GAME 2 LIVE UPDATES: Pressure on Spurs to get split at home before trip to NYC

SAN ANTONIO —

Pregame Action

Fans will get black and white rally towels tonight at Game 2. Every seat has a towel ready to go for Spurs fans. (And maybe some Knicks fans can dry their eyes with the towels too?) The Spurs and Knicks players have been warming up over the past hour as gametime nears.

Jalen Brunson was the star of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, willing the New York Knicks to a series-opening win. Victor Wembanyama, even while struggling from the field, put up big numbers for the San Antonio Spurs in his finals debut as well.

The stars were stars. The NBA Finals, though, tends to get won by the sum of the other parts.

Game 2 of the title series is Friday night in San Antonio, with the Spurs hoping to pull into a tie before the series heads to New York — and the Knicks aiming at becoming the first team since Houston in 1995 to start the NBA Finals with two road wins.

Tipoff is at 7:42 p.m., and the Spurs are 6.5-point favorites.

The Spurs are hoping to improve on a lackluster Game 1, particularly crunch time in the fourth quarter, where San Antonio gave up 11 points to end the game, going from a one-point lead to a 10-point loss.

“We know it’s a long series,” Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox said. “Obviously you want to win every game that you have on your home court, but it’s not the way it happens every day. We try to go in and fix the things we need to fix. Obviously, we want a different outcome.”

New York got 30 points from Brunson in the Game 1 win, in which the Knicks rallied from 14 points down in the third quarter and closed the game on an 11-0 run. And while Brunson got tons of credit, the Knicks pointed to other efforts, like the one from Josh Hart.

He had three points. That’s not what mattered. It was everything else — 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals. The only other player to have that many rebounds, assists and steals in an NBA Finals game since all those stats began being tracked was Larry Bird in 1986.

“His energy is just relentless. It doesn’t stop,” Brunson said of Hart, his former Villanova teammate. “I mean, he eats candy all the time. That tells you who he is. He’s a big kid with an absurd amount of energy.”

The Knicks are trying to win their 13th consecutive playoff game, which would be the second-longest single-season streak in NBA history. Golden State won 15 consecutive playoff games in 2017.

Despite the loss, Wembanyama wasn’t worried too much for the rest of the series.

“Obviously, we’ve been down in a series before,” Wembanyama said postgame. “Never in the Finals, obviously. But I’m not kicking myself about anything really. I’m not worried the slightest.”

The game will be televised on ABC and available to watch on the ESPN app. You can also listen to game action on WOAI 1200 and KXTN 1350. 

• POINTS: Victor Wembanyama (23.3), Stephon Castle (19.1), De’Aaron Fox (15.9)
• REBOUNDS: Wembanyama (10.8), Julian Champagnie (6.0), Dylan Harper (5.5)
• ASSISTS: Castle (6.5), Fox (5.9), Wembanyama (2.7)
• BLOCKS: Wembanyama (3.5), Luke Kornet (0.8), Devin Vassell (0.8)

• POINTS: Jalen Brunson (27.1), OG Anunoby (19.5), Karl-Anthony Towns (17.0)
• REBOUNDS: Towns (10.7), Josh Hart (9.1), Anunoby (6.6)
• ASSISTS: Brunson (6.3), Towns (5.7), Hart (4.7)
• BLOCKS: Towns (1.3), Anunoby (1.0), Mitchell Robinson (0.6)

The San Antonio Spurs couldn’t make use of home-court advantage in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, falling to the New York Knicks, 105-95.

San Antonio struggled from the field, shooting 36% on 32-of-89. They were also just 11-of-43 from 3-point range, amounting to a 25.6% clip.

Victor Wembanyama had 26 points in his NBA Finals debut but shot 6-of-21 from the field and 2-of-9 from 3-point range. He did grab 12 rebounds and blocked three shots.

Stephon Castle had 17 points on 7-of-16 from the field, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out three assists. Julian Champagnie had 16 on 5-of-10 shooting from 3-point range, all that production came in the first half; he went 0-for-4 after halftime, collecting a lone free throw point. 

The big standout on the Spurs’ side was rookie Dylan Harper off the bench. He had 16 points, the second-most by a rookie in their NBA debut since 1995. He was also the only Spurs player who shot better than 50% from the field, going 6-of-10. He also grabbed eight rebounds.

Many were wondering why Harper wasn’t in the game over De’Aaron Fox towards the end of the game, as Fox had just seven points on 3-of-13 shooting. Coach Mitch Johnson ran with the veteran experience of Fox rather than the hot hand of Harper.

On the other side, the Knicks were coming off eight days of rest after taking care of business sweeping the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Compared to the Spurs’ two days of rest, it showed.

While not shooting that much better than the Spurs at 41.5% from the field, New York did look fresher at points, particularly in the fourth quarter.

The game was tied going into the fourth, but the Knicks outscored the Spurs 29-19 in the final frame, finishing on an 11-0 run. In fact, the Spurs were up 14 with 6:31 left in the third quarter before New York outscored San Antonio 54-30 over the rest of the game.

Jalen Brunson led the way with a game-high 30 points, albeit on 12-of-31 shooting. Last year’s Clutch Player of the Year did have a timely 13 points in the fourth, 5-of-9 shooting.

Karl-Anthony Towns had 18 points with 12 rebounds, and OG Anunoby had 17 points on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range, many of those coming in the fourth. Landry Shamet continued his hot shooting this postseason, scoring 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. Josh Hart only had three points, but grabbed 15 rebounds (at 6’4″), dished out six assists and stole the ball four times. He also had a game-high +22 plus/minus.

The Knicks also took care of the ball, only giving it away eight times compared to the Spurs’ 13 turnovers.

He has reason to be confident. 

In each series so far in these playoffs, the Spurs have lost a matchup within the first two games:

• They lost Game 2 to the Trail Blazers at home in the first round, when Wemby left with a concussion. The Spurs on the series 4-1
• They lost Game 1 to the Timberwolves at home in the second round, eventually winning 4-2.
• After winning Game 1 in Oklahoma City, the Spurs dropped both Games 2 and 3, going down 2-1. They also lost the pivotal Game 5, going down 3-2, before winning Games 6 and 7 to advance to the NBA Finals.

The point is, the Spurs have had their back against the wall many times during this run, giving away home-court advantage in every series at one point just to regain it and ultimately win to advance.

The Knicks, on the other hand, are used to being on top, sweeping their past two opponents in the Cavaliers and 76ers, respectively. Their last loss was Game 3 in the first round against the Hawks, which put them at a 2-1 series advantage. Since then, a whopping 41 days ago, they’ve reeled off 12 straight wins. 

That’s tied for second in NBA playoffs history, behind only the 2017 Warriors, who won 15 straight. 

The Knicks are the hottest team in the league coming off an enviable amount of rest. Them winning this game shouldn’t come as too much of a shock and the Spurs have proven they can come back from deficits.

Let’s see if they have one more comeback in them.

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