{"id":1972855,"date":"2026-06-04T19:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1972855"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:38:07","slug":"after-game-1-finals-loss-gregg-popovich-tells-victor-wembanyama-hes-played-better-than-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1972855","title":{"rendered":"After Game 1 Finals loss, Gregg Popovich tells Victor Wembanyama he\u2019s \u2018played better than this\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Victor Wembanyama heard from Gregg Popovich after Game 1 of his first NBA Finals, and the critique sounded like something the legendary former San Antonio Spurs coach might say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the big lines, it was that I\u2019ve been bad and played a lot better than this,\u201d Wembanyama said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama scored 26 points with 12 rebounds and three blocks in the Spurs\u2019 105-95 loss<\/a> to the New York Knicks Wednesday night, but shot 6-for-21 from the field and 2-for-9 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

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In the immediacy of the loss, Wembanyama said, \u201cI was bad tonight. It\u2019s not more complicated than that,\u201d and his characterization of Popovich\u2019s text messages sounded similar. Wemby added that he and Popovich had not had a chance to speak after Game 1.<\/p>\n

The Spurs didn\u2019t practice Thursday due to the short turnaround from the end of Game 1, and Game 2 is at 8:30 p.m. ET on Friday. Wembanyama said the reason the Spurs lost was not \u201ctechnical or tactical.\u201d They blew a 14-point lead in the third quarter, and Wemby was mostly guarded by Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns.<\/p>\n

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Though respectful, Wembanyama didn\u2019t sound overly impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to approach the game with a better mental state, and we just need to play our game, to be normal,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cWe don\u2019t need to do anything incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to explain what \u201cnormal\u201d meant \u2014 was this another of Wemby\u2019s \u2018ethical basketball\u2019 bombs? \u2014 he said, \u201c\u2018Normal\u2019 means trusting each other, trusting the basketball gods, trusting the game plan, executing and not relying on talent so much to make shots or to save the day.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve been playing a certain way all season,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been successful this way. There\u2019s no reason to change the day the Finals start.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spurs were outscored by nine on second-chance points (23-14) and only collected 16 assists \u2014 two areas where coach Mitch Johnson said it was obvious San Antonio could improve. He also said the Knicks packed the paint and took away lobs at the rim \u2014 a play typically run for Wembanyama \u2014 and the Spurs should be able to take advantage of what the Knicks are leaving open to take away Wemby in the lane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we gave ourselves a lot of aspects of the game where we need to improve,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe can be much sharper on a lot of game-plan-execution stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Victor Wembanyama heard from Gregg Popovich after Game 1 of his first NBA Finals, and the critique sounded like something the legendary former San Antonio Spurs coach might say. \u201cIn the big lines, it was that I\u2019ve been bad and played a lot better than this,\u201d Wembanyama said Thursday. Wembanyama scored 26 […]<\/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-1972855","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\/1972855","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=1972855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1972855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1972855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1972855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}