Victor Wembanyama has unique opportunity after NBA Finals Game 1 loss

· Yahoo Sports

Victor Wembanyama, this time, was nonplussed.

Visit extonnews.click for more information.

He had just finished playing his first career NBA Finals game – an achievement that, when realized just four days prior, had brought him to tears – and he sat at the podium and calmly took questions.

The Spurs had lost, 105-95 Wednesday, June 3, and it wasn’t emotion Wembanyama was showing. This time, it was poise.

"Nothing," Wembanyama said after the game when asked if he was kicking himself over anything. "We’ve been down in a series before. Never in the Finals, obviously, but I'm not kicking myself about anything, really. I'm not worried in the slightest."

It was, by basically any significant metric, a flop.

The Spurs blew an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter, lost by 10 and ceded homecourt advantage. Historically, teams that lose Game 1 of the Finals have gone on to lose the series 69.6% of the time (24-55).

Wembanyama finished with 26 points, but he shot just 6-of-21 from the field. He committed six turnovers and forced shots down the stretch when Knicks centers Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson clamped him up on defense.

"I was bad tonight," Wembanyama said. "It's not more complicated than that."

Perhaps Wembanyama’s calm and measured approach is merely posturing. Perhaps he understands that the rest of the Spurs take his lead.

The more likely scenario is that Wembanyama, who has proven time and again this season to own competitive maturity well beyond his 22 years, understands that the Spurs can still win these NBA Finals.

How Wembanyama and his teammates respond to this Game 1 loss will merely be another opportunity for him to express his greatness.

Because that’s one of the indelible marks of the all-time greats, the ability to adjust and bounce back from defeats. The reality is Wembanyama is still learning, and how he comes responds in Game 2 will be indicative whether the Spurs can legitimately threaten the Knicks, who have won 12 consecutive playoff games in historic fashion.

Wembanyama did try to set the tone early; he was heavily involved in San Antonio’s actions in the first minutes of the game and appeared intent on establishing urgency. But the Knicks responded with physicality, using the extra heft that Towns and Robinson wield, to put their hands on him and body him every time he tried to establish position in the paint.

Wembanyama started to back out of the paint and settle for outside shots; he’d convert just four field goals in the paint. He never appeared comfortable, and some of his shots late in the game, as New York carried a lead midway through the fourth, were wild and off-target.

Step one for Wembanyama in Game 2 should be to aggressively attack Towns, who is prone to falling into foul trouble, at the rim.

"It felt like he missed a few shots early," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said after the game. "We got to get him moving in space and toward the rim, whether that’s on rolls or running in transition. But we need the pressure on the rim and the force in the paint. They did a good job of obviously being physical and showing crowds. We need to do a better job of establishing that early on, for sure."

San Antonio’s response to New York’s physicality manifested itself in other ways, too. The Knicks were able to scoop up timely offensive rebounds that led to debilitating second-chance points, a statistic the Knicks led, 23-14.

The Spurs, inside the final minute of the game, committed a pair of turnovers.

It’s why Wembanyama said, of Game 1, that he thought the Spurs "let that one go."

It’s also why, as Wembanyama has said previously this postseason following defeats, it’s all about adhering San Antonio’s system and identity.

"It’s almost not like I have anything to figure out," Wembanyama said. "It’s almost like I have to play normal – not even good. It’s, like, just doing the right things is enough. When we play bad, when I play bad, is when we shoot ourselves in the foot. This is why I’m not worried. We’re going to be so much better. I’m going to be so much better."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Victor Wembanyama unfazed after Spurs blow NBA Finals Game 1 lead

Read full story at source