The NBA has been building toward this moment since the night in June 2023 when San Antonio used the first pick in the draft to select a 7-foot-4 Frenchman who moved like a point guard and swatted shots like no center the league had ever produced. Three years later, Victor Wembanyama is in the NBA Finals. He is 21 years old, he is the Defensive Player of the Year, and the New York Knicks took Game 1 from him on his own floor.
That last part is the story San Antonio needs to write over before this series gets away from them. The Spurs host New York in Game 2 Friday night at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC, with the series 1-0 to the visitors after the Knicks rallied from 14 down in the third quarter to win 105-95. For a Texas team that finished 62-20 during the regular season, the fastest turnaround from a decade-long playoff drought to NBA Finals contention in the sport’s modern era, this is the series that defines the project.
The Case for Wembanyama as the Most Unique Player in the Game
No other player in the league averages 25 points, 11.5 rebounds and leads all postseason performers in blocks per game. The numbers explain the surface; they do not capture the texture. Wembanyama’s shot-blocking is a deterrent before it happens, changing drive angles and mid-range looks for opponents well before he ever leaves his feet. His three-point range from center, connecting at 35.8 percent from deep during the regular season, forces opposing defenses into decisions they were not designed to make. Close out on a seven-footer, or concede the shot?
In 17 playoff games before the Finals, he averaged 23.3 points and 3.5 blocks per game, the highest block rate of any postseason performer by a considerable margin. Against the Oklahoma City Thunder in a grinding seven-game Western Conference Finals, he produced 40 points and 20 rebounds in a double-overtime Game 1 that made him the youngest player in NBA history to reach those totals in a playoff game, surpassing Lew Alcindor’s mark from 1970.
What Game 1 Actually Revealed
Game 1 was not a refutation of what Wembanyama can do. It was a demonstration of what the Knicks have decided to do about it. New York pushed him away from the basket repeatedly, coaxing him into pull-up threes from well beyond the arc rather than his more dangerous high-post and pick-and-roll work. He went 2 for 9 from three in Game 1 and shot 6 for 21 overall, turning the ball over six times, several of which came in transition situations where the Knicks’ length and activity level created chaos.
“There’s a lot of things we can do better,” Wembanyama said after the game, declining to elaborate or apportion blame. Head coach Mitch Johnson, who guided San Antonio to that 62-20 record in his first full season in charge, has spent the days between games designing more interior-focused sets to get his star closer to the basket and limit the turnover exposure.
Spurs guard Dylan Harper, the 19-year-old rookie who posted 16 points off the bench in Game 1, remains one of the more interesting variables. His ability to break down New York’s close-out rotations and draw fouls in the paint creates an additional pressure point that complements Wembanyama’s rim presence rather than competing with it.
Why the Spurs Can Still Win This Series
The historical pattern works in San Antonio’s favor. Road teams that win Game 1 of the NBA Finals have gone 0-4 in Game 2 since 2003. The Spurs went 36-18 at home this regular season. They did not lose back-to-back games after February, and they beat the Knicks in the regular season on both occasions the teams met in the spring.
Speaking to RotoWire, the award-winning independent resource covering the best sports betting promos and sportsbook analysis, one analyst noted that San Antonio’s home-court profile, combined with Wembanyama’s tendency to elevate in must-win situations, made the Spurs the sharper value despite trailing the series.
The Knicks are not without their own vulnerabilities. Jalen Brunson carries the scoring load in a way that concentrates New York’s offensive ceiling in one player’s health. His knee and ankle concerns in Game 1 were not publicized as serious, but a postseason run of 12 straight wins accumulates physical cost. Karl-Anthony Towns, who added 18 points and 12 rebounds in Game 1, is a genuine second threat, but his postseason consistency has been uneven across the past three years.
What This Series Means for Texas
The Spurs have not won a championship since 2014. Their rebuilding arc after Tim Duncan’s retirement in 2016 was one of the longer and more patience-testing projects in the sport. The arrival of Wembanyama accelerated it beyond what most observers expected. A second-year player of this caliber in the NBA Finals, leading a team that won 62 games, is not simply a story about one player. It is a story about what San Antonio built and how fast they built it.
For Texas sports fans, the series carries weight beyond any playoff bracket. A Spurs title would be the state’s first major professional sports championship since the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999, the same year the Spurs last met the Knicks in the Finals. That year, San Antonio won in five. The region has its own thread running through this postseason too — a Texarkana resident made the Oklahoma City Thunder’s entertainment roster this season, the same Thunder team the Spurs eliminated in seven games to reach this stage. They would welcome the comparison.