The biggest man on the court shrank when the spotlight burned brightest in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Victor Wembanyama struggled down the stretch as the Knicks’ defense came up aces to win 105-95 and take an early edge in the series.
Perhaps the most critical play of the game came with 57 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Knicks clinging to a four-point lead.
Wembanyama dribbled the ball off his foot and turned it over as Josh Hart came away with it and pulled the fastbreak up to drain the clock.
As fate would have it, it was one of the smallest players on the court — Jalen Brunson — who hit the dagger.
Brunson hit his patented pull-up mid-range jumper, thrusting the Knicks to a 101-95 advantage and putting the Spurs in panic mode.
San Antonio raced down the floor, hoping to cut the deficit to three, where Wembanyama came up short again, missing a 27-foot 3-pointer with 32.1 seconds left.
Wembanyama ended the game with 26 points, but went 6-of-21 from the field and 2-for-9 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“Every team guards differently, I’m going to figure it out,” Wembanyama told reporters postgame. “I was bad tonight. It’s not more complicated than that. I think we let that one go.”
In the final six minutes, Wembanyama was called for a travel and went 1-for-5 from the field as the Knicks ended the game on a 12-0 run.
Wembanyama, 22, struggled against the Knicks’ offensive spacing, as Karl-Anthony Towns forced him away from the basket with his passing and shot-making.
The victory for the Knicks puts the Spurs in a tough spot heading into Friday’s Game 2, as Wembanyama will be relied upon to put together a heroic performance as he did in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals against the Thunder.