NBA Finals Game 2 takeaways: Karl-Anthony Towns has been series MVP, Victor Wembanyama forced the issue late

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NBA Finals Game 2 takeaways: Karl-Anthony Towns has been series MVP, Victor Wembanyama forced the issue late originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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If there was any doubt that the Knicks are a team of destiny, it was erased after their 105-104 victory in Game 2 on Friday. It was a must-win game for the Spurs, who fell behind in the series 0-2. They will now look to make history as the first team with home-court advantage to ever come back from that deficit in the Finals.

For the Knicks, the win was their 13th in a row. They've been the best team in the NBA ever since the middle of the first round, and they will only need to win two of the next five in order to secure their first title since 1973.

Here's how they beat the Spurs in a wild finish.

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Five takeaways from Game 2 of the 2026 NBA Finals

Karl-Anthony Towns has been the best player in the Finals

Victor Wembanyama woke up in the second half of Game 2, putting up an impressive stat line of 29 points, nine rebounds, and four blocks. He had a chance to play the hero, but a costly turnover and a missed game-winning jumper ruined the storybook finish to the night for him.

Instead, the MVP of Game 2 was Towns, who put up 21 points on only 12 shots. The Knicks big man did fall into bad habits with his foul trouble, picking up his fourth with six minutes left in the third quarter and going to the bench early. He picked up his fifth with under a minute left, fouling Wembanyama on an and-one to give the Spurs a temporary 104-102 lead.

Despite those issues, Towns was brilliant once again in Game 2. None of the Spurs defenders have been able to stay in front of him. He drove by Luke Kornet and Wembanyama to the rim for easy scores, as he did in Game 1. His passing was also terrific, and he had the dime of the game.

In addition to those assists, Towns was moving the ball quickly on his pick-and-pops, getting some hockey assists that led to great looks. 

Towns played a complete game, contributing solid defense as well. And let's just say he didn't seem too intimidated by Wemby's defense after the first half. 

Towns has been playing the best basketball of his life. As in Game 1, he credited his deceased mother for his incredible play, noting in his postgame interview that he took his play as a sign that she was with him for the game. 

MORE: How Karl-Anthony Towns continued standout playoffs in Finals Game 2

The Spurs still aren't playing Dylan Harper enough

One of my main takeaways from Game 1 was that Harper had been one of their best players, and he needed to play a lot more. 

Harper continued to be a wildly impressive driver and played good defense when he was on the floor. He did get an uptick from Game 1, logging 32 minutes and scoring 15 points during that span. That number must continue to climb, particularly given Stephon Castle's struggles in the game. 

The moment looked too big for Stephon Castle 

Some people have blamed Castle for the turnover that swung the game, where Wembanyama threw the ball into his back when he wasn't looking. 

MORE: How Victor Wembanyama pass off Stephon Castle's back led to disastrous Game 2 loss for Spurs vs. Knicks

That may have been more on Wembanyama than on him. And it wasn't his worst play of the night. More than his 5-of-14 shooting, his four turnovers hurt the Spurs. He made bad decisions all night, forcing bad shots and committing silly fouls when the Spurs had the Knicks contained.

Castle hyperextended his knee late in the game and tried to gut it out, checking in for the last 30 seconds of the fourth quarter. But his trip to the bench in the middle of the fourth also coincided with the Spurs cutting into a double-digit deficit and getting back into the game via a 14-0 run.

Castle has been an important player for the Spurs and is in theory a great defender on Jalen Brunson. He did have a great move to blow right past Brunson for a layup. But he has to be a more consistent scoring threat in order for San Antonio to put up a better fight. He's been a weak point through the first two games.

Victor Wembanyama was good, but not good enough

Wembanyama was quiet in the first half, shooting just four shots and scoring nine points. It led to some harsh criticism on the halftime show where Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith suggested that he was in shock at how big the moment was. 

MORE: Why 'Inside the NBA' crew blasted Victor Wembanyama at halftime of Game 2

The Knicks have been physical with Wembanyama, tagging him aggressively in order to prevent him from getting deep catches inside the paint and disrupting the timing of his rolls to the basket. 

He figured out how to overcome that strategy starting early in the third quarter, when the Spurs made an effort to get him the ball more often. He started the quarter by hitting a fadeaway jumper and got going after that with eight more field goals, scoring on dunks, tip-ins, pull-up's, and 3's. 

Wembanyama couldn't continue that hot shooting inside of the last 30 seconds. He missed his final two midrange jumpers, and his gaffe on the pass to Castle put San Antonio in a situation that they couldn't recover from. He looked like he was forcing the issue throughout Game 1. That happened again at the end of Game 2. 

"I'm still very blurry, and that's the whole problem," Wembanyama said about those plays. "I need to have more poise, more control over the game."

The rule about young teams being incapable of winning in the playoffs didn't seem to apply to Wemby until he met an opponent with the utmost poise down the stretch. He hasn't been able to match Jalen Brunson in crunch time. 

MORE: Where Knicks playoff winning streak ranks in NBA history

Jalen Brunson continued to be a calming presence down the stretch

Brunson hasn't shot it well this series. He has been visibly bothered by Wembanyama's rim protection. But there's nobody better in the league inside of the last few minutes.

Brunson hit one of the shots of the game, nailing a fadeaway jumper with 39 seconds left over Julian Champagnie. It was from almost the same spot as his huge jumper in Game 1. 

Brunson also intercepted Wemby's errant pass with 10 seconds left and split a pair of free throws, giving the Knicks a one-point lead that they held onto in order to win the game. 

Brunson's stat line of 20 points on 7-of-25 shooting wasn't great. But the Spurs were using an aggressive coverage on him, opting to throw a lot of double-teams against him. That ended up burning them several times, as Brunson made the right pass to set up teammates for easy looks. He still opened up a lot of the team's offense even without hitting a ton of shots. 

Brunson also wasn't targeted nearly enough by the Spurs on defense. That's an adjustment that San Antonio has to make in Game 3.

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