{"id":199326,"date":"2026-06-07T14:19:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=199326"},"modified":"2026-06-07T14:19:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T18:19:43","slug":"spurs-game-3-must-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/06\/07\/spurs-game-3-must-win\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Finals Game 3 Is a Must Win for the Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

So far in NBA history, only two teams have lost the first two games of the NBA Finals on their home floor<\/a>. The first team was the 1993 Phoenix Suns<\/a>, who went on to lose the NBA Finals in six games to a Chicago Bulls<\/a> team on the way to their first three-peat. The second team was the 1995 Orlando Magic<\/a>, who were swept by the Houston Rockets<\/a>, led by Hakeem Olajuwon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With their Game 2 loss, the 2026 San Antonio Spurs<\/a> have just become the third team to fall into a 2-0 hole. And out of all of the teams that have lost the first two games of the NBA Finals, just five have come back to take the series. The most recent example of such a comeback is in the 2021 NBA Finals, when the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> overcame a 2-0 deficit.<\/p>\n

So is there a chance for the Spurs to come back and take the series? And what adjustments will San Antonio need to make ahead of Game 3?<\/p>\n

NBA Finals Game 3 Is a Must Win for the Spurs<\/h2>\n

No Answer For Towns<\/h3>\n

If the New York Knicks<\/a> go on to win the championship, there are two main contenders for the Finals MVP award. Knicks guard Jalen Brunson<\/a>‘s performance over the past two games has not been up to his usual standards in terms of efficiency and ball security. This is excluding crunch time, where he has excelled in making timely buckets to help New York win both games.<\/p>\n

However, the other Knicks contender to win Finals MVP is Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Towns’ impact hinges on his defense of the Spurs’ star forward, Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, as well as his offensive versatility as a secondary scorer and playmaker.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Wembanyama’s matchup in the Western Conference Finals<\/a> was against a stretch big man, Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> center Chet Holmgren<\/a>. However, unlike Holmgren, Towns is a lot more comfortable playing from beyond the arc, which has taken the French phenom out of the paint on many possessions. This has led to all of Wembanyama’s defensive efforts being focused on Towns, rather than being able to float in the paint and deter any Knicks from finishing at the rim.<\/p>\n

Towns has been incredibly effective as a secondary playmaker alongside Brunson. While the 6’2″ guard has averaged 6.8 assists in the regular season and 6.3 assists in the playoffs, Towns’ assist numbers have taken a more dramatic turn. The big man averaged just three dimes per game in the regular season, but he’s turned it up to 5.6 per game in these playoffs. Combine this with Towns’ ability to play on the perimeter, and he can pass to cutters or players on the wings or corners to knock down relatively open shots.<\/p>\n

Towns’ defensive impact on Wembanyama was particularly noticeable in Game 1. The Spurs forward shot 6-of-21 from the field, despite finishing the game with 26 points.<\/p>\n

The Spurs Need to Be Aggressive<\/h3>\n

Despite Towns guarding him well in Game 1, Wembanyama largely fended off his defense in Game 2. He finished with 29 points on 11-of-21 shooting from the field, with nine rebounds and four blocks in tow. However, his hesitancy to make plays for himself is something that stood out offensively.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama has been noticeably passive in his play in the first two games. Rather than attacking mismatches or driving downhill, the French big man tended to pass almost immediately after catching the ball. He also tended to shoot more threes, attempting six in Game 2 and nine in Game 1.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama notably gave up easy paint opportunities by not sealing his opponents under the rim. Without this physicality, the Knicks defenders guarding him had an easier time diverting the path of the ball away from the French star, which broke up the play.<\/p>\n

Even on plays where he is not a part of the main action, Wembanyama<\/a> appears to be passive, almost reluctant to initiate contact or battle for position. With the Spurs heavily depending on their main star to set the tone for games, San Antonio’s performance in Game 3 greatly relies on how aggressive the French big man is.<\/p>\n

Much-Needed Adjustments?<\/h3>\n

By the second half of Game 2, Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson made a significant adjustment. He made Wembanyama guard the corners instead of sticking to Towns alone.<\/p>\n

Johnson’s solution is similar to ghost coverage. However, unlike ghost coverage, Wembanyama moves into the paint once a ball-handler commits to a drive, rather than leaving a corner shooter completely open. If his primary matchup moves, Wembanyama switches to the next closest player on his side of the floor. With his length, Wembanyama can simply stunt to prevent any aggressive drives, commit if the ball handler moves downhill, and either switch or close out to contest the shooter in the corner.<\/p>\n

The player whom Wembanyama helps off is often Josh Hart<\/a>. Hart has shot 29% from three in the 2026 playoffs. Despite this, the Spurs likely prefer that none of the Knicks get a steady diet of wide-open shots.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether the Spurs will use this method of guarding the Knicks again in Game 3 or whether it was a late-game adjustment to combat the Knicks taking advantage of the mismatch.<\/p>\n

The Last Word on Spurs vs Knicks Game 3<\/h3>\n

Game 3 is pivotal for the San Antonio Spurs if they want a chance to come back. Wembanyama must set the tone early with aggressive play, and more importantly, attacking downhill rather than settling for mid-range or three-point jump shots. With the pressure of potentially going down 3-0, will the Spurs be able to respond?<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Scott Wachter-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So far in NBA history, only two teams have lost the first two games of the NBA Finals on their home floor. The first team was the 1993 Phoenix Suns, who went on to lose the NBA Finals in six games to a Chicago Bulls team on the way to their first three-peat. The second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5724,"featured_media":199414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12,34],"tags":[50477,1417,1004,213,4669],"class_list":["post-199326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-spurs","tag-2026-nba-finals","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5724"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199326"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199416,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199326\/revisions\/199416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}