{"id":199788,"date":"2026-06-10T19:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=199788"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:52:16","slug":"how-spurs-do-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/06\/10\/how-spurs-do-impossible\/","title":{"rendered":"How The San Antonio Spurs Could Do The Impossible In The NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

No team in NBA history has ever won a Finals series after losing the first two games at home. Now down only one game, the Spurs look to change that. Looking comfortable in the fourth quarter of Game 3, the Spurs gave us a peek at what will decide the series. With much-improved games from key players in Stephon Castle<\/a> and Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, the Spurs have halted the Knicks’ historic 13-game win streak.<\/p>\n

How The San Antonio Spurs Could Do The Impossible In The NBA Finals<\/h2>\n

The Spurs’ Extremely Difficult Path Forward<\/h3>\n

Even though San Antonio has avoided the sweep, the path to becoming champions will not be easy. The New York Knicks have already cemented themselves as a historically great playoff team with 13 games won in a row. Though that streak has been broken, it was in a close game, and the Knicks have a handful of stars who can bounce back with better games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is not to mention the extremely passionate fanbase of the New York Knicks, whose passion was shown in unfortunately violent moments after the game. If any fanbase can influence a game, the Knicks’ fanbase can.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem facing San Antonio is the inconsistent play from star De’Aaron Fox<\/a>, who is playing through injury. In the first two games, San Antonio was limited with their offense due to Fox’s slower play. Throughout the playoffs, the Spurs have attacked teams in transition before they could set up their offense.<\/p>\n

With a slower attack from Fox, New York could easily collapse the paint and be prepared to run out to the perimeter. Without effective play from Fox, rookie guard Dylan Harper<\/a> had more pressure to perform. In both games’ first halves, he was magnificent with a flurry of offensive highlights. However, in the second halves, the Knicks’ veteran defenders were able to force turnovers and knock Harper off his game.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama, the youngest Western Conference Finals MVP ever, was hurt the most by this failed strategy. By trying to have their primary ball-handlers touch the paint first and failing, Wembanyama lost his easy looks. Worse yet, he had to come up with offense while being guarded for a significant portion of both nights by Mitchell Robinson<\/a>, an elite and physical defender.<\/p>\n

That isn’t to say Wembanyama doesn’t deserve some blame for losing both games at home. His shot selection was not excellent in Game 1<\/a>, and his last-minute turnover in Game 2 has stuck in Spurs fans’ minds, despite the recent win.<\/p>\n

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

How The Spurs Can Continue To Unlock Their Best Players<\/h3>\n

San Antonio went back to their bread and butter in New York. Although they were built as a transition team, former coach Gregg Popovich has focused on pace-and-space basketball for decades in San Antonio. To mix a traditional big in Tim Duncan<\/a> and his explosive guards in Manu Ginobili<\/a> and Tony Parker<\/a>, he employed a faster-paced offense filled with cuts, screens, and motion.<\/p>\n

The modern Spurs followed suit last night, lowering the pressure on their ball handlers and instead electing to set screens as soon as the ball crossed half court. From there, the ball would swing quickly to any mismatch the Spurs could manage to create. If there were no mismatch, then the ball handler would look for a screen and continue moving.<\/p>\n

This resulted in great games for most of the Spurs’ key players. Wembanyama, Castle, and Harper all saw solid nights. Fox did not have a great night from the floor, but he did have an important bucket late in Game 3 to help seal the win. By combining their fast-paced transition offense with well-planned movement and screens, the Spurs have a chance to win Game 4 and<\/a>\u00a0take the series back.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No team in NBA history has ever won a Finals series after losing the first two games at home. Now down only one game, the Spurs look to change that. Looking comfortable in the fourth quarter of Game 3, the Spurs gave us a peek at what will decide the series. With much-improved games from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5757,"featured_media":199945,"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":[1608,62,34],"tags":[664,49668,407,596,49264,4669],"class_list":["post-199788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-spurs","tag-deaaron-fox","tag-dylan-harper","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-stephon-castle","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Benjamin Yu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199788","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\/5757"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199788"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199948,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199788\/revisions\/199948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}