The San Antonio Spurs entered Game 1 of the NBA Finals as the younger, hungrier team, led by 22-year-old emerging superstar Victor Wembanyama.
While it wasn’t an out-of-this-world performance by any means, he played pretty well in his first-ever NBA Finals, tallying 26 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks, two assists, and a steal, in his team’s 105-95 loss.
However, his six turnovers are a glaring issue he’ll need to clean up moving forward, as he made several clumsy moves on drives or layups that allowed the Knicks to take advantage.
And according to big man Shaquille O’Neal, Wemby needs to do much more if the Spurs are going to have any chance of winning this series against a more experienced Knicks team.
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“For Victor, you gotta play better. The way he played, not good enough. [Shooting] 6 of 21 is not going to get it done. 10 3-pointers is not going to get it done. Yo gotta make some self adjustments and some mental adjustments and say, ‘We can not lose Game 2,'” Shaq said on ESPN’s postgame show.
Shaq has felt the pressure of being a young, emerging superstar playing in his first-ever NBA Finals just three years into his career. He was a member of the Orlando Magic alongside Penny Hardaway and faced the Houston Rockets in his first attempt at a championship in 1995.
Shaq nearly had a triple-double in Game 1 with 26 points, 16 rebounds, and nine assists, but also had seven turnovers in what was a 120-118 loss. Orlando went on to lose in a four-game sweep, courtesy of Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaq’s ESPN colleague, Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
That Magic team, powered by several young stars, felt the pain of losing their first Finals, which could also befall Wemby and the Spurs against this more experienced Knicks squad. That Magic team never returned to the Finals either.
It’s always a seven-game series, giving San Antonio plenty of time to adjust their strategy and determine the best ways to implement Wemby against the Knicks. They’ll have another home game on Wednesday with a chance to even the series, and stealing a game in New York is also a possibility.
Still, people were quick to crown Wemby as the league’s next superstar once he reached the NBA Finals, but he’ll need to step up his game for this series to claim that title this early and quickly.
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