{"id":688573,"date":"2026-06-06T20:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T20:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/688573\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T20:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T20:39:11","slug":"not-acceptable-mitch-johnson-sends-clear-message-after-victor-wembanyamas-slow-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/688573\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not Acceptable\u2019 \u2014 Mitch Johnson Sends Clear Message After Victor Wembanyama\u2019s Slow Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Wembanyama<\/a> nearly led the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> all the way back in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. The Spurs star was silent in the first half but erupted in the second half with 29 points and 9 rebounds but it wasn\u2019t enough as the New York Knicks<\/a> held on to win 105-104 to take a 2-0 lead in the series.<\/p>\n

The Spurs had plenty to ponder following the narrow loss before heading to Madison Square Garden. While the spotlight naturally fell on the chaotic final seconds, the Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson pointed to a different issue that concerned him far more after Friday night\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n

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Mitch Johnson Calls Victor Wembanyama\u2019s First-Half Shot Volume \u2018not acceptable\u2019\"San<\/p>\n

San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama speaks to the media after game one of the 2026 NBA Finals Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Johnson talked about Gam<\/a>e 2 the day on June 5. He said Wembanyama needs to do at the start of the game. In the half of the game Wembanyama only took four shots. By halftime, he had seven points and five rebounds. Turned the ball over two times.<\/p>\n

Johnson thinks everyone is r<\/a>esponsible for what\u2019s happening now. The coaches need to find ways to give Wembanyama chances. The team members need to notice these chances. Wembanyama needs to find ways to score a lot even when the other team is trying to stop him. Johnson wants Wembanyama to be more effective in the game, at the beginning. The team needs to work to help Wembanyama play better and the coaches need to help the team do this. Wembanyama needs to find ways to score when the defenders are trying to stop him from scoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to make sure that there\u2019s environments that the ball finds him. I think he\u2019s got to make sure that he can\u2019t rely on that to get shots as well..\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The slow start has become a problem in the series. In Game 1 Wembanyama struggled to get going against<\/a> the Knicks strong frontcourt, led by Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> and Mitchell Robinson<\/a>, who made it hard for him to score easily.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama is averaging 27.5 points<\/a> through two Finals games. His shooting hasn\u2019t been great. He\u2019s making 41 percent of his shots from the field and the Knicks defense is making it tough for him. They\u2019re always on him making it hard for him to get a good look.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Wembanyama showed aggression in the second half of the Game 2. He scored 22 out of 29 points during the second half. Also played a key role in ensuring that the Spurs got a chance to reverse the huge margin between them and their rivals. However, the Spurs lacked the prowess to win the game.<\/p>\n

It is quite disappointing for the Spurs because they have made significant mistakes, one of which resulted in losing the game. It took Wembanyama making a foul with the ball just when time was about to expire followed by failure to score a winning goal in the process. Wembanyama blamed himself for costing Spurs to lose the game after the game ended.<\/p>\n

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For the Spurs to win in the next game, things will not be easy. No team has ever come back and won the title following losses in the first two games at their home ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama nearly led the San Antonio Spurs all the way back in Game 2 of the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[36782,132928,25161,355,361,2116,99,60950,32090],"class_list":["post-688573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-mitch-johnson","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-the-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}