Spurs Notes: Game 4 Reaction, Wembanyama, Fox
The first step for the Spurs in preparing for Game 5 is to shake off the memories from Wednesday night’s collapse, which led to one of the most shocking losses in NBA Finals history. After letting a 29-point lead slip away and falling in the final seconds due to missed free throws and poor decision making, the team has time to refocus before the series resumes Saturday night in San Antonio.
The Spurs’ locker room was subdued following Game 4 as players tried to process what just happened, according to Marc J. Spears of Andscape. While most of them sat quietly at their lockers when the media entered, Keldon Johnson tried to provide some hope regarding the challenge of overcoming a 3-1 deficit.
“It’s a tough one, a tough pill to swallow,” he said. “I feel like we got comfortable, and things happen. But I think the main thing is that belief is there. We believe. Our belief is as high as ever. You don’t get here without belief, without faith in each other, and that’s not going to change now. If it was easy, everybody would do it.”
Coach Mitch Johnson also attempted to remain positive as he held his post-game press conference just a few feet away from jubilant Knicks fans. Johnson told his players to deal with the emotions of the loss and then get ready to compete on Saturday.
“We have two days to put everything we have into that game. That’s the only game that matters,” he said. “By no means am I not acknowledging the Knicks and what they’ve done. Give them credit for playing good basketball. But we feel like we’ve decided the outcome of all four games. We need to be better in the next game.”
There’s more on the Spurs:
- Victor Wembanyama will receive an automatic one-game suspension if he’s assessed another flagrant foul, but he doesn’t plan to change his approach going into Game 5, Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News states in a subscriber-only story. The flagrant 1 Wembanyama received in the third quarter on Wednesday for elbowing Karl-Anthony Towns in the chin brought him to three flagrant points in the postseason, just one away from triggering the suspension. “Of course, I’m going to be more careful, but it’s not going to change much,” Wembanyama said.
- De’Aaron Fox made a huge miscalculation by attempting a layup after a steal with 11 seconds remaining, but he doesn’t deserve the blame he’s been getting for the loss, contends Melissa Rohlin of The California Post. Fox’s shot was blocked by OG Anunoby, giving possession back to the Knicks and setting the stage for Anunoby’s game-winning tip-in. While Fox could have dribbled out some time and given his team a three-point lead at the foul line, that wouldn’t have guaranteed a victory. Rohlin points out that the Spurs were outscored 32-16 in the fourth quarter, so everyone played a role in the collapse.
- Paul Garcia of The Spot Up Shot examines the Spurs’ Game 4 breakdown and tries to figure out why the offense stopped working in the second half.
Spurs Notes: Game 4 Collapse, Fox, Wembanyama
On the heels of the worst collapse in NBA Finals history, the Spurs were left looking for answers during their post-game media session following Wednesday’s Game 4 loss, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. San Antonio held a 29-point lead in the third quarter, but they were outscored by 30 points the rest of the way as they shot just 8-of-39 from the floor in the second half.
The Spurs looked dominant in the first quarter, setting a Finals record by knocking down 14 three-pointers and building a 76-49 lead going into halftime. After registering 18 assists and just two turnovers in the first two quarters, San Antonio had six assists and committed nine turnovers in the third and fourth quarters.
“We went away from everything we were doing,” rookie guard Dylan Harper said. “In the first half, a lot of tough shots went in. Really, that was because we were playing the right way. We got away from that in the second half because of the lead. We just can’t take our foot off the gas. It’s one thing for me to sit up here and say it. It’s another for us to go out there and do it.”
Spurs star Victor Wembanyama acknowledged it was a “painful” defeat, while forward Keldon Johnson called it a “tough pill to swallow” and head coach Mitch Johnson referred to it as “disappointing to say the least.” Now facing a 3-1 deficit, Wembanyama and his teammates insisted they aren’t going to roll over and let the Knicks win the series without a fight.
