{"id":719422,"date":"2026-06-06T17:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T17:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719422\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T17:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T17:37:08","slug":"i-messed-up-wembanyama-rues-late-mistakes-after-heartbreaking-spurs-loss-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719422\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I messed up\u2019: Wembanyama rues late mistakes after heartbreaking Spurs loss | NBA finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama could barely remember the details of the late-game miscues that cost the Spurs in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/jun\/05\/knicks-spurs-game-2-nba-finals-brunson-new-york\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">their agonizing 105-104 loss<\/a> to the New York Knicks in Game 2 of the NBA finals on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Spurs used a 14-0 scoring run to erase a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit and briefly took a one-point lead before it all fell apart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Wembanyama keyed the comeback, but two crucial misses \u2013 including a potential game-game winner \u2013 and an inexplicable turnover with a pass into teammate Stephon Castle\u2019s back doomed the Spurs\u2019 rally bid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI\u2019m still very blurry,\u201d he said of the plays. \u201cThat\u2019s the whole problem. I need to have more poise, more control over the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The score was knotted at 104-104 with 9.5 seconds left when Wembanyama threw the pass that Castle never saw coming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI was looking at him when he first got the rebound,\u201d he said. \u201cI just started to take off to try to give him some space to dribble up the court. I didn\u2019t see him throw it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThat\u2019s the most frustrating thing, to throw it away after putting in all this work,\u201d Wembanyama added. \u201cUrgency at this point. It\u2019s like body reacts quicker than mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">San Antonio still had a chance to win it, but Wembanyama\u2019s final jump shot bounced off the rim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He said he got the shot he was looking for on the inbounds play but couldn\u2019t get it to drop.<\/p>\n<p>San Antonio\u2019s Victor Wembanyama scores a basket during the second half of Game 2. Photograph: Eric Gay\/AP<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cOf course I liked the shot,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like in this moment you need to shoot to score.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">And Castle said there was no other player the Spurs would want to see taking that shot than Wemby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cHe\u2019s made that shot a thousand times,\u201d Castle said. \u201cHe has a game-winner with that shot this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Spurs now need an unprecedented comeback as the series shifts to New York for Games 3 and 4.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe\u2019re digging ourselves a hole. That\u2019s been the theme so far,\u201d Wembanyama said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">No <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/nba\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA<\/a> team has lost the first two games of the finals on their home floor and come back to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe needed to win that game,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cThis game was ours. But at this point it\u2019s done. 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<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYeah, I threw that one away. I messed up,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama could barely remember the details of the late-game miscues that cost the Spurs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-719422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719422","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=719422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}