Spurs’ Victor Wembnayama drops bar on losing NBA Finals despite ‘dominating’ most of it

Many all-time greats had to get knocked down, some of them on multiple occasions, in the playoffs before they learned how to get over the hump. Such is the case for Victor Wembanyama, who came up short in the NBA’s biggest stage after the San Antonio Spurs lost Game 5 of the NBA Finals, 94-90, to the New York Knicks to lose the series, 4-1.

Wembanyama did not have the best of performances in Game 5. He did put up a double-double with 19 points, 14 boards and five blocks, but he shot the ball poorly yet again — making just seven of his 19 field-goal attempts on the night, including a few crucial misses towards the end as the Spurs watched the Knicks run away with the title.

Only 22 years of age, one would expect Wembanyama to learn from this soul-crushing moment. There’s not too many more heartbreaking sights than to see your opponents hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy on your home turf. And the Spurs star is learning the hard way what it takes to go all the way.

“One of many things I learned is that the margin of error is very, very thin… We absolutely dominated most of the series. But our errors, our mistakes, were punished so hard,” Wembanyama said in his postgame presser, via ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel.

The Spurs did “dominate” the majority of games, but they couldn’t get it done when it mattered the most. According to Ernie Johnson on the ESPN broadcast, the Spurs led 177 out of a possible 240 minutes for this series. The Knicks just led 56, but those 56 came when the game was on the line.

But at the end of the day, the Knicks simply outplayed the Spurs, and Wembanyama tipped his cap to New York for capitalizing on their mistakes.

“It surprised me that every game has the same scenario, every five games in the series have the same scenario, and how relentless we were in our mistakes, and they were in punishing them,” Wembanyama added, via Tom Petrini of SI.

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