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 are aware they likely won’t get as lucky the 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 the Spurs’ star, he is undaunted by the 2-0 hole the Spurs face heading into New York, believing that the challenges are part of the opportunity he and the team now have, 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,” he 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.”
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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 Brunsonwho 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 2.5 years as De’Aaron Fox‘s head coach in Sacramento. But his ties go back further, to the three years he spent from 2000 to 2003 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 team, and the city as a whole. ““He’s second to none (in) how he treats people off the floor in their personal lives,” Brown 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.”
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