{"id":1974204,"date":"2026-06-05T14:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1974204"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:15:18","slug":"the-bounce-what-the-spurs-need-to-do-in-a-must-win-nba-finals-game-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1974204","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce: What the Spurs need to do in a must-win NBA Finals Game 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bounce Newslette<\/b>r<\/strong> \":basketball:\"<\/span> | This is The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Game 2 of the NBA Finals is tonight at 8:30 ET on ABC. This is the only game of the weekend. The finals won\u2019t be back until Monday. I\u2019m sure the Knicks fans will be happy with at least a split, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t want the Spurs\u2019 weekend ruined and full of panic.<\/p>\n

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Bounce back?<\/h3>\n

How the Spurs can even the series<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Spurs definitely don\u2019t want to go down 0-2 heading to New York. Only five teams in history have gone down 0-2 in the NBA Finals and won the championship: the 1969 Celtics (beat the Lakers in seven), 1977 Blazers (beat the 76ers in six), 2006 Heat (beat the Mavericks in six), 2016 Cavaliers (beat the Warriors in seven) and 2021 Bucks (beat the Suns in six).<\/p>\n

But nobody has done it after going down 0-2 at home. <\/strong>This would be truly uncharted territory for the Spurs in their attempt to win their sixth title in franchise history. In fact, only five teams have come back after going down 0-2 at home in the playoffs, period: the 1969 Lakers, 1994 Rockets, 2005 Mavericks, 2017 Celtics and 2021 Clippers. This pretty much makes tonight\u2019s game a must-win for San Antonio.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how can the Spurs accomplish this? Victor Wembanyama said after the Game 1 loss that he just has to play normal. He doesn\u2019t even have to be good, and they\u2019ll win. He said multiple times that he\u2019s not worried about it. He was exuding confidence and maybe even some arrogance that could rub people the wrong way. But his confidence in himself and his team has paid off to this point. Let\u2019s go over some of the ways the Spurs can fix things and go to Madison Square Garden with a split.<\/p>\n

The Wemby factor: <\/strong>His stat line of 26 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, three blocks and six turnovers while going 6-of-21 from the field, 2-of-9 from deep and 12-of-13 from the free-throw line was all over the place. Obviously, he shot horribly. You can tell by the shooting numbers! We rarely saw him put his imprint on the game, and that\u2019s not something that\u2019s happened a lot in the 22-year-old\u2019s first postseason. The reason the Spurs were favored going into this season is that Wemby seems undeniable.<\/p>\n

The Knicks denied him in Game 1. He was 4-of-12 in and around the paint, with all four of those makes happening at the rim. He got some good shot locations, but the Knicks did a great job taking away his space and comfort. And at times, it forced him to rush shots he\u2019d normally take his time to finish with quality.<\/p>\n

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A lot of this is a testament to the Knicks\u2019 game plan and execution. However, I believe Wemby can neutralize a lot of that defensive effort by making quicker decisions and attacks. Two dribbles to get to his spot, rather than continuing to work in a crowd for a better shot that doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s little stuff that applies to the entire team approach, but especially Wemby.<\/p>\n

Controlling the boards: <\/strong>You could look at the rebounding numbers for Game 1 and think the Spurs are doing just fine. And they almost were! They outrebounded the Knicks 54-49. They had more offensive rebounds (14-10). They had more rebounds in the fourth quarter (16-10 with a 7-2 offensive advantage). And yet, the Knicks won the second-chance points battle 23-14, and it felt like the Knicks were able to grab massive rebound after massive rebound in key parts of the game.<\/p>\n

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Josh Hart was a monster on the boards with 15 of them. And Karl-Anthony Towns had four of his 12 boards on the offensive end. Those clutch rebounds in big moments will be the key to this. The Knicks were just quicker to the ball in those instances. It was the difference in the Spurs not extending the lead when it was 63-50 in the third and in not closing out the game.<\/p>\n

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Protect the paint: <\/strong>The Spurs allowed 50 of the 105 Knicks points in the paint on 25-of-42 (59.5 percent) from the field. That simply can\u2019t happen with Wemby on your team. The Knicks did a great job pulling him away from the basket and were not afraid to attack him even when he was in there. The Knicks were smart in how they found their angles around the rim. Wemby has to erase that.<\/p>\n

Creating for others: <\/strong>It was very unSpurs-like<\/a> to only have 16 assists in a game they made 32 shots in. For the season, the Spurs assisted on 64.6 percent of their made shots. In the playoffs, that has dipped to 61.3 percent. In Game 1, they had a 50 percent assist rate, showing that they created for themselves as much as their teammates. The Knicks did a great job taking those opportunities away in help. It forced more isolation basketball to happen.<\/p>\n

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Pop the clutch: <\/strong>Even though the Spurs have made the finals, they\u2019ve been pretty brutal in clutch situations during the playoffs. During the regular season, the Spurs possessed the fourth-best clutch offensive rating in the NBA. They scored 122.6 points per 100 clutch possessions. That\u2019s absurd. Only the Lakers (129.3), Thunder (124.5) and Knicks (123.5) were better. We\u2019ve seen a steep decline during the playoffs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Spurs are scoring just 96.8 points per 100 possessions in the clutch. That\u2019s a massive dropoff! And their defense (108.3) hasn\u2019t made up for it. The Knicks, on the other hand, had a big clutch drop in offense (107.7), but their defense (89.2) has been the difference. The Spurs\u2019 clutch offense was an issue against Portland, OKC and Game 1 of the Knicks. They have to create better shots in these situations and actually make them. A bold strategy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The last 24<\/h3>\n

