A heartbroken Victor Wembanyama blamed himself on Friday night after he quite literally threw away a San Antonio Spurs victory in the NBA Finals Game 2.
The 7-foot-4 French phenom had possession of the ball with seconds left to play after snatching a rebound, with the score tied, but he inadvertently threw a pass into the back of his teammate Stephon Castle.
From there, Jalen Brunson picked up the ball, Wembanyama fouled him, and the Knicks star man picked himself up to nail the free throw and send New York home with a 2-0 series lead.
Wembanyama was clearly gutted with the result and immediately left the court, later fronting up to the media and taking the blame for the devastating loss.
‘I threw that one away… I messed up,’ he said in his press conference. ‘We didn’t play great as a team. We needed to win that game, this game was ours. But at this point it’s done.
‘Am I going to regret it? Yes, of course. Am I going to use that to fuel me and to fuel us next game? Absolutely.’
Victor Wembanyama walks off the court at the buzzer after the Spurs threw away Game 2
Wembanyama had the ball in the dying seconds but threw it away for San Antonio
Bizarrely, when asked how he felt in the wake of Game 2, Wembanyama summed it up with two words: ‘Very blurry.’
On Friday night, the Spurs were down by 14 midway through the final quarter, went on a 14-0 run to tie the game, then briefly took the lead when Wembanyama had a three-point play with just under a minute left.
To lose the game after that perhaps demonstrates why unanimous NBA Defensive Player of the Year Wembanyama was so heartbroken.
‘I need to have more poise,’ Wembanyama said. ‘More control over the game.’
Castle, meanwhile, gave his own explanation of the moment the game was thrown away: ‘I was looking at him when he first got the rebound. I just started to take off to try to give him some space to dribble up the court. I didn’t see him throw it to me.’
The Spurs trail 2-0 and will fly on Saturday to New York for Game 3 on Monday and Game 4 on Wednesday.
They need to win one of those to keep the season alive, and they’ll have to win twice at Madison Square Garden before this series ends if they’re going to win the title.
Jalen Brunson got the better of his superstar rival to help the Knicks go 2-0 in the NBA Finals
New York erupted with the victory in Game 2, and attention now turns to MSG on Monday night
Wembanyama is the leading scorer in these finals, but he hasn’t been dominant. The Frenchman is averaging 27.5 points, though shooting only 41%.
From 3-point range, he’s 4 for 15, or 27%. And he does have seven blocks, but the Knicks haven´t been afraid to go right at him, either. He had a very slow first half Friday night, taking only four shots in the opening two quarters.
That won’t be enough Monday. The Spurs’ best player needs to be the best player on the floor if San Antonio is going to get back into this series.
There’s nothing blurry about that.
‘We don’t feel like we played well or up to our standard at least in the last two games,’ Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said.
‘New York has played very well and they’re a part of that. But we’re going to go into Game 3 (and) if we play our brand of basketball up to our standard, we´ll be just fine.’
‘Very well’ is perhaps an understatement when it comes to the Knicks, who have now won 13 games in a row – second only to the 2017 Warriors (15) in the all-time records.
