is, if you want to play devil's advocate there, and I'm doing quotes, their worst basketball in each series has been played at MSG. The first three games against Atlanta, game two against Philly was the only game that was close. The 1&B didn't play, and obviously game one the all time comeback.

**Craig Carton** (2:46)
Let's not forget this, when you have a winning streak, as they had, nine in a row, ten in a row, eleven in a row, twelve in a row, oh my gosh, thirteen in a row, right? And you have an impeccable road record in that span as well. Hadn't lost a road game in over a month. Hadn't played a home game by the way, in like forty some odd days, wherever the actual number was.
It's why I said to you yesterday that I thought game three, I still picked the next to win it, but that game three was gonna be the most difficult game of the series. Because of all that stuff. Sometimes all the pomp and circumstance actually works against you. I think the Knicks come out of the gate and have their best first quarter of this series tomorrow night.