New York (AFP) – Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs were searching for answers after a historic collapse against the New York Knicks in game four of the NBA Finals on Wednesday. San Antonio led by as many as 29 points, the largest blown lead ever in a Finals game, but crumbled to fall 107-106 to a Knicks team that now leads the best-of-seven championship series 3-1 and has three chances to clinch the crown.
Wembanyama, the 22-year-old French star who has made the Spurs title contenders in his third NBA season, scored just eight of his 24 points in the second half, missing a pair of free throws with two minutes left and the Knicks closing in. “I can’t really explain it right now,” he said. “I don’t know what to say about the emotions (in the locker room), but it was painful, of course. It feels like we worked too hard and then let our lead slip away. It’s that simple. It just hurts.”
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Wembanyama said the only thing to do is focus on fending off elimination when the Spurs host game five on Saturday. “I think it’s going to go one of two ways, a bad one and a good one,” he said. “The bad one would be giving up. The good one would be getting stronger through this, getting more together. I know this is what we’re going to do.”
Teammate Dylan Harper added, “we all definitely hurt. Kind of gave the game up.” “Hurt — I mean angry,” Harper said, adding, “I feel like this is all fuel to the fire for us. (We’ve) just got to realize that the most important thing is the next game.”
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson also called on his team to look forward. “Painful, yeah, because we played so well,” Johnson said. “We have two days to put everything we have into (Saturday’s) game,” he added. “That’s the only game that matters. By no means am I not acknowledging the Knicks and what they’ve done. But we feel like we’ve decided the outcome of all four games. We need to be better in the next game.”
© 2024 AFP
