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San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is “not worried in the slightest” after Wednesday’s Game 1 home loss.

The Knicks beat the Spurs 105-95 on Wednesday night to grab a 1-0 series lead, and Wembanyama finished with 26 points, 12 of which came from the free throw line.

“We’ve been down in a series before,” Wembanyama said. “Never in the Finals, obviously.

“But I’m not kicking myself about anything, really. I’m not worried in the slightest.”

The Spurs led the Knicks by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, but with Jalen Brunson leading the comeback with a game-high 30 points, that lead slowly evaporated.

Wembanyama shot just 28 percent from the field during the game and 22 percent from behind the arc.

When the Spurs needed him most, the 7-foot-4 Frenchman scored just 11 points in the second half.

Brunson alone had 13 in the fourth quarter.

“I was bad tonight,” Wembanyama said. “It’s not more complicated than that. … I think we let that one go.”

Wembanyama has been on fire this postseason, averaging 23.3 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 3.5 blocks.

The Spurs are undefeated in the playoffs when the forward tallied at least 30 points. In fact, it’s been two months since Wembanyama lost and put up 30 or more points.

“It’s almost not like I have anything to figure out. It’s almost like I have to play normal, not even good [in Game 2],” Wembanyama said. “It’s just [about] doing the right things enough.

“When we play bad, when I play bad, is when we shoot ourselves in the foot. This is why I’m not worried. We’re going to be so much better. I’m going to be so much better.”

Wembanyama said he felt the Spurs had momentum in the game until the very end, and ultimately believed San Antonio let the game slip.

The Spurs led by one point with 2:16 left, but surrendered an 11-0 run to end the game.

In the final two minutes, Wembanyama turned the ball over once and then missed a 3-pointer on the next possession. The Knicks turned the next possession into points on both occasions.

“It was quick,” Wembanyama said. “I think we let that one go.”

The Knicks stormed back in the second half to beat the Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday in San Antonio. Here's how the NYC back pages reacted...

The front page: MISTER ONE-DERFUL

Captain Clutch Brunson saves Knicks again as they win Finals opener

The back page: THE STEAL DEAL

Jalen, Knicks wake up late, swipe Game 1

Read more: https://t.co/NRtkPCwQ6Zpic.twitter.com/kIdZVtJEl7

— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) June 4, 2026

I’m gonna go get the papers, get the papers: back page edition pic.twitter.com/hWqaXCfgXZ

— Robert Shields (@rshields37) June 4, 2026

It was an up-and-down season for the Philadelphia 76ers in general, but especially so for Trendon Watford.

The 25-year-old forward appeared in 53 games for the Sixers this season, starting in seven and averaging 16.3 minutes a night. Opportunity was far from consistent for Watford, though, as he worked in and out of the rotation at different points of the campaign. When the team was dealing with a plethora of injuries, Watford was able to step in. At other times, he battled injuries or simply became a redundancy in the rotation as the squad got healthier and his weaknesses became more palpable.

All of those factors will come into play as the Sixers face a decision with Watford for 2026-27: pick up the team option for the second year of his two-year, vet minimum contract, or let him go. The deadline for the Sixers to pick up that option is June 29.

So, what will the Sixers do?

Let’s talk about the positives first. Watford’s best outing of the season came way back on Nov. 8, 2025, when he posted an impressive triple-double of 20 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in a 130-120 Sixers win over the Raptors. He shot 8-for-10 from the floor (1-for-2 from long range) on top of a good defensive effort in what was his first ever start as a Sixer.

That performance possibly set expectations astronomically too high for Watford, who never posted quite those numbers again. He reached the 20-point mark just one more time the entire season, off the bench on March 21 against the Utah Jazz. Sure, it was against the Jazz, but still, 7-of-10 FG, nine rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes ain’t bad!

The problem is, that wasn’t exactly what the Sixers always got from him.

The thing with Watford is that he’s not a horrible player with the ball in his hands. For a forward — a 6-foot-8, 237 pound one, at that — he has some decent ball-handling and playmaking skills more usually attributed to a guard. The problem with that is that there are a number of players — Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, just to name a few — that the Sixers would rather have with the ball in their hands. That leaves Watford to playing off the ball… which is definitely not his strong suit. He does not shoot the long ball often or particularly well, he isn’t as active as a rebounder as you’d want for a guy his size, nor is he a great defensively by any means.

Consistency is the key if you’re going to be a rotation player, and Watford simply did not get or exude a lot of that as a Sixer. For every night he came up big for Philly, he’d have a few where he couldn’t make much impact at all. For every stint the team was shorthanded and needed him in large role, there were other times there was simply no room for Watford — especially toward the end of the regular season as the team was as “full-strength” as a Sixers team gets. A lot of his best moments came in garbage time of games all but decided already. Even for a Sixers team that basically had zero depth and was playing guys for 45 minutes a night, Watford simply wasn’t good enough to move the needle really at all.

