Spurs Lose to Knicks as Wembanyama Struggles

Spurs Lose to Knicks 126 - 105

The Spurs and Victor Wembanyama traveled to Madison Square Garden for Wemby's first game in the Mecca. However, he struggled early, quickly starting 0-3 from the field, and the rest of the Spurs did not do much better as they started the game on a 0-8 run. The team overall finished the quarter 6-17 from the field and 0-5 from 3 point range, resulting in a very low scoring 16 point first quarter for the Spurs. On the other hand the Knicks shot a much more consistent 12 for 23 including RJ Barrett making both his 3 point attempts in the quarter.

In the second quarter the Spurs managed to stay with the Knicks a bit better as they were able to make 5 3s after making 0 in the first, but Wemby still struggled as he missed his 2 shots in the quarter. Doug McDermott was able to give the Spurs a bit of a spark off the bench with 8 points, but the Knicks had their own in Immanuel Quickley who had 11 points of his own. The third quarter is where the Knicks began to put this game out of reach, as they stretched their lead to 30 behind an 11 point quarter from Barrett.

At the beginning of the 4th quarter, the Spurs started to go on a run as Wemby began to find his rhythm a little bit as he went 3 for 5 from the field and put up 8 points. That combined with effort from Malaki Branham and Jeremy Sochan, the Spurs were able to cut the lead to as little as 14. But with about 4 minutes left, Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson scored 7 unanswered points and put the game fully out of reach as Coach Popovich emptied his bench for the final 3 minutes.

Wembanyama's Trip to New York comes up Short

Wembanyama struggled in his first game at MSG. He came out and missed a very quick first 3 shots, including an air ball from the short corner. He really just could not find his spots in the majority of this game and even received overrated chants late in the fourth quarter as he shot free throws. He was able to put some productive minutes together in the Spurs fourth quarter run but it did not amount to much. Coming away from this game, Wemby is still only 19. Coach Pop has been playing him in roughly 6 minute spurts and he has also been incosistent from stretch to stretch. At the same time, he has shown why he is so special during some of those spurts as well. He needs to get more comfortable with finding his shots through the game and picking his spots. He will undoubtedly continue to find his rhythm and this game was just part of that journey.

Spurs Struggles

The biggest issue for the Spurs, other than pretty poor shooting, was the lack of resistance on the defensive side. All but 2 of the Knicks points in the first quarter came from under the rim and from the 3 point line. The trend continued through the game as Hardenstein and Robinson continued to punish the Spurs inside, scoring and with offensive rebounds. They also gave up a lot of open 3s as they seemed to be late on multiple rotations. On the other end, the Spurs had 13 turnovers to the Knick's 4, all of them in transition or unforced by the defense. This game really exposed some of the flaws of this young team, and although they should pick it up more as they mature as players, it really hurts them at this point in the season. The one upside for the Spurs this game was that Devin Vassel returned from injury, even if he on ly played 12 minutes.

RJ Barrett and Julius Randle

RJ Barrett ended the night with 24 points, 6 assists and is off to his best start of his career. He is shooting much more consistently from the field and taking much better shots as well. He is shooting 47% from the field to start the season, up about 5% from his career average. He seems like he is starting to take the leap fans have been waiting for.

On the other hand, Julius Randle is having a bit less straight forward start to the season. Although he had 23 points, 16 rebound and 5 assists, Randle has started the season shooting 31% from the field, 15% lower than his career average. Tonight was one of his better shooting performances thus far, as he went 8-19 from the field, but his shot selection still looks forced at times. That being said, Randle is still contributing in other areas (rebounding) as he struggles from the field. If he can improve his consistency from the field, combined with Barretts improved play, the Knicks are going to be a tough team to beat this year.