“What’s going through my mind right now?” Wembanyama said. “I think it’s going to go one of two ways: a bad one and a good one. The bad one would be giving up. The good one would be getting stronger through this, getting more together. I know this is what we’re going to do.
“… We’ve proven we can surpass these difficulties. Even though we haven’t been there before, I’m convinced we’re built that way and we’re going to use the better of this. It’s going to tighten us up.”
Here’s more on the Spurs:
- De’Aaron Fox, who has battled an ankle injury in recent weeks, made a costly error in the final seconds of Game 4, attempting to make a layup with the shot clock off and his team up by one. OG Anunoby blocked the shot, regaining possession for the Knicks and setting up his game-winning tip-in. Explaining why he attempted to score following a Spurs steal instead of dribbling more time off the clock and letting the Knicks foul him, Fox said, “I thought I’d be able to outrun (Anunoby),” per Sam Amick of The Athletic. “Try to get a layup, get up three and force them to need a three,” Fox told reporters. “OG made a good block.”
- The NBA’s decision not to retroactively assess Wembanyama with a flagrant foul 1 for a shove to the back of Jalen Brunson‘s head in Game 3 looms large after the Spurs big man received a flagrant 1 in Game 4 for an elbow on Karl-Anthony Towns, notes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. If a player accumulates four flagrant points in a postseason, he earns an automatic one-game suspension and Wembanyama is now at three points. He would’ve been unable to play in a do-or-die Game 5 if the Brunson incident had been ruled a flagrant and must avoid another flagrant foul going forward to avoid a suspension.
- Despite the fact that the Spurs held a significant lead for most of the second and third quarters, Wembanyama logged 44 minutes of action on Wednesday, his highest total of 2025/26 (regular season or playoffs) for a regulation game. Asked after the loss if he wore down as the game progressed, he replied, “Yeah, I guess I did,” according to Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required). Johnson explained to reporters that he didn’t want to take San Antonio’s lead for granted. “With two days (off) after this, what was at stake, we wanted to win the game and try to put it away,” the Spurs’ coach said.
NBA Finals Notes: K. Johnson, Wembanyama, LeBron, Ratings
One of the overlooked reasons for the Spurs‘ victory in Game 3 was the job that forward Keldon Johnson did defensively against Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes in a subscriber-only piece. Despite being six inches shorter and 28 pounds lighter, Johnson was able to use his physicality to throw Towns off his game.
“I just tried to make it tough for him,” Johnson said. “He’s a really good player. He’s been playing at a really high level throughout the series, so I just tried to make it tough on him, make his catches tough, try to make him uncomfortable, just doing whatever I can to make him have a tough night.”
Towns was limited to 11 points on Monday after scoring 18 and 21 in the first two games of the series. Johnson, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, posted a team-best plus-14 rating in 17 minutes of action.
“He’ll do whatever the coaching staff asks him to do, bringing his energy and physicality (to the assignment),” San Antonio center Luke Kornet said of Johnson. “His versatility is important for us.”
There’s more on the NBA Finals:
- Before leading the Spurs to a pivotal win, Victor Wembanyama relaxed on Sunday with a trip to Gramercy Park, one of New York City’s quietest and most exclusive attractions, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Wembanyama and his sister spent the afternoon sketching, admiring the statues and watching a Shakespearian presentation, helping him clear his mind for the challenge ahead. “Really tried to relax. The Playoffs, it’s like a — I don’t know how to say that word — a whirlwind. It’s hard to put your head out of the water,” Wembanyama said after Game 3. “Sometimes, I don’t even got to watch the game back right away. I need some time off, let my brain cool down, recover. Recover as much for the body as for the mind.”
- LeBron James suggests that the Knicks’ two road wins to open the series were the result of a lack of attractions in San Antonio that interest NBA players, relays Ryan Anderson of The New York Post. “I mean, San Antonio, we focus on basketball,” James said on his Mind the Game podcast (YouTube link). “You ain’t doing s–t in San Antonio. Nothing at all. Nothing. And I mean nothing.”
