Rob Mahoney

Like the Knicks, they came on the fourth quarter.

I mean, really for most of the second half, their offense, everything was so difficult.

Spurs were picking up Brunson really high.

They were making him work every step of the way.

And you could just tell, not even by Brunson's shooting efficiency, which is fine, like his scoring was fine.

It's more about how many dribbles, how many moves, how much did it tax him just to create literally anything.

And he has to do so much for the Knicks.

Okay.

Completely connected, completely on a string.

And I'll say this too for the Spurs.

It's not a coincidence that Julian Champagny is not on the floor for critical stretches of the fourth quarter.

He's like the closest thing that Jalen Brunson has to a target out there.

Yeah.

I thought even he did fine.

And really across the board, the Spurs in switches...

were so competitive and so physical with Brunson, where, yeah, he's going to get his points.

And Jalen Brunson has become one of the most inevitable scorers in the league.

But they did such a great job with the high pickup point, with the constant pressure, just wearing down, wearing down, not just him, but the flow of the offense.

And the Knicks are better than pretty much anybody at continuing to find stuff late in the clock.

But if you just make them pull rabbits out of the hat over and over and over, eventually they're going to come up empty.