{"id":1987133,"date":"2026-06-12T19:35:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1987133"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:35:35","slug":"wemby-not-worried-as-spurs-face-elimination-everybody-knows-were-going-to-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1987133","title":{"rendered":"Wemby not worried as Spurs face elimination: \u2018Everybody knows we\u2019re going to do it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN ANTONIO \u2014 In no particular order, the San Antonio Spurs are dealing with incidents of possible assault, of getting over the biggest meltdown in NBA Finals history and of being on the brink of elimination.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lot to unpack. Victor Wembanyama had eggs thrown at him outside the team hotel in New York after he and the Spurs blew a 29-point lead in Game 4 and lost in the most stunning of ways, 107-106. They fell behind 3-1 in the finals to the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n

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The season, and the Spurs\u2019 championship hopes, will end with one more loss. They have held leads in the fourth quarter of all four games in this series. Game 5 is at 8:30 p.m. ET Saturday. At least it is in the friendly confines of San Antonio\u2019s Frost Bank Center, so Wembanyama shouldn\u2019t have to worry about anything else being thrown at him.<\/p>\n

Then again, there are wide reports of Knicks fans buying up tons of tickets for Saturday\u2019s game, which is exactly what they did for Game 4 of the conference finals in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

As the Spurs try to sort through this litany of issues, the one anecdote for all that ails them is to win, which is what they\u2019re expecting.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody (on the Spurs) thinks, everybody knows, we\u2019re going to do it,\u201d Wembanyama said Friday. \u201cI feel like we need to isolate that one game and take it one game at a time. I think it would be a mistake to waste our energy on multiple games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one game at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wembanyama, 22, is having a great series statistically. Through four games, the 7-foot-4 French sensation is averaging 27.8 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.3 blocks. However, he had two substantial mistakes at the end of Game 2, which led directly to a loss. And he was just 2-of-8 shooting in the fourth quarter of Game 4 \u2014 a game in which he logged 44 minutes.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s too late in the season to complain about it, and the games are too important for Wembanyama to entertain the thought, but he is exhausted. He\u2019s never played even close to this much basketball in a span of nine months. On Friday, coach Mitch Johnson said he needs to \u201cmake sure that I help (Wembanyama) have the energy required to finish the game as strong as he needs to finish the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t mean a minutes restriction or something nonsensical like that, given what\u2019s at stake, but if the Spurs have a massive lead again in the third quarter, Johnson could give his best player a normal rest session so he\u2019s fresher when he returns in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDefinitely a factor,\u201d Wembanyama conceded. \u201cBut it\u2019s the playoffs. Everybody\u2019s just as tired. I mean, it shouldn\u2019t even be a factor in the game. I mean, now we\u2019ve got two days between games. It\u2019s not going to be a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the egg-throwing incident, which was both captured on video posted to social media and confirmed by media reports, Wembanyama said, \u201cI don\u2019t dislike it. Obviously, it\u2019s not good at all. But it doesn\u2019t bother me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He could have gone the other way with it, as he\u2019s tried to endear himself to New York with subway rides, chess games and drawing pictures in the park<\/a>, only to have the crowd chant \u201c(derogatory verb) you Wemby\u201d and throw things at him. Still, he has more pressing concerns, like staying alive in the finals.<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
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\n Spurs\u2019 Game 4 collapse has a silver lining: A chance to grow from their mistakes\n <\/div>\n
\n Few teams as young as the Spurs get an opportunity to learn from high-leverage moments like the NBA Finals.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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

To that end, Johnson said a film review and deeper consideration of what happened in Game 4 led him to believe that the real problem was in the third quarter, when the Spurs were way up but slowly losing the lead. San Antonio was still ahead by 15 at the end of the quarter, but the urgency waned. Substitution patterns slipped. Good habits on offense receded, and the Knicks found their rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s what gives someone a lot of clarity on what went well and what didn\u2019t, what led to it,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of times (when) themes of the game that may not necessarily show themselves in a box score on the surface level, that when you start peeling back the layers, you start to understand the ripple effect, good and bad, of what you do or what you did.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the Game 4 loss, Johnson has been criticized for his in-game management, including for a defensive alignment on the Knicks\u2019 final possession in which Wemby ended up on Jalen Brunson and no one guarded the inbounder. De\u2019Aaron Fox has been mentioned a time or two for trying a layup instead of forcing the Knicks to foul him, only for OG Anunoby to block the shot. And then there was the lack of box-out on Anunoby, the unguarded inbounder, who delivered arguably the \u201cmost iconic shot in New York history.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not like people have my phone number and can call me,\u201d Fox said. \u201cI don\u2019t watch those shows. It doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said he doesn\u2019t watch either. \u201cI think I\u2019ve been fired 212 times and we\u2019ve traded Fox 72 times. We still have to show up and play tomorrow, and I\u2019ve got to coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that matter, we bond together, we stick together through the highs and lows,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cDe\u2019Aaron Fox will have the basketball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow, and I have the utmost confidence he\u2019s going to deliver like he\u2019s done countless times for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is only one team in NBA history to recover from a 3-1 deficit in the finals. It happened 10 years ago, when LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers upset Stephen Curry\u2019s Golden State Warriors by winning the last three games.<\/p>\n

The Spurs are aware of the history, and they\u2019re holding on to the fact that this series, statistically, was much closer than that Warriors-Cavs series through four games. Something switched in that one 10 years ago \u2014 the Warriors wore out and James (and Kyrie Irving) kicked it into hyperdrive. Over the entire finals, the Spurs are only trailing by seven points. They\u2019re right there and need to clean up these late-game mistakes to flip the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have this belief because we\u2019ve seen it,\u201d Fox said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen it be done, that teams have come back from 3-1. I think even with those series, the games that they lost, they were losing by double digits. The games that we\u2019re losing have all been close games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have that belief that we have a chance to win,\u201d Fox continued. \u201cBut we\u2019re taking this one game at a time. We\u2019re not looking at it as we need to win three games. We need to win tomorrow, and then we give ourselves a chance to play another game. Then you look at that next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

And another trip to New York, where the eggs probably await.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 In no particular order, the San Antonio Spurs are dealing with incidents of possible assault, of getting over the biggest meltdown in NBA Finals history and of being on the brink of elimination. It\u2019s a lot to unpack. Victor Wembanyama had eggs thrown at him outside the team hotel in New York […]<\/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-1987133","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\/1987133","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=1987133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1987133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1987133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1987133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}