\ud83d\udc7d World conquering. <\/strong>If it seems like Wembanyama is everywhere, that\u2019s by design. Our Jared Weiss goes inside the plan to make Wemby a global superstar<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83d\uddfd Empire State of mind.<\/strong> The Knicks\u2019 run has ignited New York City. They are finally rewarding a fan base that\u2019s madly in love with the team, Ian O\u2019Connor writes<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f Investigation. <\/strong>Apparently some fans were using some vulgar language toward Brunson in Game 1. The league is investigating it<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcb0 Surge pricing. <\/strong>Madison Square Garden tickets are through the roof for the Finals. You won\u2019t believe the prices<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u26d4 No go. <\/strong>Charles Oakley is no longer banned from MSG. But the former Knick isn\u2019t interested in attending the finals because of his ongoing feud with owner James Dolan<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Game 3 guests. <\/strong>President Trump and NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani plan to attend Monday\u2019s game. But they won\u2019t be sitting near one another<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\ud83d\udd0a \u201cNBA Daily.\u201d <\/strong>Watch and listen to a preview of Game 2<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Stream the NBA on Fubo (<\/em>try it for free!<\/a>)<\/em>\u00a0and catch out-of-market games on\u00a0<\/em>League Pass<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Finals rankings<\/h3>\n

The top players after Game 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Game 1, it feels right to rank the players based on their lone finals performance. We\u2019ll try to do this heading into each game of this series, and see if it offers any foresight into who might end up as the finals MVP.<\/p>\n

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10. Landry Shamet, Knicks: <\/strong>He had 13 points off the bench, including going 3-of-6 from deep. Over the previous six playoff games, Shamet was 17-of-21 from 3-point range.<\/strong> Somehow, going 3-of-6 decreased his recent accuracy.<\/p>\n

9. Mitchell Robinson, Knicks: <\/strong>His numbers weren\u2019t eye-popping: two points and six rebounds in 13 minutes. But he did a great job on Wembanyama in limited opportunities \u2014 with a broken finger.<\/p>\n

8. OG Anunoby, Knicks: <\/strong>He didn\u2019t really show up until the fourth quarter, but his 12 points in the final period were huge in helping the Knicks build momentum toward the win.<\/p>\n

7. Stephon Castle, Spurs: <\/strong>He had a better second half (11 points on 5-of-9 shooting) than first half (six points on 2-of-7), but the Castle experience has to be consistent throughout the game. He struggled defensively late.<\/p>\n

6. Julian Champagnie, Spurs: <\/strong>He had a great first half by knocking down five 3-pointers, but he was virtually non-existent in the second half.<\/p>\n

5. Dylan Harper, Spurs: <\/strong>Harper also had a brilliant first half and probably should have closed the game over the struggling De\u2019Aaron Fox. But Harper didn\u2019t do enough to balance his halves.<\/p>\n

4. Hart: <\/strong>Three points on 1-of-5 shooting, 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals, a block and zero turnovers. The quintessential Josh Hart game.<\/p>\n

3. Wembanyama: <\/strong>He struggled by his standards, but he was still a big presence and the focus of the Knicks\u2019 game plan. He could have used some help to capitalize on that attention and then found his spots better.<\/p>\n

2. Jalen Brunson, Knicks: <\/strong>He was hobbled and struggled in the first three quarters. He was only 7-of-22 from the field. Then the fourth quarter happened, and he found a way to torch the Spurs. His 13 points in the fourth closed this one out.<\/p>\n

1. Towns: <\/strong>KAT gave the most consistent performance of Game 1. He didn\u2019t shy away from the moment. He didn\u2019t shy away from Wemby. He kept going at him, even after plays in which he got stopped. He set the tone perfectly<\/a><\/p>\n

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Rockets\u2019 red flare<\/h3>\n

Houston\u2019s uniforms get a serious upgrade<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember at the beginning of this week when we saw the leaked reveal of the new Minnesota Timberwolves uniforms<\/a>? They immediately made me wonder if they jumped to the top of the rankings. The uniforms were both the perfect look and<\/em> a big improvement on some pretty mediocre threads by the Wolves in recent years. Well, the Houston Rockets have been suffering the same fate. They\u2019ve had some mundane uniforms with the very basic red-and-white jerseys.<\/p>\n

They decided to remedy that. After teasing for a week or so the return of \u201cchampionship yellow\u201d to their uniform scheme, bringing back the old \u201cketchup and mustard\u201d style uniforms from the mid-90s seemed too good to be true. The Rockets delivered<\/a>. They unveiled three new uniforms this week, including a pretty cool black uniform with red lettering.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

These are phenomenal. The red uniforms are a 10\/10. The white uniforms are an 8\/10. I\u2019m not sure I love the stripes, but I\u2019m open to this being a 10\/10. I love the black uniforms with the red. These are like a 9\/10. This is the kind of rebrand fans can easily get behind without having to talk themselves into it. The Rockets also reimagined the \u201cDunkstronaut\u201d logo that will be prominent on the new merch:<\/p>\n

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Bravo, Rockets. You absolutely crushed this in every way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bounce Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. Game 2 of the NBA Finals is tonight at 8:30 ET on ABC. This is the only game of the weekend. The finals won\u2019t be back until Monday. I\u2019m sure the Knicks fans […]<\/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-1974204","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\/1974204","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=1974204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1974204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1974204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1974204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}