The San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama walked into Madison Square Garden riding one of the hottest stretches in recent franchise history.
They walked out stunned, searching for answers after a lopsided loss brought their momentum to a sudden stop.
After going a perfect 11-0 throughout February, the Spurs saw their winning streak snapped in emphatic fashion with a 114–89 loss to the New York Knicks.
The defeat not only ended San Antonio’s run, but exposed cracks that surprised even their franchise cornerstone.
“We gave them life,” Wembanyama said. “We should have been better, especially on that run in the first quarter.”
San Antonio appeared in control early, jumping out to a 19–7 lead and looking every bit like the team that had surged into the top of the Western Conference standings. Then came a brutal shift.
The Knicks responded with a 26–2 run that completely flipped the game and drained the Spurs of their rhythm.
Despite facing physical defense they had seen before, Wembanyama admitted the response was not what he expected.
“I was surprised, yeah,” Wembanyama said. “It feels like they’re a good basketball team, they are good actual basketball players. They’re not the nastiest, ugly team, you know? They’re not an ugly team to watch but they made our game ugly.”
Wembanyama finished with 25 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks, but the stat line came with blemishes.
He turned the ball over seven times and went 1-7 from three-point range, later pointing to his own hesitation as a factor.
Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said the contrast before and after that stretch was stark.
“I think if you watched us even a little bit this year, the best version of us is fast, activity, space, pace,” Johnson said, “whether that’s ball movement, body movement or a combination of. And at that point through that stretch we were it felt like in quicksand a lot, both ways.”
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