- Monday’s contest drew the highest television rating for the NBA Finals since the 1998 Finals between the Bulls and Jazz, the league announced (Twitter link). The game averaged 23.8 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, peaking with 26.3 million at 11:15 pm Eastern Time.
NBA Won’t Upgrade Victor Wembanyama’s Uncalled Foul To Flagrant
The physicality between the Spurs and Knicks in Game 3 has been a prominent topic of discussion among fans and coaches alike following Monday’s hard-fought contest, a 115-111 San Antonio win.
A first quarter play involving Victor Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson was a particular point of contention, as Brunson took exception after the Spurs star shoved him by the back of the head (Twitter video link via ESPN).
However, the NBA has reviewed the play and opted not to assess Wembanyama with a flagrant foul, per Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
Senior vice president of referee development and training Monty McCutchen spoke to ESPN on Tuesday and admitted that the play should have been called a foul, notes ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter), but also explained what the process of reviewing such an incident is and why it would take something definitive to overrule the in-game referees.
Wembanyama is two flagrant foul points away from a suspension, due to the flagrant two he picked up when he elbowed Timberwolves forward Naz Reid in the head in the second round. If he had been assessed a flagrant one for the play on Brunson, Wembanyama would’ve moved to within a single flagrant point of a one-game suspension. As it stands, he will face no further discipline.
Spurs Notes: Castle, Fox, Wemby, Rotation
After making just 5-of-14 field goal attempts and committing four turnovers in the Spurs‘ Game 2 loss last Friday, guard Stephon Castle bounced back on Monday, scoring 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting while turning the ball over just twice. He also helped the seal the victory in the game’s final moments by knocking down a key three-pointer with just under two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, then hitting a pair of free throws with seven seconds left to extend San Antonio’s lead to four.
As Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes, Castle is hardly an elder statesman at 21 years old, but star big man Victor Wembanyama said the guard “might be the most mature player on our team,” pointing out that the former NCAA champion is no stranger to high-pressure situations.
“He’s been in big games before the NBA,” Wembanyama said. “He’s shown over and over again that he’s capable and that we are right to put our trust in him.”
Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox actually received the inbounds pass from Castle with the Spurs up by two points and 9.4 seconds left on the clock, but the veteran quickly tossed the ball back to his second-year teammate before the Knicks could intentionally foul him (video link). The play reflected Fox’s complete trust in Castle’s ability to rise to the moment and make the free throws necessary to secure the win.
“His personality, his demeanor, that’s the way he is,” Fox said. “He’s kind of always cool. That’s just being young. But his game is definitely mature beyond his years. He was big for us. He hit a big three toward the end of the shot clock. Knocks down two big free throws for us. He’s guarding his tail off the entire game.”
We have more on the Spurs, who will be looking to even the NBA Finals at two games apiece on Wednesday:
- Fox had his second rough game of the series — late in the fourth quarter, his 3-of-13 shooting line was identical to the mark he posted in Game 1. However, Fox made his 14th shot of the night, converting a mid-range jumper to put the Spurs up by five points with 12 seconds left. “De’Aaron’s been one of the best closer in this league for the last, I don’t know what it is, five to seven years,” head coach Mitch Johnson said, per Orsborn. “He’s been a great closer for us. We trust him with the basketball in his hands.”
- Between Wembanyama’s big Game 3 performance – including 32 points, eight rebounds, and six assists – and a perception that he’s been getting away with missed fouls, the 22-year-old has become the newest villain at Madison Square Garden, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “I guess,” Wembanyama said with a smile when asked if being New York’s newest villain is “the ultimate compliment” (Twitter video link). After a brief pause, he added, “I’m nowhere near Trae Young level though.”
