In 1993, Chris Webber called a timeout he didn’t have in the NCAA championship game. In 2018, JR Smith forgot the score in Game 1 of the Finals. While what happened with 12.7 seconds left on Friday night in San Antonio is not quite at that level, but it will be replayed for a long time regardless.

With the score tied at 104-104, Victor Wembanyama grabbed his ninth rebound off a Jalen Brunson miss and immediately looked to push. What the cameras caught in that same instant was Stephon Castle waving him down, trying to tell Wembanyama to slow up, to give him space to operate. Wembanyama took one dribble and fired a pass that bounced directly off Castle’s back. Brunson scooped it up, drew the foul, and made the free throw that decided the series-threatening 105-104 loss. Castle explained afterward what he was doing in that moment:

“I didn’t see him throw it to me. I see Vic has the ball, tie game. I was just trying to give Vic space.”

The play wasn’t a freak accident. It was the product of a player whose game-speed processing failed him at the worst possible moment and a pattern, however nascent, is starting to form.

In Game 1, Wembanyama shot 6-of-21 and coughed it up six times. He was better in Game 2, shooting 11-of-21 and showing far more composure for 39 minutes and 50 seconds. The final ten seconds are what the series will remember.

The Spurs had just completed one of the more remarkable swings of this postseason. They erased a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit in six minutes to pull level with the Knicks. Wemby, who had been virtually invisible in the first half with just seven points on four shots, had scored 22 in the second half alone to drag San Antonio back, making the turnover’s timing all the more devastating.

“I threw that one away,” he said after the loss. “I messed up. We needed to win that game. This game was ours. But at this point, it’s done. Am I going to regret it? Yes, of course. Am I going to use that to fuel me and to fuel us next game? Absolutely.”

The final sequence went: a missed 17-footer, a turnover off Castle’s back, a foul on Brunson, and a missed last-gasp 20-footer over Mitchell Robinson that hit the back of the rim.

These weren’t isolated lapses. It showed a young superstar losing the thread when the game tightened, when it mattered the most. Wembanyama admitted the whole closing stretch was beyond his grasp in the moment. 

“I’m still very blurry, and that’s the whole problem,” he said. “I need to have more poise, more control over the game. That’s the general image.” Spurs head coach, Mitch Johnson, was equally candid about the first half, “Four shots in a half on this stage is not acceptable.”

A 0–2 Hole, and Why San Antonio and Wembanyama Still Believe

No team in NBA Finals history has come back from 0-2 to win without the series going the distance. And the Spurs now head to Madison Square Garden for Game 3 on Monday, where President Trump, a New York native, is expected to attend.

Wembanyama’s own self-assessment was equally unsparing:

“Personally, I think I could’ve been better from recovering from the high of the Conference Finals, but here we are. We can’t change the past. We’re already focused on Game 3.”

The stat line reads fine on paper. 29 points, nine rebounds, four blocks, two steals, plus-six in 40 minutes. But box scores don’t capture how a team looks stuck in amber for long stretches, watching shot-clock seconds bleed out before someone settles for a contested mid-range look.

Outside their opening surge and the 9-0 run – fourth-quarter comeback, the Spurs have been exactly that: a transition team with nowhere to run, funneled into the halfcourt against a New York defense that doesn’t give you anything clean and doesn’t panic when you make noise.

Wemby even admitted that the KAT matchup is taking its toll as the series plays on: 

“It’s very different from previous series. It’s bringing us into difficult areas because they’re good players. We need to figure it out.”

What San Antonio is really asking is whether their franchise player can do something no 22-year-old has had to do before. Dig out of a 0-2 Finals hole on the road, against a defense that has exposed every hesitation in his game.

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon summed up the mindset heading into Game 3:

“Victor Wembanyama over and over again has done things we have never seen before. What did he tell Malika? ‘If you don’t know something’s impossible, you can do the impossible.’”

Castle carried that same confidence despite the team falling behind 0-2 in the series.

“This type of predicament is going to be tough, but I don’t think it’s anything we can’t handle.”

The belief was there Friday night, but it didn’t translate into a win. Now the focus shifts back to Wembanyama. If he can stay patient, trust the flow of the game and avoid forcing the action, the Spurs may still have a chance to make this series competitive.