Hour 1: Carton and Mac: Knicks Lose Game 3 as Wemby Goes MMA on Brunson

**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, Wembayama 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. 100%.

**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 or suspended for game four because of the, he'll be at the, 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 here. 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 have all signed 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, you could say it was swayed on one side a little bit more than the other.

**Craig Carton** (2:47)
Oh, it was. In the second half, it was.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:49)
But 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 3s 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 Wemby his first game where he 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. 2-1 after three games with still game four Madison Square Garden, I would have signed in blood 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 Mnuchin 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. So a few things, a few facts from yesterday's game. The Knicks got outplayed, check that box.