Is he decent with the ball? At times. Does he seem like a great guy that his teammates love? For sure! Does he bring a level of high energy that the Sixers aren’t always famous for? Absolutely! But the bottom line problem with Watford for this Sixers team is that they would need him to be much better off the ball and at scoring some serious points, and he simply doesn’t score consistently enough to make up for those other major weaknesses on the floor.

For these reasons, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see Philadelphia decline to pick up Watford’s team option to return for the Sixers in 2026-27. Even at the vet minimum price tag, he simply may not bring enough to the table to make it worth the Sixers’ while.

The road to the Larry O’Brien Trophy was never meant to be easy. Against the New York Knicks, the San Antonio Spurs flashed some of that playoff magic in their loss to the Knicks. Victor Wembanyama notched a double-double with a team-high 26 points and 12 rebounds. Julian Champagnie also had a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Speaking of rebounds, the boys will hope to tie up the series in their next outing despite some flashes of good basketball against their Eastern Conference counterparts.

If you ever wondered what it looks like if Michael Jordan was a seven-footer taking a jump shot from the top of the elbow, I give you exhibit A:

Victor Wembanyama blocked a shot, took a moment to preen, and then rolled back into frame to drain a three. It’s flashy work, but someone has to do it.

This Dylan Harper. No moment’s too big for him.

Devin Vassell lasered this pass to De’Aaron Fox for the wide open look. When the good guys were able to counter the Knicks’ hot start, the Spurs looked somewhat sharp on the offensive end, despite the many missed threes. The team averaged 28 assists per game this season so they will look to improve upon Wednesday’s 16 assist effort in the Game 1 loss.

Julian Champagnie was on a heater tonight. Not only did the Spurs forward go a scorching 5 – 10 from downtown on Wednesday night, but coming down with 10 boards for the double-double was a nice touch as well.

Garbage pickup was on Wednesday, and Stephon Castle cleaned up as he hustled for the offensive board and put-back.

Harper just continued to impress. Any adjustments the Spurs make in Game 2 will probably involve a touch more minutes for Harper, even though he logged a decent-sized 27:31 minutes off the bench.

Champagnie heat-checked himself into taking a no-look shot from the corner.

It’s really crazy just watching Dylan Harper’s moves around the rim and instantly be reminded of the magic Manu Ginóbili would pull off. These two players have a knack for getting the best out of every angle and crevice between outstretched arms and the basket to finagle that basketball in. Maybe it’s because they’re left-handed. Maybe it’s (you sang that jingle in your head as you read it, didn’t you?).

Devin Vassell continues to do yeoman’s work on the court on the offensive and defensive end, but nothing was yeoman-like about this emphatic dunk. The bounce pass from Fox was also simple, quick, but pretty (in Michael Scott’s voice,“ TWSS”).

Good things happen when Wembanyama takes it to the hoop . . . is exactly what Mitch Johnson should have tattooed on the underside of his arms so that when he’s waving in plays while coaching on the floor the team can permanently see the best plan of action inked in a sleeve on his arm.

The NBA Finals are back in San Antonio, where they belong. It’s a long series, folks. Buckle in because it’s only going to get crazier. We love the corgi. But now they just have to go out there and do this without the corgi. It’ll be hard, but nothing in life worth having comes easy. I took that quote from Dr. Bob Kelso in Scrubs. If you’re a fan of the show, the reboot is actually good. Same heart, new laughs. What has two thumbs and says Go Spurs Go? Bob Kelso Son Q. Trinh, nice to meet you.

If you missed the game because you were too busy changing your name to “Jan Itor”, here are the full-game highlights:

Next up, the Spurs remain at home to take on the Knicks in Game 2 on Friday, June 5, 2026.

It is uncommon to begin counting down after the opening game of an NBA finals, but these are uncommon times in New York, and the Knicks have been counting since Richard Nixon was president, their coach, Mike Brown, was three years old, and their opponent, the San Antonio Spurs, played in the American Basketball Association as the Dallas Chaparrals. After the Knicks took Game 1 105-95, the anticipation in New York rose to yet another level.

Game 1 was not a good game, but it was a great game. The first quarter was ragged. So was the second. Neither team could shoot from distance – the Knicks shot 31% from three, the Spurs 26%. The Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama, the sport’s heir apparent, made his finals debut with six turnovers, 6-for-21 shooting from the field, defensively alive but never transcendent. Both Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson, the Knicks’ superb, always underestimated engine, took nine three-pointers. Each made two.

