San Antonio (AFP) – San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama could barely remember the details of the late-game miscues that cost the Spurs in their agonizing 105-104 loss to the New York Knicks in game two of the NBA Finals on Friday. The Spurs used a 14-0 scoring run to erase a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit and briefly took a one-point lead before it all fell apart. Wembanyama keyed the comeback, but two crucial misses — including a potential game-winner — and an inexplicable turnover with a pass into teammate Stephon Castle’s back doomed the Spurs’ rally bid.
“I’m still very blurry,” he said of the plays. “That’s the whole problem. I need to have more poise, more control over the game.” The score was knotted at 104-104 with 9.5 seconds left when Wembanyama threw the pass that Castle never saw coming. “I was looking at him when he first got the rebound,” he said. “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.”
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San Antonio still had a chance to win it, but Wembanyama’s final jump shot bounced off the rim. He said he got the shot he was looking for on the inbounds play but couldn’t get it to drop. “Of course I liked the shot,” he said. “I feel like in this moment you need to shoot to score.” And Castle said there was no other player the Spurs would want to see taking that shot than Wemby. “He’s made that shot a thousand times,” Castle said. “He has a game-winner with that shot this year.”
The Spurs now need an unprecedented comeback as the series shifts to New York for games three and four. No NBA team has lost the first two games of the Finals on their home floor and come back to lift the trophy. “We needed to win that game,” Wembanyama said. “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.”
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