- Zach Kram of ESPN takes a look at the key players from Game 3 and the lessons learned from the Spurs’ first win of the series, noting that the club closed with a three-guard lineup, as Dylan Harper took Julian Champagnie‘s place with the rest of the starters. Veteran forward Harrison Barnes was also out of the rotation on Monday, earning his first DNP-CD of the postseason, Kram observes.
Knicks Notes: Towns, Brunson, Bench, Sprays
Karl-Anthony Towns has arguably been the best player on the floor through two Finals games, and it’s not just Knicks fans who are appreciating his stellar play.
Many Timberwolves fans have been following the former No. 1 overall pick from Minnesota, not with bitterness at the success he’s experiencing far removed from the team that drafted him, but with joy for a player and personality they came to love during his nine years with the Wolves, Jon Krawczynski writes for The Athletic.
Towns, the player, has long been criticized, whether for his defensive limitations, his losing years in Minnesota, or even the way he carries himself. Meanwhile, Towns, the person, has built a reputation as one of the genuinely good people in the league.
“Towns has taught me so much about dealing with the loss of my mom two years ago,” one Wolves fan told Krawczynski. “He also donated $5,000 to my mom’s GoFundMe when she was battling pancreatic cancer. He is a great human. Me and my family will forever root for this man. So happy for him.”
Now, the Minnesota fan base has come together to watch Towns, the player, play the best basketball of his life, and be lauded by many of the same people who once criticized him. His composed, disciplined defense on Victor Wembanyama has been possibly the most important aspect of the Knicks’ play through two games, and he has carried the team through stretches when it needs a go-to scorer.
It hasn’t been easy to reach this level. It’s taken a mid-career transformation to address the inconsistencies in his game that came about at the most important stage of his career, Steve Popper writes for Newsday (subscriber link).
“Taking all that experience this year, I’ve had to do it on the fly. It wasn’t like game by game. It’s been quarter by quarter. That comes with experience and just knowledge of the game and just time. Time playing the game, time putting shots up, time reading defenses, seeing defenses, offenses,” Towns said. “One game Jalen [Brunson] got hurt, that’s when I have to be a primary scorer. Other games when he’s cooking, I’ve got to be a facilitator, a hub, assist maker, aggressive in play-making. Then there’s games when I need to do both when he’s in and I’m in and be able to do both when his shot is warming up. There’s also days where I got to be a decoy, I got to be the best screener, I got to be the best spacer for our offense. So I think that right now, whatever it takes to win, especially when you’re in the NBA Finals, I’m willing to do.“
We have more Knicks news and notes:
- Brunson had a simple response when asked by a reporter what teams missed when they allowed him to fall to 33rd overall in the 2018 draft: “Everything,” he said with a laugh (Twitter video link via SNY Knicks). The three-time All-NBA guard has struggled to find his scoring rhythm against the Spurs’ elite backcourt defense, shooting just 33.9% from the field and 23.5% from three with a 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. But, true to form, he has found ways to contribute in the biggest moments, hitting clutch shots to seal both games and collecting five steals in Game 2.
- Coming into this season, much of the focus on the hiring of Mike Brown revolved around how he could better empower the Knicks’ bench so that the team didn’t break down in the playoffs. As the Knicks look to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals, the second unit has provided a constant boost for Brown’s team, Vincent Goodwill writes for ESPN. Landry Shamet, the last player signed to the Knicks roster in the offseason, has become a critical part of the rotation. Mitchell Robinson has been a strong defensive presence against Wembanyama, despite playing through a broken bone in his hand. Jose Alvarado, acquired at the trade deadline, provided a huge boost for the team in Game 1 when Brunson went to the locker room with an apparent knee injury. It took all season to find the right balance, but it’s come together at the right time. “One of the many things I learned from [Gregg Popovich] and [Steve Kerr]. Steve was really good at trying to play a lot of different guys,” Brown said. “Not only that, a guy that hadn’t been in the rotation for a while, one game [a coach] might throw him out there as a starter. That kept guys engaged or on their toes.”
