Facing a major deficit and a roaring MSG crowd, the star delivered 32 points and a dominant two-way performance to pull his team back into the series.
Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama shoots the ball against Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday. | Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images NEW YORK — In the heart of Gramercy Park is a statue of Edwin Booth, a Shakespearean actor and brother of John Wilkes Booth, the notorious assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
Edwin Booth had a friendlier legacy, considered one of the greatest American actors of the 19th century and founder of The Players, a private social club that still exists today. It was The Players that erected the statue in the early 1900s. On Sunday it was a player—Victor Wembanyama—who was sitting in front of it, These monthslong playoffs have been “a whirlwind” for Wembanyama, who spent the weekend in Manhattan searching for ways to relax.
“I needed some time off, let my brain cool down, recover,” said Wembanyama. “Recover as much for the body as for the mind. ” The result: a 32-point tour de force in Game 3 of the In New York, the last few days have been downright celebratory. Up 2–0, winners of a pair in San Antonio, a championship-starved city could taste a title.
Fat Joe asked questions at a news conference;The Spurs, though, have never seemed shaken. At Sunday’s practice players lamented the mistakes they made in the first two games. The one-point lead they coughed up late in Game 1. The sloppy turnovers, the lack of defensive focus.
The wounds, they insisted, were self-inflicted. The hole, they dug. Said Stephon Castle, “Our confidence has been the same throughout this series regardless of what happened. ” On Monday, they played with it.
Capacity at Madison Square Garden is 19,812 and by the looks of it the building probably squeezed in a couple hundred more. The arena was rocking with blue-clad, beer-swilling fans from across the five boroughs eager to move one step closer to ending a 53-year championship drought. And then … nothing. San Antonio was up 19–9 at the first timeout and took a 33–22 lead at the end of the first.
New York surged in the second quarter, and led by five at the half. But. The energy from the crowd came in spurts—a Jalen Brunson–fueled run here, some timely Josh Hart threes there—but for most of the game “We expected it to be loud in here,” said Castle.
“I mean, we said coming into the game, they’re going to have their runs, they’re going to make shots. When that happens, just stick together, stay poised. I mean, just really play together. ”.
But they had not made enough. On Monday, Wembanyama was more assertive. He attacked the rim. He got to the free throw line.
He was 11 of 18 from the floor. He swatted three shots. He committed just one turnover. Wembanyama got up 15 threes in the first two games of the Finals.
In Game 3, he took four. His best moment was a defensive one. Four minutes to play, down seven, the Knicks had the ball in the half court and it was. Five passes, maybe six, and Landry Shamet found himself with a step on Wembanyama going to the rim.
It would have been easy for Wembanyama to give up on the play. Instead, in his 35th minute, he chased down Shamet and swatted the shot away.
“It was a really good possession in terms of multiple efforts, anticipating what your teammate was going to do,” said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. “Victor was there to do what he does best, clean it up at the rim. It was a huge stop. We needed it at the time.
” “This is what I’m built for,” Wembanyama said after Game 2, and on Monday he proved it. The Spurs are already staring down history: No Finals team has ever lost the first two games at home and gone on to win the series. A 3–0 hole is even bleaker—no team inhistory has rallied from that. San Antonio needed something special from its star.
It got it.
“I’m sure Victor has numerous sources of motivation,” said Johnson. “I don’t think any of us are surprised or expected anything different than a strong performance. ” And he wasn’t alone. The playoffs had been erratic for De’Aaron Fox.
For every good shooting night there were three bad ones, and Monday was no different. Fox was 3 of 13 in the fourth quarter when he found himself with the ball late. The Knicks surging, a two-point game and the Garden crowd into it. Fox drove left, rose up and sandwiched between OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns buried a 16-footer.
“It’s a make-or-miss league a lot of times,” Fox said. “It feels good to hit a big shot down the stretch. ” Castle has had an excellent defensive series, hounding Brunson and battling with Towns in the paint. In Game 3, his offense took center stage.
He scored 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting. He handed out five assists against just two turnovers. He hit a three with two minutes left to push a four-point lead to seven. And with the Spurs up two, Castle connected on a pair of free throws with 6.8 seconds left to seal the win.
“He might be the most mature player on our team,” said Wembanyama. “I’m not surprised by this. He’s shown over and over again that he’s capable and that we are right to put our trust in him. ”New York still has the advantage, still holds a 2–1 series lead.
But San Antonio’s message on Monday was unmistakeable: We are not just happy to be here. This isn’t a learning experience for these Spurs, not a speed bump for an inevitable dynasty. San Antonio believed it had the better team down 2–0 and would have thought it had it gone down 3–0. The Spurs have cut into the lead, they have cut the Knicks and they are hungry for more.
Chris Mannix is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated covering the NBA and boxing beats. He joined the SI staff in 2003 following his graduation from Boston College. Mannix is the host of SI’s “Open Floor” podcast and serves as a ringside analyst and reporter for DAZN Boxing. He is also a frequent contributor to NBC Sports Boston as an NBA analyst.
A nominee for National Sportswriter of the Year in 2022, Mannix has won writing awards from the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Pro Basketball Writers Association, and is a longtime member of both organizations.
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