Victor Wembanyama: Knicks Didn’t Play ‘Better Basketball’ Than Spurs in Christmas Win

Despite a dominant game from Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs didn’t have enough to get past the New York Knicks on Christmas Day.

Wembanyama, who had 42 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks in his first-ever Christmas game, said the loss had less to do with the Knicks playing “better basketball” than the Spurs and more to do with San Antonio giving the game away in the final moments.

“I don’t think it was a game about momentum — I think it was a game about being dawgs,” Wembanyama said, per The Athletic’s Joe Vardon. “When the clock starts going down under five minutes, three minutes, we let them get some rebounds on us. We let them move us a little too much. They didn’t win against us because they played better basketball.”

The Spurs and Knicks were tied heading into the final three minutes, but a Miles McBride three-pointer gave New York a 112-109 lead and San Antonio never led again. Though the Knicks led by six in the final minute, the Spurs cut the lead to three and would have had the chance to tie in the final seconds, but back-to-back offensive rebounds from New York prevented them from taking another shot.

Though a win wasn’t in his cards, Wembanyama had a historic night. He smashed the Spurs’ Christmas Day scoring record and scored the third-most points in a Christmas debut, only behind Wilt Chamberlain (45) and Tracy McGrady (43).