SAN ANTONIO — After a heartbreaking defeat in Wednesday’s Game 4 that saw them blow one of the largest leads in NBA playoff history, the San Antonio Spurs head into Saturday’s Game 5 down to their last out — sunk in a 3-1 hole from which only one team in NBA Finals history has ever emerged. But being in a hole doesn’t mean you’re buried, and Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama said that everyone in San Antonio’s locker room remains eminently confident that they’re capable of coming back to defeat the New York Knicks in these 2026 NBA Finals.
“Absolutely,” Wembanyama said at the Spurs’ Friday practice. “Everybody thinks — everybody knows — we’re gonna do it.”
On one hand, joining LeBron James’ 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers to become the second team to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the Finals will require a Herculean effort from a Spurs team that has struggled to live with prosperity over the course of this series. On the other, the Spurs can lean on the knowledge that they’ve built double-digit leads in all four games of these Finals, including Wednesday’s 29-point whopper — evidence that they’re capable of controlling the run of play against the Knicks.
“I mean, I think these games have shown us that we have a chance — like, it’s not like we’re going out there and getting steamrolled,” Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox said.
“We’ve had a 10-plus point lead in every single game,” Spurs guard Stephon Castle said. “Just trying to stay poised throughout that and try to keep our foot on the gas, really. I feel like once we get those leads, we start to play a little bit different, take our foot off the gas defensively. I just feel like we have to stay aggressive, but be smart through it.”
Smart teams learn from their mistakes and missed opportunities — one reason why, as tempting as it might be to flush a loss as painful as Game 4, the Spurs needed to face it down before they could move on.
“There’s no trick,” Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said. “There’s no avoiding what’s happened. There’s no avoiding all four games have been winnable games. There’s not avoiding we’re down 3-1. There’s not avoiding ways that we could be better. There’s nobody that’s going to be harder on ourselves and accountable to ourselves than the people in the locker room and each other.”
The Spurs built up that level of collective accountability and belief over the course of a magical season that saw them win 62 games, come back from deficits twice to take down the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals, and return to the championship round for the first time since 2014.
“I feel like we’ve made history all year, and we’ve proven that with our backs against the wall that we can step up,” Castle said. “So I don’t really expect this to be any different.”
Coming back from the brink against an opponent as dangerous as New York, especially in close-and-late situations, will require the Spurs to tap into whatever reserves they’ve got left after 104 games.
“I feel like [it’s] the same routine as usual, but even more pushed, you know?” Wembanyama said. “We are at this point of the season where, yeah, we can take some time on every other thing we do to put it into performance. We’re at this point where we can really empty the tank.”
As daunting and grueling as the idea of that kind of full-tilt performance might be, the alternative is one that the Spurs can’t consider.
“Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing is promised,” Spurs guard Devin Vassell said. “But we know we’ve at least got one game. So we need to go 1-0.”
Do that once, and the Spurs give themselves a chance to put the pressure back on the Knicks in a potential closeout Game 6 at Madison Square Garden. Not that Wembanyama and Co. are allowing themselves to think that far ahead. Not yet.
“I think it would be a mistake to waste our energy on multiple games,” Wembanyama said. “It’s one game at a time.”
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