The upsurging San Antonio Spurs hit a New York Knicks-sized speed bump in their race with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top spot in the West. They lost 89-114 at Madison Square Garden tonight, leaving them three games behind the defending champions.
Following the game, Victor Wembanyama spoke to the media to address the team’s shortcomings. He sounded off on his own and his team’s efforts tonight, after bringing an 11-game win streak to an end.
“I think they did put some physicality, but it’s not even the most that we’ve seen. And we were somewhat hesitant, like in general it was a team thing. And I was hesitant on threes for some reason. I think I was holding the ball a little too much when I shot them,” said the French star as he took responsibility for some of his own mistakes.
“You can see that in our turnovers as well. I had seven. Lots of dumb live-ball turnovers, too. We gave them life. We should’ve been better, especially on that last run in the second quarter.”
“I think when we look at them, we can take an example of how to come back in the game. Because we were dominating at first, but then I made one mistake on the offensive rebound, and that’s when they had their run. We can take an example of how they needed just one spark to get it going, and then we couldn’t stop them,” Wembanyama further added.
“Regression? I don’t see any regression. I think it is good for us to deal with this type of adversity. We want to play against the best teams, and this is a top-seed team. An experienced playoff team, they know what it’s like, and they gave us a visual today,” he said while giving credit to the Knicks for bouncing back from a 12-point deficit in the first quarter.
“I was surprised, yeah. It feels like they’re a good basketball team, they’re not the nastiest ugly team, you know? They’re not an ugly team to watch, but they made our game ugly,” Wembanyama said while sounding off about the failure of his own team to match the Knicks’ physicality tonight.
Wembanyama finished the game with 25 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks, and two assists while shooting 8-17 from the floor (47.1 FG%) and struggling 1-7 from beyond the three-point line (14.2 3P%).
But stuffing the box score alone elsewhere was also not enough, as he was one of only three players on the Spurs with double-digit points. The Knicks managed to put the clamps on the Spurs, pulling off a repeat of the NBA Cup Final to sweep the season-series.
The Spurs have now fallen to 43-17 for the season. They are now headed to Philadelphia to face the 76ers on Tuesday, March 3.
