NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama sat in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park on Sunday and drew the statue of 19th-century Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth.<\/p>\n
Turns out, it was the perfect mind-clearing activity that helped him shake off his miss at the buzzer in Game 2 and take over Game 3 of the NBA Finals, preventing the San Antonio Spurs from getting pushed to the brink of elimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really tried to relax,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cThe playoffs is like a whirlwind. It\u2019s hard to put your head out of the water, and sometimes it\u2019s like I don\u2019t even (have) to watch the game back, by the way. I just need a little time off, let my brain cool down and recover \u2014 recover as much for the body as for the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama made the first two shots he attempted on Monday night on the way to scoring 32 points in a 115-111 victory over the New York Knicks. He had nine points in the first five minutes, including an alley-oop on the first basket of the game and a dunk on the next possession.<\/p>\n
Spurs Coach Mitch Johnson said getting the ball to Wembanyama inside was not a strategy different from any other game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never told Victor don\u2019t shoot an open 3-point shot, even if it\u2019s early in the game,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe wanted to put pressure on the paint and the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama was a force on both ends of the court, especially late when it mattered most.<\/p>\n
After delivering the pass to Keldon Johnson for his layup that tied the score at 76 with 5:38 left in the third, Wembanyama hit a 3-pointer from 29 feet out to put the Spurs ahead. He scored the first basket of what turned into a dominant fourth quarter, including six free throws.<\/p>\n
\u201cWemby played great,\u201d Knicks coach Mike Brown said. \u201cHe had probably seven lob dunks because we didn\u2019t follow attention to detail and try to take that away.\u201d<\/p>\n
With four minutes left and the Knicks looking to stage another comeback, the 7-foot-4 big man from France surged to block what looked to be an easy layup by Landry Shamet.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama finished with eight rebounds, six assists and three blocks in what was close to a must-win situation. No team has fallen behind 3-0 in the finals and come back to win the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us are surprised or expect anything different than a strong performance and him being on his front foot in terms of being in attack mode,\u201d Mitch Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Teammates were not at all worried about Wembanyama in the aftermath of the 22-year-old star clanking a shot off the rim that would have been the Game 2 winner. Johnson said his recommendation was to shoot again, and he it made clear the Spurs want the ball in Wembanyama’s hands at important moments.<\/p>\n
Before the game, Brown said of containing Wembanyama, “You hope you can make him work at the end of the day, and you hope he misses some shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama missed seven shots from the floor, going 11 of 18 and silencing the crowd that at one point directed a vulgar chant his way. Asked if he was becoming the latest New York villain, he quipped: \u201cI guess. I\u2019m nowhere near Trae Young level, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
He could surpass the longtime Atlanta Hawks and now-Washington Wizards guard as soon as Game 4 on Wednesday, when Wembanyama gets the chance to help the Spurs try to even the series in Game 4 back at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n
Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama sat in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park on Sunday and drew the statue of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-725438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725438","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=725438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}