Knicks’ physicality surprised Wemby: ‘They made our game ugly’

NEW YORK (AP) — Victor Wembanyama was surprised. His San Antonio Spurs, who were untouchable in February, were unsteady to start March.

San Antonio didn’t respond well to the New York Knicks’ defensive pressure Sunday and had its 11-game winning streak snapped with a 114-89 loss.

The physical defense was nothing the Spurs hadn’t seen before. So Wembanyama expected the Spurs to stand up to it better at Madison Square Garden, but instead they never recovered from the Knicks’ 26-2 run in the first half.

“We gave them life,” Wembanyama said. “We should have been better, especially on that run in the first quarter.”

The Spurs were 11-0 in February, becoming the first team in NBA history to go unbeaten and score at least 110 points in every game while playing at least 10 in a month. It appeared they would keep on rolling when they raced to a 19-7 lead Sunday.

But the Knicks shut them down from there, changing the game with their big run and holding the Spurs to their lowest point total of the season.

“I was surprised, yeah,” Wembanyama said. “It feels like they’re a good basketball team, they are good actual basketball players. They’re not the nastiest, ugly team, you know? They’re not an ugly team to watch but they made our game ugly.”

Wembanyama had 25 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots, bouncing back offensively after getting held to 12 points in each of the last two games. But he committed seven turnovers and blamed himself for playing too hesitantly, especially with his 3-point shooting. He was 1 for 7 behind the arc.

He also said he made a mistake on a play that both he and Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said was a pivotal one. The Spurs failed to come up with the rebound when Knicks center Mitchell Robinson missed a free throw with San Antonio leading 21-14 late in the first quarter. New York then finished the period with an 8-0 run to take a lead and then poured it on early in the second.

Before that, Johnson said “the first 10 minutes roughly couldn’t have gone almost any better for us.” Afterward, his team hardly resembled the one that had surged into the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

“I think if you watched us even a little bit this year, the best version of us is fast, activity, space, pace,” Johnson said, “whether that’s ball movement, body movement or a combination of. And at that point through that stretch we were it felt like in quicksand a lot, both ways.”

But Wembanyama quickly swatted away any panic after the Spurs’ first loss since Jan. 31 at Charlotte.

“No, I don’t see any regression,” the All-Star center said. “I think it’s good for us to see this kind of adversity.”

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