Game Recap: Knicks 105, Spurs 95
The New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs, 105-95, in Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals to take a 1-0 series lead.
SAN ANTONIO — Just when casual NBA fans were starting to get comfortable with the concept of non-Victor Wembanyama minutes, the New York Knicks in their 105-95 victory over San Antonio to open the 2026 NBA Finals formally introduced everyone to non-paint Wembanyama.
Tracking how the Spurs do when their otherworldly center Wembanyama is on the court vs. off the court is familiar enough, based on the tradition of Denver’s vulnerability when its own franchise center, Nikola Jokić, leaves the floor.
Non-paint Wemby stems from the 7-foot-4 Frenchman’s road-block wingspan and knack for defensively patrolling the lane as the longest, tallest center fielder in history. Opposing players understand that if they venture inside, Wembanyama can either block their shots or intimidate them into misses, many of which he sweeps away to trigger the Spurs’ offense.
Wembanyama’s versatile skill set poses a challenge, though, because he’s also capable of clamping down on perimeter players. That means he sometimes vacates the paint – about as glaring an invitation for someone like Knicks center Karl Anthony-Towns to pounce as he’ll ever get.
Victor Wembanyama scores 26 points along with 12 rebounds in Game 1 against the Knicks.
“They are going to put a small guy on KAT quite a bit,” New York coach Mike Brown said after Game 1 at Frost Bank Center. “And when they do that, we want KAT to hang out in the dunker [spot along the baseline]. We don’t want him around the 3-point line.
“KAT is going to hopefully have an opportunity to get offensive rebounds. … We are trying to keep it as simple for our guys as possible and they have to take advantage of where Wemby is because he’s just so impactful defensively.”
Here’s the result of monitoring Wembanyama’s whereabouts on the floor: New York owned a 23-14 edge in second-chance points Wednesday, nine points that accounted for nearly everything in the 10-point margin.
San Antonio won the rebounding battle overall (54-49), even on the offensive glass (14-10), but the Knicks got more mileage out of theirs.
They scored on nine of their 13 second-chance opportunities, pouncing for resets and put-backs in a way the Spurs did not quite match (5-of-13).
“We had to find other ways to score,” Brown said.
None of it is an exact science: Even when Wembanyama is out of the lane, he’s usually just one or two long strides away the rim. So Towns kept him honest by attacking directly, getting a first step when he could to get downhill and have the Spurs’ lanky star playing catch-up.
“You just trust your work and you trust your decision-making,” Towns said, “and I always say about being aggressive in playmaking: It may not be for the shot or get someone else a shot or get the hockey assist going.
“You don’t know what is going to unfold but I just wanted to be aggressive, especially early in the game, Game 1 in the NBA Finals, and trying to bring that energy for our team.”
San Antonio had hurt their visitors in transition early in the game, and the Knicks hurt themselves a little through emotions of the event and unhappiness with some calls. They settled down, however, and followed guard Jalen Brunson’s lead, executing their plan and seizing moments when they could.
Karl Anthony Towns speaks to the media following the Knicks' Game 1 victory over the Spurs.
Towns finished with an invaluable double-double, 18 points and 12 boards, four on offense. Then there was Josh Hart, a 6-foot-4 wing on the floor with four 7-footers. Guess who won the rebounding war. It was Hart, grabbing 15 to choke off so many Spurs possessions at one-and-done, sometimes two-and-done.
Hart is one of those players who can post the oddest stats line in a game – 15 rebounds, six assists, four steals, 1-for-5 shooting, three points – and wind up plus-22 for the night. The last player to reach 15 boards, six assists and four steals in a Finals game? Larry Bird.
The last to reach those levels in rebounds and assists while scoring so little? Actually nobody. But Boston legend Bill Russell had a handful of games when he had 15, 6 and scored fewer than 10 points, with a low of five in Game 1 of the 1959 Finals.
“He’s always been that way,” Brunson said of Hart, his current and college teammate. “I can’t explain it. He just has a knack for doing things like that, and in crucial times as well.”
If things are crucial for anybody after just one game, they’re a bit more crucial for the Spurs. Wembanyama led his team with 26 points and 12 rebounds, but he shot 6-for-21 and got a dozen of those points from the line. San Antonio got outscored by three points when Wemby was in the game, by seven in the 10 minutes he sat.
The Knicks spoke a lot after the game about treating this series as 0-0 rather than 1-0, a ruse to fool their own perspective and motivation. Who can blame them, either, considering how well it has worked in reeling off these 12 consecutive playoff victories.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
