SAN ANTONIO — If it weren’t about 100 degrees here in southwest Texas, the San Antonio Spurs’ jerseys might still be wet from their tears of joy from Saturday night.
The page has turned, and San Antonio, with its lanky, 22-year-old dynamo Victor Wembanyama leading the way, is back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014, with Game 1 against the New York Knicks set for 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. But the Spurs admitted on the eve of Game 1 that they are still getting over the big fish they caught just to get here — defending champion Oklahoma City — by winning games 6 and 7 of the Western Conference finals.
“Coming back down from this is a challenge. It’s not done yet,” Wembanyama said Tuesday during finals media day. “We still need to really come back down to Earth and realize we haven’t done the hardest (thing) yet. The job isn’t done at all. So we still got about, I don’t know, what time is it, like 30-plus hours to recenter.”
The Spurs beat the Thunder, 111-103, on Saturday in a thrilling Game 7 in which San Antonio built multiple big leads, only to watch Oklahoma City fight its way back to within striking distance. When it ended, Wembanyama openly wept on the Paycom Center court as his teammates celebrated with him and the Thunder congratulated him on the series triumph.
Wemby, who is averaging 23.2 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks in his first NBA postseason, said he saw former coach Gregg Popovich as soon as the Spurs landed at home following their Game 7 triumph, and described the emotions from the win as “really something I haven’t felt in a while.”
By beating the Thunder and two-time reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Spurs ensured there would be a new champion for the eighth consecutive season, the league’s longest stretch without a back-to-back winner.
“We didn’t get here to say, we’re the Western Conference finals champions,” Spurs guard Devin Vassell said. “We want to sit here and say we’re the NBA champions, we won the finals. It was great while it lasted, but we’re ready for the next chapter.”
For a third consecutive series, the Knicks — who have won 11 consecutive playoff games — are facing an opponent that needed to win Game 7 to advance. They sat around and waited for Philadelphia, then dismantled the 76ers. And then, after another lengthy layoff waiting for the Cleveland Cavaliers to beat Detroit in Game 7, the Knicks came from 22 points down with about eight minutes left in the fourth quarter to send Game 1 of the East finals into overtime, where New York won it. The Knicks swept the Cavs by a total of 77 points.
“It’s a great team of experienced guys who are not here by chance, but by relentless effort over the years,” Wembanyama said of the Knicks. “Very different career paths for all of them. They’re right where they’re supposed to be, in my opinion. All of them are going to be super hungry in their own way.”
The Knicks and Spurs met for the NBA Cup finals in December, a single game that was won by New York. The Knicks, therefore, can become the first team in the Cup’s short history to win a league championship in the same season.
New York’s Jalen Brunson, the East finals MVP, is averaging 26.9 points and 6.6 assists this postseason. He said his first finals game “is definitely going to be heightened, just because of everything that goes on around it.”
At 6-foot-2, Brunson is at least 14 inches shorter than Wembanyama (listed at 7-4). He was equally respectful of Wemby as the Spurs and French star was of the Knicks.
“Watching him as a player, it’s pretty unbelievable,” Brunson said. “The things he’s able to do on both sides of the ball, just, obviously, people have never really seen before for a person of his size, so it’s incredible to watch.”