Victor Wembanyama knows he needs to be better.
In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Wembanyama was stifled by Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks’ defense and shot 6-of-21 from the field in the Spurs’ 105–95 loss. He was much better in Game 2, scoring 22 of his 29 points in the second half, but a costly turnover in the final minute allowed New York to escape with a 105–104 win and head back to Madison Square Garden with a 2–0 series lead.
“I'm still very blurry,” Wembanyama said Friday night when asked about the final possessions of Game 2. “That's the whole problem. I need to have more poise, more control over the game. I'm not going to go through the whole possessions, but that's the general image.”
Wemby's costly turnover in the finals seconds of Game 2...
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 6, 2026
Tough. pic.twitter.com/96BRj8L5Aj
Wembanyama and the young Spurs have had a surprising amount of poise during their postseason run. At every turn, they have debunked one of the NBA’s oldest postseason clichés: Even the game’s best players and dynastic teams need to earn their stripes through a few years of crushing losses before winning the championship.
It took Steph Curry’s Warriors three trips to the playoffs to finally come through and win the championship. Jayson Tatum and the Celtics fell short six times before winning the ’24 title. LeBron James was 27 when he won his first championship in 2012. Michael Jordan was 28.
The 22-year-old Wembanyama and the Spurs haven’t seemed to care. After winning 22 games his rookie year and 34 last season, San Antonio went 62–20 to earn the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. The Spurs took care of the Trail Blazers in the first round in five games. In the second round, San Antonio looked like an inexperienced team in a Game 1 loss to the Timberwolves, but it rallied to win four of the next five games. In the conference finals, the Spurs won Game 6 and Game 7 to eliminate the defending-champion Thunder, a team crowned last year as an unstoppable force in the Western Conference.
Perhaps that old cliché will finally ring true in the Finals. So far, it has. And that emotional seven-game series against the Thunder, one that ended with Wembanyama in tears on the floor, could be a factor.
“We need to never get too high, never get too low,” Wembayama said. “Personally, I think I could have been better in recovering from the high of the conference finals. But, I mean, here we are. We can't change the past now. We're already focused on Game 3.”
Chris Mannix: The Knicks Keep Finding a Way, and a Championship Is Within Reach
While the Spurs were exchanging haymakers with Oklahoma City for seven games, the Knicks were at home resting. New York swept the 76ers and the Cavaliers to earn its spot in the Finals and now has won 13 straight playoff games—tied for the second-longest winning streak in postseason history.
Since 1971, there have been seven previous Finals matchups between one team coming off a sweep in the conference finals and the other fresh off a seven-game series. Unsurprisingly, the team that swept the previous round has gone on to win five of those seven Finals.
The only two teams coming off a seven-game series that were able to defeat an opponent that swept the conference finals featured two of the best players of all time—LeBron James’s 2012–13 Heat and Michael Jordan’s 1997–98 Bulls. Both series featured an iconic shot, too, in Ray Allen’s game-tying corner three and Jordan’s step-back for the win against Utah.
NBA Finals matchups: Team that swept conference finals vs. Team that went seven games in conference finals (since 1971)
| YEAR | WON CONF. FINALS IN 7 | SWEPT CONF. FINALS | FINALS RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Spurs | Knicks | TBD |
| 2023 | Heat | Nuggets | Nuggets in 5 |
| 2013 | Heat | Spurs | Heat in 7 |
| 2001 | 76ers | Lakers | Lakers in 5 |
| 1998 | Bulls | Jazz | Bulls in 6 |
| 1996 | SuperSonics | Bulls | Bulls in 6 |
| 1987 | Celtics | Lakers | Lakers in 6 |
| 1982 | 76ers | Lakers | Lakers in 6 |
Whether it is physical, mental or emotional fatigue from their Western Conference finals bout against the Thunder (or a combination of the three), Wembanyama and the Spurs have yet to be at their best against the Knicks. But if Wemby has taught the rest of the NBA anything over his short three-year career, it’s that any previous precedent set will be challenged when the 7’4” phenom is on the floor.
This series is far from over.
