The Athletic has live coverage of Knicks vs. Spurs in Game 2 of the 2026 NBA Finals.

SAN ANTONIO — This is Wemby’s World, to be sure.

The city, the franchise, its stellar history and fan base — they all now move to Victor Wembanyama’s syncopation, as they all should. The music and chanting and everything that transpires at Frost Bank Center for the home team — along with, again, the winning — is Wemby-centric. The Spurs will not win the NBA championship over a gritty and grimy New York Knicks team if Wembanyama doesn’t play otherworldly basketball, as he has throughout this season and the first three rounds of the playoffs.

He did not in Game 1.

But the Spurs also won’t win if they don’t put more faith — and, the ball — in the hands of their two capable point guards, rookie Dylan Harper and veteran De’Aaron Fox, down the stretch. It’s not an either-or. It’s a calibration to make sure the offense is initiated in the best way to manipulate the Knicks’ defense.

Wednesday, San Antonio’s late-game offense ground to a halt. Wembanyama, being Wembanyama, still made a few incredible plays, including an uber-physical and-1 over Karl-Anthony Towns with 3:24 left. Two Wemby free throws a little more than a minute later gave San Antonio a 95-94 lead, but the Spurs didn’t score in the final 2:16 of play in a 105-95 loss.

The Spurs’ ball movement, one of their trademarks all season, ground to a halt as Wembanyama tried to challenge the Knicks’ loaded-up defense. Part of that stemmed from the Spurs not being able to get out in transition, as they had in the first half, but the fourth quarter was also one where the Spurs needed Fox’s trips into the paint and Harper’s amazing-for-a-rookie poise around the basket more than they needed Wembyanama looking to attack off the dribble.

The Spurs scored 27 points in the first 10 and a half minutes of Game 1, getting all manner of great looks. They managed just 68 points in the final 37:30 of play. San Antonio, as it has done at times this season, sat Harper on the bench down the stretch, subbing out of the game for good with 4:04 left in the fourth in favor of Devin Vassell.

“Dylan did not finish the game by nothing he did or did not do,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said Thursday. “It was a decision I made. I understand that there would be logic in having Dylan in that group. I thought that group that was out there did some things during that stretch, and that’s what I rolled with.”

The Spurs have also played Harper, Stephon Castle and Fox together in crunch-time lineups during the postseason, so it’s not like putting the rock in one of Harper’s or Fox’s hands would be new. And Harper, the second pick in last year’s draft, has been more than credible in his NBA postseason debut, including scoring 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor, along with 8 rebounds, in 27 minutes off the bench in Game 1.

“I feel like everyone wants to be out there in those times and close the game out,” Harper said Thursday. “But, I mean, we won 62 games, we made it this far. So I’m going to keep on trusting the coaching staff, trusting Mitch, and just having that trust that they know what’s best for the team. And if they think that’s the best thing for the team and helps us win the most, then I’m all for it.”

Harper has been everything he was advertised to be coming out of Rutgers: a smooth, efficient point guard with franchise-player potential. Fox, acquired from the Kings in February of 2025, has been inconsistent at times while he adjusts from a team where he was expected to be a primary scorer to one where everybody eats.

The noise from some quarters that the Spurs must ultimately pick between Harper or Fox as a primary ballhandler ignores the team’s storied history.

Hall of Fame guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili flourished together for 15 seasons, with Ginobili stunting his likely production had he demanded starter’s minutes by agreeing to come off the bench for Gregg Popovich for the bulk of his career. It was not easy for him to accept, but he did it — and still got to Springfield.

“It was not (like) I was given an option; it was, you’re f—ing coming off the bench,” Ginobili told The Athletic in 2024.

“I thought it was unfair,” Ginobili said. “I didn’t love it. I understood it, sort of. I said, ‘All right, he’s the coach, and I’ll run with it. I’ll try to be the most productive I can be.’ So at the beginning, I didn’t like it. It took me a few months, maybe a whole season, I don’t remember exactly. And then, I think I went back to being a starter, briefly. And for a few years, once a year, he would come to me and say, ‘Manu, we need to (do it again).’ And then I started to say, ‘OK Pop, no problem; I’ll be fine, if you think it’s the right way.’ The part of starting that I didn’t love is that the game started too slow, that we needed to go through Tim (Duncan) a lot early, then Tony had the ball in his hands. So I felt like going back to the bench at minute six, I didn’t do s–t. And I was, like, pissed.”

This season, the Spurs were in the top 10 in assists per game, at more than 28. Through the first three rounds of the playoffs, they still distributed more than 25 dimes per contest. But in Game 1 against New York, that total plummeted to 16. Not nearly good enough. The ball didn’t move, so the Knicks didn’t have to, either. Allowing the likes of Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges free rein to rake at drivers or on post-ups is chum in the Knicks’ defensive waters.

“You have to have a feel for it and see who’s got it going, who’s got the rhythm,” Castle said after Game 1. “Matchups are definitely important, too. That’s why it’s always beneficial when a couple of us are out there together. Vic creates advantages whether he’s on the ball or off the ball, so (we’re) just really trying to make the right play for the possession.”

It’s not coincidence the Spurs’ turnover hemorrhage in the first two games of the Western Conference finals series with the Oklahoma City Thunder slowed dramatically after Fox returned from the high ankle sprain he suffered against the Timberwolves in the second round. Fox struggled shooting the ball in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday, going just 3-of-13 from the floor, but a lot of the misses were shots Fox normally makes in his sleep.

The sweet spot, then, is letting Fox and Harper dictate the terms of the possession with their ballhandling and/or size, force the Knicks to slide their feet in response, then incorporate Wembanyama on the move, where his length lets him inhale the space towards the basket. The Spurs were just 6-of-21 from the floor in the fourth quarter, and 2-of-10 on 3s, with five turnovers.

“There is a balance to it,” Fox said Thursday. “But for us, when we have ball movement, getting the defense to rotate, it naturally comes back to the guys that it’s supposed to come back to. We’re not necessarily thinking, obviously, unless Vic’s like, ‘I want the ball,’ or he’s getting to a spot and he’s demanding the ball. Other than that, we have a pretty free-flowing offense, where paint touches are key. And then when we get the defense moving, Vic gets easy shots. He doesn’t have to go one-on-one or have to fight the physicality the whole time. That, or Dylan gets a layup. Or Dev gets a 3.”

The goal is to put the Knicks on their heels for multiple rotations, rather than allowing them to see what’s coming or react to a single pass and shot. It doesn’t matter if that shot is a corner 3 if New York can close out on the shooter easily.

“The defense isn’t moving when that happens,” Spurs’ swingman Julian Champagnie said. “We want to get the defense in rotations. That’s how you end up getting open 3s, and then you get to drive and make a read. And that’s kind of where the best 3s come from.”

Everyone in this town knows this Spurs team goes as Wembanyama goes. That doesn’t change just because it’s the NBA Finals, or because the Spurs are playing a Knicks team that hasn’t lost a game in a month. The stakes are higher, but the method for achieving them is the same.

Get the ball moving.