- A key bit of vocabulary needed to understand the Knicks’ success against the Spurs is the word “spray,” according to The Athletic’s John Hollinger. Sprays, or kick-outs from inside the paint to shooters outside the three-point line, are a critical part of Brown’s offensive ideology, whether off a Robinson offensive rebound or a Brunson drive to the paint. No play better embodied the concept than a sequence in the second quarter where four different Knicks penetrated off a pass, sprayed to a shooter, and the team ultimately got an open three to beat the shot clock. This movement is critical in terms of getting Wembanyama in motion and not allowing him to set up in a position to provide easy help, but it requires players ready to make quick decisions: either drive, pass, or shoot. “We have to try to keep touching the paint, trying to spray it if Wemby comes,” Brown said. “If you’re open, let it fly.”
Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Castle, Knicks Defense, Popovich
The ending of Game 2 of the Finals was chaotic and unpredictable, as the Spurs watched a golden opportunity to tie the series at one game apiece slip away.
Victor Wembanyama knows he bailed the Knicks out of the game, between his costly late-game turnover and back-to-back missed perimeter jumpers to take the lead in the final minute. The Knicks know it too, and they’re aware they can’t expect the same luck next time, Kristian Winfield writes for the New York Daily News.
“You can’t do that to the team that is that good, give chances like that,” Mikal Bridges said. “We got to be way better.”
As for Wembanyama, he’s undaunted by the 2-0 hole his team faces heading into New York, embracing the challenge of trying to overcome that deficit as part of the Spurs’ “journey,” Michael C. Wright writes for ESPN.
“This is everything that I wished for,” he said. “There’s really no reason to overthink it. This is what I’m built for.”
He is determined to take the right things away from his first two Finals games, even if they didn’t go the way he wanted.
“It felt like we did a lot of things wrong, but we were also relentless and kept pushing, but kind of wasted that effort,” Wembanyama said. “I know it’s not wasted because our lessons are learned. I know we’re not going to make the mistakes of the past again. But in a moment like this, we need to make these things matter.”
We have more from the Spurs:
- Stephon Castle sat out much of the fourth quarter of Game 2 after landing on Bridges’ foot while coming down from a jumper. He’s not worried about it going into Game 3, Peter Sblendorio writes for the Daily News. “It feels a lot better than I thought it would initially. Obviously, I had some adrenaline running, [and] kind of once I settled down, I started to feel it,” Castle said. “Waking up the next day, actually felt really good.” Castle’s defense has been a critical part of the Spurs’ efforts to slow down Knicks’ star Jalen Brunson, who has shot just 2-of-10 with Castle as his primary defender during this series. The Spurs are entering Monday with no one on the injury report, Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News notes (via Twitter).
- One thing the Spurs will have to figure out to get back into this series is how to deal with the Knicks’ defensive scheme, Howie Kussoy writes for the New York Post. Karl-Anthony Towns‘ combination of size and mobility has made it difficult for Wembanyama to get to his spots comfortably, though the Spurs’ big man has still managed to put up impressive box score numbers. “It’s very different from [the] previous series,” Wembanyama said after Game 2. “It’s bringing us into difficult areas because they’re good players. [Towns is] a good player… We need to put ourselves in better [positions]. We’re digging ourselves a hole. That’s been the theme so far.”
- Knicks coach Mike Brown has multiple connections to the Spurs, including spending two-and-a-half years as De’Aaron Fox‘s head coach in Sacramento. But his ties go back further, to the three years he spent from 2000-03 as an assistant coach under Spurs legend Gregg Popovich. However, a simple reason prevented Brown from reaching out to Popovich coming into the Finals series, according to Melissa Rohlin of the New York Post. “He’s savvy,” Brown said, tongue-in-cheek. “He’s very competitive. If I reached out to him and asked him for some advice, he’d give me some BS that worked against us.” Brown credited Popovich for teaching him the value of a coach connecting with not just the players on the roster, but the rest of the organization and the city as a whole. ““He’s second to none [in] how he treats people off the floor in their personal lives,” the Knicks’ said. “I grew a lot personally. Everybody goes through good times and bad times off the floor in their personal life. When I was here, I went through good times and bad times. He helped me tremendously with those.”
Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Castle, Game 2, Biyombo
After veteran forward Harrison Barnes implored the Spurs not to take being in the NBA Finals for granted, Victor Wembanyama compared the team to a group of “spoiled kids,” writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required).
“They (the Knicks) understand how fortunate they are to be in the Finals, and they know it’s not guaranteed they’ll ever get another chance like this,” the 22-year-old star told a French reporter in their native language.
“As for us, we’re kind of like spoiled kids,” Wembanyama added. “For some of us, it’s our first season, or one of our first seasons, and we’re already in the Finals. We don’t fully realize it yet. And to me, the team that appreciates the position we’re in the most will be the one that wins.”
The Spurs are the second-youngest team to make the Finals, Orsborn notes, just a little older than the 1977 Trail Blazers.
Here’s more on the Spurs:
- The Game 2 loss, which put San Antonio in a 2-0 hole as the series head to New York, taught Wembanyama a valuable lesson about how difficult it is to become a champion, Marcus Thompson II writes in an excellent story for The Athletic. While Wembanyama spearheaded a furious late-game rally, he was responsible for a disastrous turnover and subsequent foul that gave the Knicks back the lead, then missed a potential game-winning jump shot in the closing seconds. The third-year center has been open in his pursuit of greatness, and every all-time great has experienced similar low points. As Thompson puts it, “the road to being legendary is paved with hard lessons and heartbreaks.”
- Second-year guard Stephon Castle stepped on Mikal Bridges‘ foot in Game 2 and was forced out of the game for about six minutes. He said the injury was feeling much better on Sunday, according to Orsborn (Twitter link). “It’s been feeling good…It feels a lot better than I thought it would initially,” Castle said. “Obviously, I had some adrenaline running, kind of once I settled down, I started to feel it. Waking up the next day, actually felt really good.”
- Zach Kram of ESPN.com takes a closer look at the most important moments from Game 2.
- Veteran center Bismack Biyombo recently spoke to Marc J. Spears of Andscape about being a mentor to Wembanyama.
Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Game 2, Castle, Barnes
As Victor Wembanyama released a 20-foot shot that would have given San Antonio the lead in the closing seconds Friday night, his teammates had complete confidence that it was going in, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News writes in a subscriber-only story.
“He’s made that shot a thousand times,” Stephon Castle said.
“That’s a shot he makes in his sleep,” Dylan Harper added.
“He makes that shot nine times out of 10,” De’Aaron Fox echoed.
But when it mattered most, the ball clanged off the back of the rim, and the final buzzer sounded before the Spurs could get off another good shot, leaving them facing a 2-0 deficit as the NBA Finals heads to New York. It capped a rough ending to the game for Wembanyama, who committed a devastating turnover a few seconds earlier when his outlet pass bounced off the back of Castle, who wasn’t expecting the ball.
“Am I going to regret it? Yes, of course,” Wembanyama said. “Am I going to use that to fuel me and fuel us next game? Absolutely.”
There’s more from San Antonio:
- Coach Mitch Johnson called it “not acceptable” that Wembanyama only took four shots in the first half and acknowledged that players, the coaching staff and the French star himself have to make a better effort to keep him involved in the offense, McDonald adds. Wembanyama returned to his usual dominance after the intermission, finishing with 29 points, nine rebounds and four blocks and helping the Spurs erase a late 12-point deficit. “We came in (at halftime) and we were like, ‘We need you to be aggressive,’” Fox said. “That is what it is. He came out in the second and was much better for us.”
