One back
San Antonio responded by holding their nerve in crunch time in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden over New York.
CREDIT: Yuki Iwamura / The Associated Press
Going into New York for game three, San Antonio simply knew nothing but a win was the objective.
Knicks fans, already at fever pitch, anticipating a victory to close within a game of its first championship since 1973 were confident in this occurring.
But throughout this postseason, the Spurs have shown tremendous resolve against the Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Timberwolves and last season’s champions Oklahoma City Thunder.
Sticking to their even temperament, Mitch Johnson’s group silenced the parochial Madison Square Garden crowd, behind an elite display from Victor Wembanyama, who finished with 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three blocks and point guard Stephon Castle with 23 points, five assists and rugged defence on Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson.
Now, right back in the series, San Antonio will seek to square these NBA Finals before heading back home for game five.
Meanwhile, New York aims to rebound and take a commanding 3-1 lead.
Let’s scope into three takeaways from San Antonio’s 115-111 game four win.
Giant landing
Victor Wembanyama’s disappointment after committing a costly turnover in game two and missing the game-winning jumper wasn’t about to deter his self-belief.
He already came too far to relinquish his phenomenal playoff run.
In the first two games, his opponent Karl Anthony-Towns had the better, physically taking Wembanyama out of his sweet spots on the floor and contesting every jumper. Suffice to say, San Antonio’s main driving force put behind an opening-half game two slumber, where he only attempted four field-goals, scoring seven points.
Is it attributed to New York’s defensive game plan to take Wembanyama out of the paint?
Or San Antonio not able to establish Wembanyama in his ideal spots from the rim to 10-feet out?
A probable case of both factors, coming into consideration.
Wembanyama’s second half, scoring 22 points to finish with 29 points was the tonic for him to build upon going into game three. Much of New York’s defensive designs by coach Mike Brown has been to eliminate the Spurs’ ball handlers De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper from generating paint drives, thus preventing Wembanyama’s point blank range looks.
“Area 51”, one of San Antonio’s favourite plays where the Spurs set two screens at the top for the ball handler, involving Julian Champagnie and Wembanyama - Champagnie locates back beyond the arc and Wembanyama rolls strong to the rim.
Recently NBA encyclopedia and host of the Zach Lowe show Zach Lowe detailed how Wembanyama was rolling out of screens too early, not giving Castle, Fox and Harper ample time and space to create, with New York’s defence able to recover and locate Wembanyama to eliminate the alley-oops.
It was evident, San Antonio wanted to put Wembanyama in as many pick and roll actions and establish paint dominance - essentially what he produced in the Western Conference finals game one against Oklahoma City.
Four of his first six field-goals came on the interior by San Antonio’s guards bisecting the paint. In two of these, Castle does an excellent job in assessing that Wembanyama has a cross-match with O.G Anunoby on him, giving away 21 cm in height.
And the designed “45” action gave Castle enough frames to survey the floor, despite Towns coming on a hard show to eliminate Castle’s lane drive. However, Wembanyama rolls strong to establish interior positioning on Anunoby, who has to come over to guard him.
But it’s far too late as Wembanyama finished at the rim, as Castle picked the eyes out with a sublime pass - near identical to how the Los Angeles Lakers operated Shaquille O’Neal in the renowned triangle offence.
Simply assertive Wembanyama is deadly.
Just to add to Wembanyama’s screening in two-man pick-and-roll play, his positioning not to roll out early gave Fox enough room to either for a mid-range pull-up or lob to him.
He went the latter as New York had no rim protection, with Josh Hart in low-man coverage.
And being completely undersized with no Towns or Mitchell Robinson on the floor, Wembanyama crushed home a one-handed alley-oop dunk.
As usual, Wembanyama was a defensive menace, often operating in what Zach Lowe likes to call, “the one-man zone”, where he’ll patrol the paint with no one in his vicinity.
And in these finals, how often has a Knicks player driven inside only to see Wembanyama in the paint, only to u-turn back out onto the perimeter?
Too many times to count.
Tables turn in crunch time
Down the stretch of games one and two haven’t been kind for San Antonio as New York closed the finals opener on a 11-0 run and Wembanyama in the 105-104 loss, committed a turnover in the backcourt.
If a revering atmosphere tested the Spurs mantle, then Madison Square Garden was the place.
With New York keeping within shouting distance, discipline would be San Antonio’s go-to to avoid a third consecutive heartbreak in crunchtime.
You could feel the Spurs’ defensive desperation, where Fox channelled his inner Jrue Holiday, blocking Towns’ layup at the rim - albeit he didn’t throw it off the Knicks’ seven-footer as Holiday did against the Boston Celtics off Marcus Smart in game five of the 2022 Eastern Conference semifinals.
Wembanyama produced an identical block (game one on Josh Hart), when he recovered from the Knicks swing-swing perimeter passes. Momentarily, he looked beat by Landry Shamet’s baseline penetration, yet no one beats Wembanyama (unless you’re Anunoby twice passing Wembanyama for two jams), and used his go-go gadget arms to smack New York’s sharpshooter’s layup off the glass.
This defensive play should surprise no one, although only in his third season.
When it came to offensively executing, Fox leant to his patterned mid-range - as he did at crucial junctures of game seven against Oklahoma City. And Castle, arguably hit the game’s two biggest shots - a three to put San Antonio up 111-104 with 1:53 remaining where the Spurs had nothing going in the possession and two free throws to push the lead back out to four (115-111, the final score) with 6.8 seconds to play.
When poised heads amongst San Antonio’s group in a cacophony, resembling a rock concert, they maintained calmness and coach Mitch Johnson has continual belief in the team’s confidence.
Forget about production, it’s Towns’ defence
Right now, if you were to put an onus on this year’s NBA Finals MVP, Karl Anthony-Towns would be in the top three.
And this isn’t a coincidence as his impact, defending Wembanyama, has been a major reason why New York won the first two games on the road.
All those years ago, he would have come under the microscope for his perceived lack of assertiveness and defensive toughness against opposing bigs. However, his defensive improvement has exponentially risen in these last three seasons, notably in Minnesota’s run to the Western Conference finals in 2024 - the franchise’s first trip to this stage in two decades.
Think of Brook Lopez’s improvement as a defender and that’s the trajectory Towns has taken where he held three-time MVP Nikola Jokic to only 43.6% shooting, despite shooting 51.7% in an encapsulating seven-game Western Conference semifinal series.
And in the opening-round against Phoenix, when guarding two-time champion and two-time finals MVP Kevin Durant, restricted him to only 41.2% (7 of 17), although the 2014 MVP shot 55.2% in the series.
Currently in these finals against San Antonio defending Wembanyama, Towns’ mobility to stay in front and force the Spurs’ rising superstar into insanely difficult turnaround jumpers has made scoring tough for the 224 cm giant.
Additionally, when Wembanyama seeks to drive from the top, Towns remains disciplined not falling for a pump-fake and leaving his feet to commit a needless foul. That’s been key for New York’s centre - staying out of foul trouble.
Through three games when guarded by Towns, Wembanyama has only shot 40.7% (11 of 27).
Nothing is easy when Towns is lurking.