Victor Wembanyama sat at the podium with a hood over his head. The pain was streaked on his face. He was asked to put into words what he was feeling.
It’s the kind of question that’s hard to ask athletes in moments like this.
Wembanyama had led his team to a 29-point lead over the Knicks. He was so confident after sprinting to a 21-point advantage in the first quarter that he taunted Mitchell Robinson, telling him, “I’m in your head.” The Spurs were about to tie the series at 2-2. The Larry O’Brien Trophy was within their grasp once again.
Then everything fell apart.
The Knicks refused to die. They gritted their teeth. They stormed back, completing the largest comeback in NBA Finals history with a 107-106 win.
It was wild. It was stunning. It was jaw-dropping.
The cheers in the hallway at Madison Square Garden were so loud that it was hard to hear Spurs coach Mitch Johnson address the media even though he was using a microphone.
As for Wembanyama, he knew what was coming.
It’s no secret what people are going to be saying about him on national sports shows. Newspaper headlines are going to be brutal. But nothing will compare to the demons in his own head.
This is the type of thing that can break teams.
Or it can be their villain origin story.
“What’s going through my mind right now?” Wembanyama asked. “I think it’s going to go one of two ways. 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.”
So much went wrong for the Spurs in the fourth quarter.
They were outscored 32-16. They were outshot from the field 60 percent-21.1 percent. They were bested from beyond the arc, 60 percent-20 percent.
As the Knicks chipped away at the third-largest halftime lead in NBA Finals history (27 points), a comeback seemed impossible. Improbable. But the crowd got louder. The Knicks inched closer. And suddenly, Madison Square Garden had become the embodiment of a nightmare for the Spurs.
Fingers can be pointed in a lot of directions.
How could Wembanyama have missed two free throws with 1:47 left and the Spurs up 104-103? Jalen Brunson then made a floating jumper with 1:22 remaining to give the Knicks their first lead of the game, 105-104.
Why in the world did De’Aaron Fox attempt a layup instead of dribbling out the clock with the Spurs ahead 106-105 and 13.5 seconds left?
Then came the dagger.
How in the heck did no one box out OG Anunoby following Brunson’s missed 3-point attempt?
Anunoby came flying out of nowhere to make a tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining, delivering the Spurs a blow to in their jugular.
It was brutal.
How do the Spurs recover from this?
“Holding each other accountable,” said Wembanyama, who had team highs in points (24), rebounds (13) and blocks (3). “Communicating. Not pointing fingers. And after that, we either got it or we don’t. But we’ve proven that we can surpass these difficulties. 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.”
There’s a lot of string to spool after the greatest unraveling in NBA Finals history.
Remember that turnover that haunted Wembanyama in the final seconds of Game 2, when he threw the ball off Stephon Castle’s back? Child’s play. What happened in Game 4 is the type of thing that will reverberate for years.
Maybe longer.
The Spurs had outshot the Knicks at halftime 59.6 percent to 40. percent from the field and 53.8 percent to 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. They were soaring. The narrative was about to become, “Will the Spurs be the first team in Finals history to recover after losing the first two games at home.”
Now it’s something else altogether.
This was embarrassing. It was shocking. It was gut-wrenching.
The future face of the league needed three words to sum up a quarter that will forever be a stain on his career.
“It just hurts,” Wembanyama said.
