“Resilience.”
That’s what De’Aaron Fox said the San Antonio Spurs needed to show to get back into the series. He was right.
And they showed that on Monday night in Game 3, although it also helps to have Victor Wembanyama go off for 32 points — including 13 in the fourth quarter, outdueling Jalen Brunson in the frame — and have Stephon Castle channel his UConn days, when he had some massive games in Madison Square Garden, and add 23.
San Antonio got the 115-111 win in Game 3. New York still leads the series 2-1, and Wednesday’s Game 4 in New York becomes huge.
The Spurs came out with a new attitude from the start, racing out to a 7-0 lead, but what was really different in this game is that when the Knicks made their runs — and the hungry Madison Square Garden crowd got loud — a young San Antonio team showed resilience.
Fox didn’t just talk about resiliency, he led by example, and hit the dagger from the midrange.
Wemby and Castle become the youngest duo (by average age) in NBA history to each score 20+ points in an NBA Finals game (stat via ESPN).
Dylan Harper scored 13 with nine rebounds in another game where he was a force getting downhill to the rim. Julian Champagnie had some clutch 3-pointers and finished with 12 points.
Brunson led the Knicks with 32 points, on 11-of-25 shooting. The best Knick on the night may have been OG Anunoby, who scored 28 on 9-of-13 shooting and had a couple of key blocks on Harper. Josh Hard had 16 points.
Karl-Anthony Towns had his worst outing of the Finals, shooting 4-of-10 on his way to 11 points.
This game was filled with drama down the stretch, check it and all our notes from the game out below.