A dominant Victor Wembanyama powered the San Antonio Spurs to a 115-108 win over Minnesota and a 2-1 lead in their NBA playoff series, as the red-hot New York Knicks beat Philadelphia again for a 3-0 advantage.
A defensive menace all night on Friday, French superstar Wembanyama took a tight, tense and physical game out of the Timberwolves’ grasp with a stunning fourth-quarter offensive, scoring 16 points.
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The 7-foot-4 prodigy, playing his first NBA postseason, finished the night in Minneapolis with 39 points overall, plus 15 rebounds and five blocks.
“I’m built for this. I love this more than anything else,” said Wembanyama.
He added: “We got the talent. We got the depth. We don’t got the experience, but we don’t care … We can go to the very top if we play like tonight consistently.”
Minnesota had been boosted by the return of their own talisman, Anthony Edwards, to the starting lineup.
Edwards shone in the Timberwolves’ game-one upset win but still recovering from a knee injury, had managed just 12 points from the bench in game two’s thrashing.
He immediately returned to inspired form, playing aggressive yet patient basketball to finish with 32 points, 14 rebounds and six assists – but it was ultimately not quite enough.
The Timberwolves started dismally, missing their first 12 field goal attempts.
Wembanyama shone defensively, with two big early blocks setting the tone, and forcing Minnesota to score from outside the paint.
The Timberwolves fought back, and the game was tied 51-51 at halftime.
Superstars Edwards and Wembanyama dominated the first half’s scoring, managing 19 and 16 apiece, with everyone else combined shooting barely 30 percent from the field.
After the break, the game grew angry. As Jaden McDaniels and Dylan Harper tussled for a ball, a falling Harper’s head collided with McDaniels’ knee.
Moments later, McDaniels and Stephon Castle shoved each other, drawing multiple players on both sides into a fracas.
But Wembanyama kept his cool and finished strong, scoring two long-range three-pointers to seal the win.
“Greatness,” said teammate De’Aaron Fox, of Wembanyama’s showing.
“Teams are going to come out here and try to be physical with him. He fights through that, he doesn’t complain, he knows what he’s going to endure,” he added.
“He comes out here and he produces.”
Knicks go 3-0 up
Jalen Brunson starred again as the in-form Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76ers 108-94 to move within one win of the NBA Eastern Conference finals.
It was a sixth straight victory for the Knicks, who have not dropped a game since rallying from 2-1 down in their first-round playoff series with Atlanta.
Having nudged New York across the line in a tense game two, Brunson looked composed as he poured in 33 points and added nine assists.
He was backed up by muscular defensive performances, including a combined 23 rebounds from Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart, to put the Knicks up 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.
No team has ever come back from 3-0 down in a seven-game NBA series.
Playing in front of a raucous home crowd for the first time this series, the Sixers came out with huge energy from tip-off.
Philadelphia’s Paul George had 15 points in the first quarter alone, as his side led by 12 against a Knicks side missing the injured OG Anunoby.
But the Knicks immediately fought back, tightening up defensively and making 33 points while shooting at 57 percent in a stellar second quarter, to lead at halftime.
Towns and a returning Joel Embiid were locked in a feisty physical duel, with each player committing three fouls before the break, in what resembled a wrestling bout at times.
The Sixers briefly closed the gap back to two points late in the third quarter, before missing six straight shots, including a couple of bad airballs.
Powered by another late show by talisman Brunson, the Knicks pulled clear in the final quarter, and the Sixers lost hope.
The third-seeded Knicks will aim to sweep the best-of-seven series when the teams reconvene for Game 4 on Sunday in Philadelphia.
“All you can do is try to get the next one and just see what happens.” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “If you can get one, it turns to 3-1 pretty quick and you don’t have to think about it being 3-0 any more. But we’re really going to have to dig in, regroup, make some adjustments and do things better.”
Embiid said his side cannot “back down” as they face a daunting task.
“You know, [after coming back from 3-1 to beat the Celtics], this is tougher. Just going with the understanding we can’t get it all back in one game,” he said.
“One win, focus on the next one, win the next one, that should be the mentality. That’s the mentality we had last week.”
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