The Spurs’ lack of experience coming into the NBA Finals was a key talking point that swung a lot of predictions in the favor of the Knicks, despite Victor Wembanyama’s dominant run to dethrone the defending champions and come out of the West.
Even when the French star shut down their critics initially, after the first two games of the series, this narrative has resurfaced since the Spurs failed to hold onto leads despite starting strong in both games.
Following the Spurs’ 104-105 loss in Game 2, the former Knicks player, Jeremy Lin, and the renowned sports analyst, Stephen A. Smith, both blamed their lack of experience for the outcome.
“The Spurs have so much heart. 14-0 run to come back into the game, but the last 30 seconds, just so much inexperience — whether you want to call it youth, whether you want to call it fatigue, it just wasn’t it,” said Jeremy Lin while speaking to Scott Van Pelt on ESPN’s postgame show.
“The first play: another isolation for Wemby with 30 seconds, tough shot over Mitchell Robinson. Then you have a turnover, then you have a foul. I mean, they had the game where you have the ball with 12 seconds left, it’s a tie game, there’s no way you should be able to ever lose that game.
“And so to me, if the roles were reversed, the Knicks get the ball, what do they do? They will immediately find Brunson, and he will immediately find the mismatch that he wants.”
“But the Spurs, when they get the ball, they’re not really sure. So Wemby’s dribbling up, Castle’s not even looking for it, they don’t know who’s going to take charge, whether there is a timeout to be called or not. It just seemed, as Wemby said, very blurry,” Lin concluded.
Stephen A. Smith appeared on an episode of the Hoops Collective podcast that was recently recorded courtside, where he said something similar about the Spurs.
“We know that the one thing this team is lacking is experience. So now I’m going to say to you what I just described they’re going to encounter. You didn’t win at home. Now you’re going to go on the road, in that environment, with that youth. We’ve seen veterans fold at the Garden.”
“What am I supposed to believe about youthful, exuberant, ignorant young dudes? And I say ignorant in a negative way. I’m just talking; they don’t know. They don’t know what they’re about to encounter. This is different.”
“And that is why I feel the way that I feel. It’s not just because of basketball. It’s about just the overwhelming effect of being at the Garden and what I believe that’s going to have on these young brothers,” Smith concluded.
Seven of the Spurs’ nine primary rotation players are playing in their first playoff experience, and they have already exceeded expectations by reaching the NBA Finals. But I’m afraid that the argument still stands that their lack of experience is biting them in this series against the Knicks.
They have not just dug themselves a 0-2 hole in the Finals, but they have the league’s history stacked against them. No team that has ever lost both home games in the NBA Finals has ever gone on to come back and win the series.
The Spurs are now headed to New York for Game 3, scheduled to play on Monday, June 8. It will be interesting to see if the young Spurs can pull off a miracle or if they succumb to the pressure of the moment at Madison Square Garden.
