Full Show: Wembanyama’s “Violent Attack” and the Knicks' Game 3 Finals Loss

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Two o'clock straight up!
It's The Carton Show with Big Mac at a beautiful Tuesday afternoon in New York City, the day after, if you will, as the New York Knicks take their first loss in a month and a half, and nobody knows how to react to it. Phone number to join, as always, 888-808-109. Have a great show for you today as we deal with the aftermath of that filthy, dirty French-born player, Wembanyama, and his violent attack on Jalen Brunson, and the fact that as of 2-0-1 this afternoon, the NBA has not yet given him the flagrant one that they are going to because they have to. Good afternoon, Big Mac. How are you today, pal?

**Chris McMonigle** (0:45)
I'm doing all right, Craig. Yeah, I agree with you. I think they need to.

**Craig Carton** (0:47)
They're going to.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:49)
He threw them to the ground.

**Craig Carton** (0:50)
Now, they're not going to give him a flagrant two because then he misses game four, he'd be ejected.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:54)
Right.

**Craig Carton** (0:54)
Or suspended for game four because he'll be above the threshold for flagrant foul points, but if you give him a flagrant one, he's right up at the line and then any future flagrant one foul and he's immediately ejected from the game. But let's just be honest about it. The New York Knicks did not lose game three last night, the first game at the Garden in a month because of the officials. We could get to a place where we talk about officiating and the fact that it was one sided much like game two was. But the number one reason why the New York Knicks lost their first game in over a month was because they didn't play well. Turnovers, bad shooting, inability to protect the lead.
And then if you want to get to official show, I'm happy to be your huckleberry on that. But it is not the number one cause or reason why the Knicks lost the game. By the way, if we all agree that Jalen Brunson, despite having two 30 plus point games in the finals as far, has not played very well, same number of turnovers as assists, 82 shots to get 81 points, those metrics stink and the Knicks are up 2-1.
If I'd given you those metrics prior to the start of the finals, you, me, Trump, Spike Lee, everybody would have said I'll sign up for a 2-1 series lead with game four at the Garden all day, every day, full stop.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:21)
No, there's no doubt, going into it, we would all sign for 2-1, but that doesn't change the fact that one came last night. It's because the Knicks didn't play well. And that scares me going into game four. And we talked about this a lot, at least I have. Now the worm has turned. They finally lost their first game in a month and a half, as you put it. How do they respond? But last night, 100% with you. Too much about the refereeing, I totally agree.
That's a terrible miscall. Outside of that, like, yeah, you could say it was swayed on one side a little bit more than the other, but the Knicks, most of the Knicks fouls were fouls.

**Craig Carton** (2:51)
Some of them were.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:52)
I think most of them were. I think you could have called more on the Spurs, no doubt. But man, what are we complaining about? They're throwing the ball away in the entire first half. They throw the ball away in the first couple minutes of the second half to watch a seven point lead evaporate. Within a few minutes, they go for 9 before hitting two threes at the end of the game, which ultimately wasn't enough in the fourth quarter. They didn't hit their shots. They turned the ball over. The turnovers led to points. They gave Wembys first game where it was easy baskets for most of the game. They didn't know how to handle him. They were fouling him every time he tried to leave his feet. They did not play well enough and that's why they lost.

**Craig Carton** (3:26)
Yeah, and then he... And it was bound to happen.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:28)
That's the other thing too. I know we get giddy. I know it's up 2-0 and everybody expects the sweep and they'll never lose again. But you're right. Two-one after three games with still game four Madison Square Garden. I would have signed in blood for that before the series started.

**Craig Carton** (3:42)
Here's the thing and I said it last night during our YouTube special and that was it's not supposed to be easy. Matter of fact, it's been 53 years so clearly it's not easy to win a championship. So if we thought they're just going to roll the ball out and then accept some kind of deal with the devil, that they're going to go as Moses Malone once famously said, foe, foe and foe and win their first championship in over five decades. Well, then you just don't watch sports and you certainly don't watch basketball. Winning a championship is actually by rule supposed to be an arduous journey and the New York Knicks have now experienced their first part of the arduousness of that journey. As I use a big word because I did go to Syracuse as you know, Adam Mnucho, a high school graduate, meaning it's better than having a GED, four syllables, I own it, that's right. But like everyone's going crazy today.