Jose Alvarado Becomes NYC Hero!

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
A little Britney Spears on a Thursday. Why not, everybody?
Let's all go crazy today. As the New York Knicks last night, despite all the pregame bickering about watch parties and the Mayor's not a basketball fan, which he's not, and I think he was caught maybe in a bar last night watching the game with other people. He was not at Madison Square Garden last night, as you will know, but it doesn't matter, because sports and theory should unite all of us. And last night, millions of us, from all different backgrounds and ways of life, were united behind the New York Knicks. Let's be honest about it. For the first 24 minutes, we cursed the Knicks out.
This is an embarrassment. How do you play this way? How do you blow a 2-0 lead on the road and lose back to McCabe's at home? Oh my God, the series is over. The Spurs are trash talking us. They're mocking us.

**RJ** (0:57)
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

**Craig Carton** (0:59)
And then somehow, someway, it all turned around. Can you give me the Mike Breen call one more time, please?

**Chris McMonigle** (1:06)
Yeah, let's hear some of them.

**Craig Carton** (1:07)
Of the game-winning tippin by our favorite player. There's OG Juan Anunoby, Mike Breen.
Stop it right there. That's a bad job by Mitch Johnson. Nobody's guarding the inbounds pass. Now, we've seen it a million times. You inbound the ball, you get the ball right back. That did not happen exactly this way, but you do see after he inbounds the ball to Jalen Brunson. By the way, and it's one of those things that did not get a lot of attention, Brunson catches the ball with his left hand right on the timeline, the midcourt stripe. If that ball hits his hand and goes down and hits the line or the other side of it, it's another turnover.
So if you watch that again, that's almost a backcourt violation. Now, before I get back to the call, a lot of people don't know basketball. That's fine. There's a lot of Johnny come late, at least every sport, when a local team is making the run. And the more, the merrier. This is not me trying to be douchey, like, if you don't know basketball, don't watch it. I want everybody watching it, right?

**Chris McMonigle** (2:14)
Sure.

**Craig Carton** (2:15)
A lot of people were confused last night in the moment, and I kind of feel like you've now gotten the answer, but let me just give it to you if you haven't. Especially the morons that do live in San Antonio and spend most of their days around horses and cows and whatnot.
The Alvarado dribble, which resulted in the Knicks calling a timeout.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:34)
Yeah.

**Craig Carton** (2:35)
A lot of people want to know why was that not a back court when his feet actually crossed over into the back court? Well, it's not that the refs missed it. It's that you just don't know the rules. The rules are quite clear.
Both feet and the basketball have to cross back over. The mid-court striker we call the timeline and go into the back court. So, the Knicks knew the rule. Alvarado clearly knew the rule. But you morons in San Antonio and a few of you here in New York as well, just didn't know the rule. So, that's why the whistle did not blow. What's interesting about it is that if they don't call the timeout, I think he throws that ball out of bounds.
If you watch it again, it kind of goes like underhand. I think to Brunson, if I remember correctly, and Brunson's out within five feet of that ball.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:27)
No, there was still some sloppy plays that they, like that looked like it was going to be sloppy. There was another one, I forget which rebound it was off of, but it's a rebound where Brunson gets the rebound and throws it right into OG's face when OG turns up the court and starts to run. Like it happened all quick, right around the basket. They almost turned the ball over there.

**Craig Carton** (3:42)
That was late, too.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:42)
Yeah, that was late. It was one of the last possessions of the game. So they got to be more careful with the basketball, there's no doubt. But yeah, no.
That was a huge, because we could all feel it. Everyone was like, oh, have court. You could sense it. And then clearly not having the inbound. I don't understand why teams don't do it. I don't understand.

**Craig Carton** (4:00)
I would put it, God just put his hands up, make it harder to throw it in.