SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama got blessed by nuns before the game, got the loudest ovation when the starters were announced, pumped his fist to the crowd a few times and generally seemed to enjoy his first taste of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
Until the ending.<\/p>\n
The French star had 26 points in his finals debut, though had to work for all of them \u2014 misfiring on 15 of his 21 shots from the field, some of them even hitting the top of the backboard, and seeing waves of New York defenders all game long. The worst part of all for Wembanyama, the best defensive player in the game, was seeing the Knicks score the game’s final 11 points and steal away home-court advantage with a 105-95 victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was bad tonight,” Wembanyama said. \u201cIt’s not more complicated than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it calmly, without panic, very matter-of-factly. The Spurs lost a game. The series isn’t over. He’s not worried, yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that he definitely holds himself accountable,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cI expect he\u2019ll learn a lot of things from tonight\u2019s game and come out with a good approach in Game 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
There’s been a history of that for both Wembanyama and the Spurs. They lost home-court advantage to Portland in Round 1 before winning the final three games of that series, lost home-court again to Minnesota in Round 2 after dropping Game 1, and didn’t even have the home-court edge against Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals \u2014 a series where San Antonio trailed 2-1 and 3-2 before prevailing.<\/p>\n
Then again, they’re playing a Knicks team that hasn’t lost since April. And it’s now June. New York is 12-0 in its last 12 games, and the Spurs now have to try and beat them in four of the next six to win this title.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we\u2019ve been down in a series before,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cNever in the finals, obviously. But I\u2019m not kicking myself about anything really. I\u2019m not worried the slightest.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s not a question if he can bounce back, or if the finals lights are too bright. Wembanyama has handled everything that has been thrown his way since he entered the NBA three years ago \u2014 even the scare that came last year when his season ended early because of deep vein thrombosis \u2014 with what would appear to be ease.<\/p>\n
Beating the Knicks won’t be easy. But Wembanyama finding a way to play better on Friday in Game 2, that’s to be expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers come along every once in a while that, in addition to having this incredible skill, love the promotional side of it and want to play that role for the league,\u201d Commissioner Adam Silver said of Wembanyama before the game. \u201cWe saw the role he played at All-Star, even leading the other young players, saying, let\u2019s take this seriously, this really matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even going back to the years when the NBA was waiting for Wembanyama, Silver has never wanted to say if he or the league has an expectation for him. The reasoning is simple: There was, and is, enough pressure on Wembanyama. Silver, to his credit, hasn’t added to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came in highly touted. He was somebody who even before he came into the NBA was blowing up the internet in terms of his highlights,\u201d Silver said. \u201cDid I have a specific expectation in terms of numbers of years it would take him to get to the finals? No. But I would say, just trying to be an objective observer, he\u2019s ahead of any timeline that people had in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
That may be true. He’s just not ahead in the series. And Friday’s test will be a big one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all confident,\u201d Spurs guard Dylan Harper said. \u201cI feel like that is kind of who he is. He never backs down from the moment. He always kind of steps up and meets it.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama got blessed by nuns before the game, got the loudest ovation when the starters were announced, pumped his fist to the crowd a few times and generally seemed to enjoy his first taste of the NBA Finals. Until the ending. The French star had 26 points in his finals … Continue reading Wembanyama scores 26 but struggles from field in NBA Finals debut as Spurs fall to Knicks in Game 1<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1512342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-06 03:45:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1512342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1512343,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512342\/revisions\/1512343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1512342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1512342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1512342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}