Jose Alvarado Sends Message to Wemby After Controversial Jalen Brunson Shove in NBA Finals G3
New York Knicks guard Jose Alvarado sent a stern message to Victor Wembanyama after the San Antonio Spurs center shoved Jalen Brunson in the back of the head during the first half of Monday night’s Game 3.
“I think that’s not basketball,” Alvarado said Tuesday, per Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “That’s something that they gotta look at. But he got away with one. That’ll be the last one.”
The league is, in fact, looking at the play, per NBA head of officiating Monty McCutchen, who said that officials missed a foul. The play is also being reviewed for a retroactive flagrant foul.
According to the NBA, a Flagrant 1 is “unnecessary contact committed by a player against an opponent.” A Flagrant 2 is “unnecessary and excessive contact committed by a player against an opponent.” The latter penalty results in an ejection.
It’s possible the foul rises to the level of a Flagrant 1. That being said, it’s not going to do the Knicks any good now with the game’s result already decided.
This game got a little physical and chippy at times. Knicks forward Josh Hart, of note, got a technical after a testy interaction with Spurs backup center Luke Kornet:
Knicks head coach Mike Brown was also displeased with the officiating and free throw disparity in particular.
“I talked to [the officials]. They outshot us 14-3 in the third quarter from the free throw line. I talked to them, and they said, well, this is a foul, this is a foul,” Brown said, per ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill.
“That’s the question I had with them is, you’re right. Maybe we did foul. But they fouled, too.”
He added: “It’s going to be that because I said it. The story is going to be there,” But there are some controllables that we did not do a good job of doing. We allowed them to hit first at the beginning of the game. We allowed them to hit first in the beginning of the second half.
“We turned the ball over and we were stagnant offensively and we allowed them to get to the paint, and we did not pay attention to detail to what we are supposed to do defensively.”
San Antonio had 10 more free throw attempts (32-22) overall and 16 more (24-8) in the second half. The Knicks were called for two fewer fouls (23-21).
Both teams are now turning the page to Game 4. The Knicks, who hold a 2-1 series lead in the best-of-seven matchup, will host San Antonio on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET.