- Turnover problems reemerged for Castle in the Game 2 loss as he gave the ball up four times in 28 minutes, notes Tom Orsborn of The Express-News (subscription required). Johnson said the second-year guard is getting caught in the air too often while deciding what to do with the ball, and Castle agrees. “I think just trying to overthink some reads sometimes,” he said. “I got caught in traffic, especially deep in the paint. It’s something I can go back and look at and see how I can fix.”
- Thirty-four-year-old Harrison Barnes has been telling his younger teammates to make the most of this trip to the NBA Finals and not assume they’ll be back every year, Orsborn relays in a separate story. Barnes reached the Finals with Golden State during his third and fourth seasons but had to wait another decade to return. “Every single year you have to begin at the start of the journey, the start of the mountain and climb, and health is a major part of it,” Barnes said. “So, I don’t think it’s necessarily a mentality where we say, ‘This is their only shot,’ (or) ‘Just because we’re young, we have a lot of different opportunities.’ This may be the last time both teams are in the Finals for a while. We have no idea.”
Spurs Notes: Game 2, Fox, K. Johnson, Wembanyama
The Spurs have remained calm since losing Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday, viewing it as one more bit of adversity that needs to be overcome on their way to a title, according to Michael C. Wright of ESPN. Victor Wembanyama said he isn’t “worried in the slightest” about how the team will respond when the series resumes tonight.
“We know we’re not here by chance,” Wembanyama said. “We’ve been through some weird, weird, situations [or] whatever. It’s reassuring to know that these guys, the 18 guys we’ve got, are built this way. [They] are resilient.”
Wright notes that the Spurs weren’t viewed as ready to be championship contenders when the season began, and there were worrisome injuries hanging over the team as it gathered for training camp. Wembanyama was returning from deep vein thrombosis that forced him to miss the final 36 games of last season, Dylan Harper just a few weeks removed from surgery to fix a partially torn ligament in his left thumb and De’Aaron Fox was uncertain for camp due to a lingering hamstring strain.
Even with the health questions and concerns over having so many young players in the rotation, general manager Brian Wright was a firm believer in the roster he assembled.
“When we were whole last year you saw flashes of it,” he said. “And the bulk of our group is incredibly young. The one thing you could bank on was improvement, whether that be Vic, Steph (Castle), as well as Keldon (Johnson) and Devin (Vassell). There’s Julian (Champagnie), too. They’re still growing. Just with the evolution of the guys we have and then someone of Fox’s caliber being here in the offseason, there’s a real chance we could match up and play with all the teams at the top of the league. Obviously, you’ve got to do the work. But we believe in the group we have.”
There’s more from San Antonio:
- As the veteran in the Spurs’ backcourt, Fox needs to have a better showing in Game 2, states Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports. Fox only had seven points in 38 minutes in the opener while shooting 3-of-13 from the field and missing his all attempts from outside the paint. “I’ve got to make shots,” he said. “Obviously I’m not shooting the ball as much. But coming here, I knew that was the way it was going to be. As a player, you sacrifice for the betterment of the team. There are times where I need to take shots or times where I don’t take as many shots, but at the end of the day, you need to make the shots that you take.”
- Game 1 was also a disappointment for Johnson, this season’s Sixth Man of the Year, who scored just three points in eight minutes, Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes in a subscriber-only story. Johnson promises that it won’t affect him for the rest of the series. “When you get in a series like this, once the game is over, you process it that night and then we come back and we break it down today,” he said. “And then you got to let it go. You can’t let it linger on to other games. You can’t get too high, you can’t get too low. You got to try and stay as even-keeled as possible. I’ll correct those mistakes and be back at it tomorrow.”
- Jared Weiss of The Athletic examines the marketing strategy to make Wembanyama the most popular athlete in the world, including his statement to Nike executives last year that “I’m not gonna give basketball a choice of who the face is going to be.”