NBA on ESPN<\/a>, the Spurs\u2019 injury concern was confirmed before their must-win matchup with the Knicks.<\/p>\n\u201cSpurs backup C Luke Kornet is questionable for Game 5 due to an illness,\u201d ESPN reported.<\/p>\n
Kornet has played a limited role in the Finals, but he remains part of San Antonio\u2019s center depth at a time when every frontcourt minute matters.<\/p>\n
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The Spurs trail the series 3-1 after losing Game 4, 107-106, despite holding a 29-point lead before the Knicks completed a historic comeback at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
Luke Kornet\u2019s absence could push Victor Wembanyama workload even higher<\/p>\n
The main issue for San Antonio is not replacing Kornet\u2019s scoring, but managing the minutes around Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
Kornet has mostly been used in short backup-center stretches during the series, giving the Spurs a bigger body when Wembanyama rests or when matchups call for another traditional center.<\/p>\n
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If he cannot play, San Antonio may have to turn to Mason Plumlee or another reserve big, while asking Wembanyama to carry even more responsibility in the paint.<\/p>\n
That is not ideal after the Spurs star played 44 minutes in Game 4 and remains central to everything San Antonio does defensively.<\/p>\n
The Knicks have already tested the Spurs with size, pressure and offensive rebounding, and Game 5 now comes with no margin for error.<\/p>\n
Kornet\u2019s status may not decide the series on its own, but it could affect how long San Antonio can protect Wembanyama from fatigue while trying to keep their season alive.<\/p>\n
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Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Antonio Spurs have a frontcourt concern before Game 5 of the NBA Finals, with one rotation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23005,70621,6396,82,84,83,1066,113819,4847,509],"class_list":["post-334761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-luke-kornet","tag-mason-plumlee","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-the-knicks","tag-the-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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