Victor Wembanyama leads Spurs past Knicks in Game 3 of NBA Finals
TheGrio...
The Spurs star scored 32 points as San Antonio earned its first win of the NBA Finals and cut New York’s series lead to 2-1.
Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle delivered a historic performance Monday night as the San Antonio Spurs beat the New York Knicks 115-111 in Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden, cutting the series deficit to 2-1. The game 3 win ended New York’s 13-game postseason winning streak and marked the first time two teammates aged 22 or younger each scored 20 or more points in an NBA Finals game.
Last week, theGrio reported on Wembanyama breaking down in tears after leading the Spurs past Oklahoma City in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, and theGrio also covered his emotional playoff run earlier in the postseason. According to ESPN, Wembanyama finished with a game-high-tying 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three blocks, while Castle added 23 points, five rebounds and five assists.
“I really tried to relax,” Wembanyama said after the game. “The playoffs, it’s like a whirlwind. It’s hard to put your head out of the water. Sometimes, I don’t even have time to watch the games back right away. I need some time off to let my brain cool down, recover. Recover as much for the body as for the mind.”
With the Wembanyama Spurs Game 3 performance, Wembanyama joined Tim Duncan as the only other Spur to score 25 or more points in three consecutive Finals games. De’Aaron Fox added 12 points and a game-high eight assists, and six Spurs finished in double figures as San Antonio dished 28 assists on the night. Coach Mitch Johnson said the team found its rhythm by trusting the ball movement. “We made some strides in terms of the ball movement and playing with our teammates, setting screens, trusting the basketball would find the right guy for our shot,” he said.
The win came under complicated circumstances. President Donald Trump attended Game 3 from the suite of Knicks owner James Dolan, becoming the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. Heightened Secret Service security caused the Spurs’ bus departing from a hotel a half-mile from MSG to take nearly 30 minutes to arrive with a police escort.
Despite all of it, Castle kept the team’s perspective grounded. “We still haven’t really done anything. We’re still down 2-1,” he said. “Whether we won or lost this game, the series wouldn’t have been over for us. It feels good to win, especially on the road after dropping two bad ones. Our confidence has been the same throughout this series regardless of what happened.”