Victor Wembanyama had another night to forget after his late blunder gifted the New York Knicks the win and a 2-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
Wembanyama, who vowed to be “so much better” in Game Two after an underwhelming performance in the opener, made a crucial mistake in the dying moments, enabling New York to secure a 105-104 win in the best-of-seven series.
Having pulled down his ninth rebound with 12.7 seconds left on the clock and the game tied at 104-104, the French superstar tried to initiate a quick break with a pass to Stephon Castle that his team-mate was not anticipating.
The ball hit Castle on the back and fell nicely into the arms of Jalen Brunson. In a panic, Wembanyama then compounded his error by fouling Brunson and the Knicks superstar made no mistake from the free-throw line.
“I didn’t see him throw it to me,” Castle said. “I see Vic has the ball, tie game. I was just trying to give Vic space.”
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Wembanyama squanders late chance at redemption as New York hold on
Wembanyama still had one last chance to redeem himself but hit the back of the rim with a 20-footer that would have handed the Spurs victory. The Frenchman ended with 29 points and nine rebounds.
“That’s the most frustrating thing: to throw it away after putting in all this work,” Wembanyama said. “I threw that one away. I messed up. It’s like the body reacts quicker than the mind. We needed to win that game. This game was ours. But at this point it’s done. Am I going to regret it? Yes, of course. Am I going to use that to fuel me and fuel us to the next game? Absolutely.
“I need to have more poise, more control of the game. We need to put ourselves in better conditions. We’re digging ourselves a hole. That’s been the theme so far.”
The series now shifts to New York and what will be a raucous Madison Square Garden. Only five teams have comeback from 2-0 down to win in the NBA Finals in 37 attempts but Spurs coach Mitch Johnson remained confident his team could get the job done.
“We don’t feel like we played well or up to our standard at least in the last two games,” Johnson said. “New York has played very well and they’re a part of that. But we’re going into Game Three. If we play our basketball up to our standard, we’ll be just fine.”
While there are issues to address in San Antonio, the Knicks keep marching on.
They have now won 13 straight games and coach Mike Brown was full of praise for the way his players are handling the pressure.
“It’s an amazing feeling as a coach to know how mentally tough your team is no matter what the situation is in front of them,” Brown said. “To see them continue to fight and fight and fight and fight, no matter what the score is, no matter how much time is on the clock, it’s just a fantastic feeling. The NBA is tough. You don’t experience what I’m experiencing with this group a ton, and it is a freaking joy to be around.”
New York coach Brown reserves special praise for terrific Towns
Although Brunson stole the headlines with the winning shot, Karl-Anthony Towns produced another superb display for the road team with a team-high 21 points as well as 13 rebounds.
Towns has not always made such an impact this season but Brown was happy the 30-year-old was now coming to the fore.
“We finally got to a point where he was comfortable, I was comfortable, Jalen was comfortable, OG [Anunoby] was comfortable, Mikal [Bridges] was comfortable. And to me, that’s what the regular season’s about,” Brown said.
“The regular season is about finding your way so you can get prepared for this time of the year. And there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs. And I hope there’s adversity. I hope like hell there’s adversity. Because we have to see if we’re strong enough when it comes to being connected to see if we can get through it during the regular season. So when we get here, anything we run into, we’ve already conquered during the regular season. We’ll know how to handle it.”
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