Victor Wembanyama misses a jumper in the final seconds as the Knicks hold on to take a 2-0 series lead in The Finals.<\/p>\n
SAN ANTONIO \u2013 In a game that had dramatic swings and wasn\u2019t decided until the final possession, picking one turning point doesn\u2019t do an ultra-competitive heavyweight throwdown justice.<\/p>\n
Game 2 of the 2026 NBA Finals<\/a> had turning points, and the Knicks were on the right side of enough of them to escape with a 105-104 victory<\/a> Friday and a 2-0 series lead against the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n From Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 big game to withstanding the Spurs\u2019 late push, from Knicks coach Mike Brown\u2019s critical coach\u2019s challenge to Victor Wembanyama\u2019s costly turnover and Jalen Brunson\u2019s unsurprising clutch play, the Knicks found a way.<\/p>\n \u201cThey made a run. We made a run. They made a run. We made a run,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo, there was a lot of back-and-forth throughout the course of the game. Obviously, they made their run towards the end. And you know, we could have folded a few times.\u201d<\/p>\n The Knicks return to New York for the next two games in great position. Just two previous teams have won the first two games of the NBA Finals on the road \u2013 the 1993 Chicago Bulls<\/a> and the 1995 Houston Rockets<\/a> \u2013 and both won championships.<\/p>\n Game 3 is Monday at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden (8:30 ET, ABC & ESPN<\/a>).<\/p>\n Here are the key turning points from Game 2.<\/p>\n 1. Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 huge second quarter<\/p>\n Karl-Anthony Towns builds on a strong Finals debut, racking up 21 points and 13 rebounds in Game 2.<\/p>\n The Spurs raced to a 37-25 lead early in the second quarter, and then Towns took over. He started his scoring spree with a 3-pointer<\/a>, had nine points in a three-minute span and closed the quarter with a 3-pointer<\/a> that gave the Knicks a 56-52 halftime lead.<\/p>\n Towns had 12 points, four rebounds, two assists and one block in the quarter and changed the direction of the game. He is not afraid to challenge Wembanyama offensively and defensively.<\/p>\n He finished with team highs in points (21) and rebounds (13) and also had four assists, and the Knicks were plus-11 with Towns on the court in Game 2.<\/p>\n Towns has been fantastic through two games, averaging 19.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists and shooting 55.6% from the field and 42.9% on 3-pointers and 100% on free throws \u2013 all while trying to score against Wembanyama on one end and frequently defending him on the other.<\/p>\n Towns deflected credit when asked about his performance against the Spurs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all about the team success, so for us to be up 2-0, it\u2019s a testament to the coaches getting us a great game plan and to my teammates executing the game plan,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a team effort, and we found a way to win these two games. It\u2019s a shoutout to everyone coming together for the greater cause.\u201d<\/p>\n Brunson offered praise with a caveat.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been great,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cHe\u2019s been pretty phenomenal on both sides of the ball, the things he\u2019s been able to do throughout this entire playoffs but obviously here now, he\u2019s been great. But we need more.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Mike Brown\u2019s challenge<\/p>\n The Spurs had come back from a 97-83 deficit and tied the score at 97-97. The Knicks had not scored in 3\u00bd minutes, and momentum had swung San Antonio\u2019s way.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s OG Anunoby attempted a corner 3-pointer with Julian Champagnie defending. The ball went out of bounds after the shot and San Antonio was given possession. Brown turned to assistant coach Jordan Brink who is charge of quickly reviewing the play on a tablet and helping Brown decide whether to challenge the call.<\/p>\n Brown called timeout and asked for a replay review, and upon review, the initial call was overturned, and a foul was called<\/a> on Champagnie giving Anunoby three throws. He made<\/a> all<\/a> three<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cJordan, he\u2019s been a master at this,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve said it before, man. I\u2019ve got great assistants, even guys sitting behind the bench, my young guys. \u2026 Jordan is insistent. He\u2019s been doing this now two years in a row. I rely totally on him. Every once in a while, I lose my mind, you know, get emotional, and try to stick it to the refs, even though I like all of them. But that never works. I try like heck to follow Jordan\u2019s lead, and it was 100% his call.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Wembanyama\u2019s turnover late in the fourth quarter<\/p>\n Wembanyama grabbed the rebound<\/a> off a missed shot<\/a> by Jalen Brunson with 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the score tied at 104. Wembanyama took one dribble and threw the ball toward teammate Stephon Castle who had already turned his back on the play and was headed toward halfcourt. The ball hit Castle in the back<\/a>, Brunson corralled the loose ball<\/a> and was fouled by Wembanyama<\/a> with 9.5 seconds left.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still very blurry. That\u2019s the whole problem,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cI need to have more poise, more control over the game. I\u2019m not going to go through the whole possessions, but that\u2019s the general image.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThat\u2019s the most frustrating thing, to throw it away after putting in all this work. What did I think? Urgency at this point. It\u2019s like body reacts quicker than mind \u2026 I threw that one away. I messed up. We didn\u2019t play great as a team. We needed to win that game. This game was ours. But at this point, it\u2019s done. Yes, am I going to regret it? Yes, of course. Am I going to use that to fuel me and to fuel us next game? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall, Wembanyama scored 22 of his 29 points in the second half and had nine rebounds and four blocks.<\/p>\n 4. Brunson clutch again<\/p>\n Brunson has struggled with his shot against the Spurs, going 7-for-25 in Game 2 after going 12-for-31 in Game 1. But he has scored when necessary with the game on the line. His 13-foot shot<\/a> with 39.3 seconds remaining evened the score at 104-104 and his free throw<\/a> with 9.5 seconds left stood as the game-winning shot.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if you say [he had] a rough shooting night,\u201d Towns said. \u201cI see Captain Clutch doing what he\u2019s always been doing since I got here. He\u2019s a huge part when it comes down to winning the game. Number 11 can\u2019t be messed with.\u201d<\/p>\n Brunson finished with 20 points, six assists, five rebounds and five steals.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Jeff Zillgitt has covered the NBA since 2008. You can email him at\u00a0jzillgitt@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama misses a jumper in the final seconds as the Knicks hold on to take a 2-0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,348481,85],"class_list":["post-718689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-nba-finals-game-2-turning-point","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}