The San Antonio Spurs are one loss away from seeing their NBA Finals run come to an end, but Victor Wembanyama insists the team isn’t about to let a devastating Game 4 collapse define its season.
After blowing a 29-point lead in a 107-106 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, the Spurs now trail the series three games to one heading back to San Antonio for Game 5.
The defeat was especially painful given how dominant San Antonio looked early. The Spurs scored 76 first-half points, drilled 14 three-pointers before halftime and led by 27 at the break before everything unraveled in the second half.
Despite the disappointment, Wembanyama made it clear the team’s focus is on how it responds.
“What’s going through my mind right now?” Wembanyama said. “I think it’s going to go one of two ways: a bad one and a good one. 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.”
The mood inside the Spurs locker room after the loss was subdued, with players sitting silently at their lockers trying to process what had just happened.
Head coach Mitch Johnson didn’t hide his frustration.
“[It’s] at the top of the list just in terms of the circumstances and stakes of what we’re playing for,” coach Mitch Johnson said. “To put as much good work into that first half as we did, get the lead that we had and not finish the job is disappointing to say the least.”
San Antonio managed just 30 points after halftime while shooting 8-for-39 from the field and committing 10 turnovers.
Wembanyama also acknowledged how much the loss stung.
“I don’t know about the emotions, but it was painful, of course,” Wembanyama said. “It just feels like we worked too hard and give up our leads. It just hurts.”
Still, he believes the Spurs can recover.
“We’ve proven we can surpass these difficulties,” Wembanyama continued. “Even though we haven’t been there before, I’m convinced we’re built that way and we’re going to use the better of this. It’s going to tighten us up.”
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