{"id":1971693,"date":"2026-06-04T10:40:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1971693"},"modified":"2026-06-04T10:40:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:40:43","slug":"victor-wembanyama-got-his-first-taste-of-the-nba-finals-it-could-have-gone-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1971693","title":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama got his first taste of the NBA Finals. It could have gone better"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Victor Wembanyama isn\u2019t worried, or so he claims.<\/p>\n

Never mind that the New York Knicks came into the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 home and stole Game 1 of the NBA Finals<\/a>, 105-95, or that the Spurs\u2019 transcendent young star spent most of the evening looking out of sorts against the Knicks\u2019 size while missing 15 of his 21 shot attempts (including seven of nine 3s).<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When the 22-year-old Wembanyama was asked to assess the deeper meaning of it all afterward, he succinctly insisted in his postgame news conference that there was no concern creeping in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to figure it out \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we let that one go \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not kicking myself about anything, really. \u2026 I\u2019m not worried (in) the slightest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if he should be.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

While Wembanyama finished with another one of his fully packed, playoff stat lines \u2014 26 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks \u2014 this performance (which also included six turnovers) served as further proof that the Knicks have the sort of roster that it takes to slow his unparalleled size and skill. As was the case in the Knicks\u2019 win over the Spurs in the NBA Cup title game<\/a> on Dec. 16, when the trio of Karl-Anthony Towns (7-foot, 248 pounds), OG Anunoby (6-7, 240) and Mitchell Robinson (7-0, 240) contained Wembanyama (7-4, 236) so well that he finished at minus-18, New York looked like one of the few teams in the Association equipped to handle this unique challenge.<\/p>\n

Entering this series, the Knicks often pointed to that game as a blueprint of sorts that they planned to use en route to the franchise\u2019s first title since 1973. The Spurs, however, were quick to point out that they had evolved and matured quite a bit in the ensuing six months. That is most certainly true, but the fact remains that Wembanyama simply wasn\u2019t himself against the Knicks \u2014 again.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/div>\n

{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

\u201cI was bad tonight,\u201d Wembanyama said plainly. \u201cIt\u2019s not more complicated than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

If only he had played with the kind of fervor he showed with the game slipping away late in the fourth.<\/p>\n

With 3:24 to go and the Spurs down four, Wembanyama faced single coverage against Towns on the left wing. He wasted no time going to work, planting his right shoulder into Towns\u2019 chest as he drove into the paint, then finishing the layup through the foul as the Knicks big man hit the floor and slid some 10 feet out of bounds behind the baseline. Towns, who had 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting, 12 rebounds, four assists, two turnovers and was plus-14, stayed down for several seconds while holding his chest before eventually getting up.<\/p>\n

The issue for the Spurs, though, is that Wembanyama\u2019s gritty three-point play was an outlier.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cFelt like he missed a few shots early,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get him moving in space and toward the rim, whether that\u2019s on rolls or running in transition. But we need the pressure on the rim and the force in the paint. They did a good job of obviously being physical and showing crowds. We need to do a better job of establishing that early on, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the problem for the Spurs, though, in a matchup with the Knicks. As I wrote last month<\/a>, when three front office executives weighed in anonymously on the challenge of dealing with Wemby, the Knicks were noted as one of the few teams well-equipped to handle him. The rest of the league will likely feel compelled to add even more big, agile defenders in the months to come, but it comes in handy for New York that its roster is already set just right.<\/p>\n

Or so it would seem after the series opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust try to make it difficult,\u201d Towns said of the approach against Wembanyama. \u201cHe\u2019s an amazing player, one-of-a-kind player in this NBA, that the league has ever seen, and you just try to make it as difficult as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The intriguing part now is that we\u2019ll see in Game 2 on Friday how this neophyte will respond to his latest bout with adversity. He has bounced back every time to this point in the postseason, pushing these Spurs ahead of their proverbial schedule along the way.<\/p>\n

But there is no Chet Holmgren to bully this time around, nor a foe like the Oklahoma City Thunder that was without several key players in the West finals. These Knicks are healthy, for the most part, with Jalen Brunson (30 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter) battling through ankle and knee ailments and Robinson able to help despite the pinkie finger injury he suffered before the series.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Wembanyama\u2019s running mates didn\u2019t meet the moment like they had against the Thunder, either, with De\u2019Aaron Fox missing 10 of his 13 shot attempts and Dylan Harper, who had a strong start, scoring just four of his 16 points in the second half. The Spurs hit just 11 of 43 3-pointers overall (25.6 percent).<\/p>\n

Wembanyama might not be worried just yet, but there\u2019s an argument to be made that he should be.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s almost not like I have anything to figure out,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like I have to play normal, not even good.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing the right things is enough. When we play bad, when I play bad, is when we shoot ourselves in the foot. This is why I\u2019m not worried. We\u2019re going to be so much better. I\u2019m going to be so much better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Victor Wembanyama isn\u2019t worried, or so he claims. Never mind that the New York Knicks came into the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 home and stole Game 1 of the NBA Finals, 105-95, or that the Spurs\u2019 transcendent young star spent most of the evening looking out of sorts against the Knicks\u2019 size while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1971693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1971693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1971693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1971693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1971693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}