San Antonio Spurs' NBA Finals path has built them for this moment - ESPN

A SWELTERING MUGGINESS masked the air-conditioned chill Thursday afternoon inside Frost Bank Center, where the San Antonio Spurs were reeling from an opportunity lost less than 24 hours prior: letting a late fourth-quarter lead slip away in Game 1 of the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance since 2014.

For Spurs franchise superstar Victor Wembanyama, the aftermath of the New York Knicks' 105-95 victory — the 22-year-old finished with playoff career highs in turnovers (six) and missed shots (15) — featured a text message from Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich. Wembanyama declined to divulge details of the exchange, but he provided the gist.

«It was that I've been bad, and I'm better than this,» Wembanyama said.

The game marked the third time this postseason that Wembanyama shot worse than 30% (the Spurs are 0-3 when that happens), while sinking only one of his 13 attempts outside 2 feet in the final three quarters of Game 1.

Wembanyama said he isn't «worried in the slightest» about how the team might rebound from a lousy Game 1 performance because of its winding journey throughout the season that brought them here.

In a season that nobody saw coming outside of the team that trains every day at 1 Spurs Way, the loss served as just one more inflection point along a 102-game odyssey chock full of them. It's why the Spurs remain undaunted in the face of this latest bout with adversity. The way they see it, the rigors of their 2025-26 journey provided more than enough experience to conjure the moxie necessary to dig out of this hole.

«It's very reassuring,» he said when asked about the team's resilience born from overcoming so many challenges. «We know we're not here by chance. We've been through some weird, weird,