AI Summary
5 min readHour 1 - Choked Away
The San Antonio Spurs held a 14-point lead with 18 minutes to play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals at home. They lost by 10. The Knicks closed the game on an 11-0 run, outscored the Spurs 54-30 over the final 18 and a half minutes, and took home-court advantage with a 105-95 win. As Ben Maller put it: "You win some, you lose some, and you choke away some."
Victor Wembanyama's Finals Debut
The headline story was Victor Wembanyama's first NBA Finals game, and it was not a night to remember. The box score shows 26 points and 12 rebounds, which Maller dismissed as misleading. Wembanyama shot 28.5 percent from the field, missing 15 of 21 shots, and committed six turnovers. Maller described his performance as "skittish" — the Parisian prodigy turned into "the Parisian pigeon," lacking aggression for long stretches and missing what Maller called "bunnies," shots he normally makes.
Wembanyama himself was blunt in his postgame comments: "I was bad tonight. It's not more complicated than that." When asked about jitters in his first Finals game, he said it "felt special for sure, but nothing close that could be an excuse."
Maller noted that even the San Antonio nuns who blessed Wembanyama before the game couldn't save him. "He built a literal cathedral out of the miss layups for the nuns," Maller said.
The Supporting Cast Collapse
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of The Ben Maller Show
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (02:08) **Show Open & NBA Finals Game 1 Setup** - Ben Maller introduces the hour, setting up the Spurs-Knicks NBA Finals Game 1 collapse.
- 2 (03:18) **Spurs' Collapse: Wemby's "Pigeon-Hearted" Debut** - Deep dive into Victor Wembanyama's poor Finals debut despite a 26-point, 12-rebound box score.
- 3 (13:07) **Spurs' Supporting Cast Collapse** - Breakdown of the rest of the Spurs' roster failure in the second half.
- 4 (17:00) **Jalen Brunson's Tale of Two Halves** - Analysis of Brunson's 30-point game, where he was terrible for 30 minutes and dominant for the final 18.
- 5 (25:19) **Listener Mail & NFL Bookum Hopper Proof** - Maller addresses listener accusations of cheating during the NFL Bookum segment.
- 6 (32:12) **Changing of the Guard: ABC Shows Court-Stormer** - Maller praises ABC for showing a fan running onto the court during the Finals broadcast.
- 7 (41:05) **"Who Am I?" Game: Josh Hart's Rebounding Feat** - Maller introduces the trivia segment.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Ben Maller talks about where things went wrong for Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs as they lose at home to the Knicks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, who else is to blame besides Wemby for the Spurs blowing a 14-point lead, Jalen Brunson's play for the Knicks, and more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from this podcast
The Ben Maller Show →