Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs have been riding high this season. They are firmly entrenched in the Western Conference Playoffs race, sitting at the second seed in the conference, and are within shouting distance of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top seed. But the Knicks were able to figure out how to cool down a red-hot San Antonio squad.
It appears that teams will elect to get physical with Wembanyama to knock him off his game, as the Pistons attempted to show, despite their loss on last Monday. This time, it appears that the Knicks were able to crack the winning formula with their aggressive defensive coverage and Wembanyama recognized it in postgame comments obtained by Hector Ledesma.
“I think they did put some physicality, but not even the most that we've seen… For some reason, we were somewhat hesitant… I was especially hesitant on three’s… I was holding the ball too much… We gave them life. We should have been better, especially in the first quarter. That was the game.”
Wembanyama made it clear that the Knicks gameplan affected them and that it was something that he was aware of.
“They're a good basketball team, but they're not, like, the nastiest team. They're not an ugly team to watch, but they made our game ugly.”
Nevertheless, Wembanyama doesn't feel that the team is regressing.
“I don't see any regression. I think it's good for us to see this kind of adversity. We want to play the best teams. This is a top-seeded playoff team – experience. They know what it's like, and they gave us a good showing today.”