Related: NBA finals: brilliant Brunson leads surging Knicks to victory over Spurs in Game 1

In terms of beauty and efficiency, Game 1 was mud wrestling, but a game need not be artistic to be great. Its greatness was not in the artistry but in its suffocating weight, its messiness the byproduct of the maximum effort by both teams and the omnipresent stakes, the special pressures inherited by the players. The Knicks have not won the final game of an NBA season since 1973, and New York is waiting, waiting to finally burst, to blow the lid off the city. The countdown is not by game but seemingly by possession.

In 1994, when the New York Rangers played Vancouver in the Stanley Cup finals, desperate for that first championship since 1940, the energy was similar. Fifty-four years. A sizable number of the fan base wasn’t alive the last time the Rangers had won. The ones who had been were middle-aged or senior citizens, convinced as all beaten fan bases are, that they’ll never see victory in their lifetimes. The images from 1940 – still photography and film, black and white because color was not yet ubiquitous – seemed from another time, and it was. The United States – convinced Europe wasn’t their problem – had not yet entered World War II and adopted the phrase “America First” to emphasize the point.

And yet even though these Knicks last won when the world was in color, the years are nevertheless the years. The Rangers waited 54 years for their fans to exhale; the Knicks have been waiting for 53 years and counting. The resultant feeling in Game 1 was a palpable tension reserved for playoff overtime hockey. Or baseball.

It could be felt by the frenetic pace of the opening minutes, the mood swings of Knicks fans on the socials. The result was watching something other than basketball, where possessions aren’t perceived as valuable because there are so many trips in an average game, and until the final minutes, there is very little about basketball that feels urgent.

1973 was a long time ago, almost as long ago as 1940 was to Rangers fans in 1994. The great director and Knicks superfan Spike Lee was 16. While the cameras panned to their fans’ faces alternating between elation and indigestion, the Knicks played Game 1 with more confidence than their legions did watching it, which is appropriate, even though no Knicks team in history has played as well and been as dominant as this one. They have won six of their last 12 games by at least 20 points, four by 30 or more, and one by 51, but have not eased into their what could once be called – during happier times in the Bronx – their Inner Yankee, believing victory to be inevitable. The Knicks have not lost a basketball game since 23 April, when Atlanta beat them in Game 3 of the first round, the sky fell and it was time to fire everyone. They’ve played 12 games since then and won them all. On Wednesday night, the Spurs trailing 94-86, ripped off nine straight points, led by Wembanyama, took a 95-94 lead with 2:16 remaining – and did not score again. The inevitability of the Knicks was shown again, and they closed matters with an 11-0 run.

The Knicks’ inevitability – if it does indeed exist – was again embodied by Brunson, again the best player on the floor when it mattered. At one point, he had missed 15 of his first 22 shots. When it was time to take money off the table, he made five of his last nine. Brunson is the antithesis of his nervous fandom, not only unbothered by the tension but hungry for it, certain how the story will end.

In San Antonio, there is pressure but of a different sort. The Spurs last won a championship 12 years ago, and they have won five in the last 27 years. No one on the Riverwalk is hyperventilating during a third-quarter inbounds play.

San Antonio pressure is watching joyfully knowing that the future belongs to them, hoping that future begins now but comfortable in the knowledge that they have arrived early. That is the contrast of these finals, one team desperate to erase a half-century of pain, another barely scratching the surface of their potential. The basketball world watching the Spurs know this, too, for Wembanyama does not only threaten the NBA order, but the American sense of basketball self, knowing that every moment of his improvement lessens the nearly century-old grip America has had on international competition. The Olympics are coming. Los Angeles, 2028, and Wembanyama is guaranteeing something no one has ever seen before: Team USA entering an Olympics as an underdog. The Americans have lost, but never have they not been favored.

On this night, however, he was human, the baby giraffe of a man expected to do something unprecedented each time he touches the ball was muscled and uncomfortable, defended admirably and effectively by Karl-Anthony Towns. While Brunson closed – a fadeaway, an offensive tip to maintain possession that led to a crushing corner three as part of a 13-point fourth – it was Wemby who, with a one-point lead, recklessly drove the lane and missed, and then slipped and lost the ball at midcourt.

It was only Game 1, and there is plenty of basketball to be played, but maybe – even regardless of the outcome – these Knicks have done enough to signal to their fans that it’s finally OK to watch the rest of the series thinking like winners. The year 1973 was indeed a very long time ago, and for Knicks fans every game is going to feel like this until the long wait ends – chests tight, expecting dread, even as their charges twice erased double-digit deficits, responding to the Game 1 challenge as they have for the past six weeks – by playing like the best basketball team in the world.

• Howard Bryant is the author of 11 books, including The Heritage: Black Athletes, A Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism and Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America.