NBA.com writers picked out the Spurs’ and Knicks’ biggest edges before Wednesday’s Finals Game 4 in New York, and the clearest one belonged to Victor Wembanyama. San Antonio’s center has gone from 26 points in Game 1 to 29 in Game 2 and 32 in Game 3, turning a slow start into the kind of run that can tilt a series.
The numbers show how fast Wembanyama has changed the shape of the matchup. His field-goal rate climbed from 28.6% to 52.4% and then 61.1%, while his 3-point shooting rose from 22.2% to 33.3% and then 50%. His plus/minus moved from minus-3 to plus-6 and plus-7, and he cut his 3-point attempts from nine to six to four as the Spurs leaned into cleaner looks and tighter control.
That surge matters because the conversation around Game 4 is not just about who is playing well, but about which side has the sharper path to control the game. San Antonio’s case starts with Wembanyama, who also slashed his turnovers from 10 in San Antonio to one in the Spurs’ Game 3 win. For a player whose length and skill set already force adjustments, the speed with which he has absorbed lessons from one game to the next is becoming the defining feature of the series.
New York’s edge is less glamorous, but it may be just as real. The Knicks entered Game 4 with the benefit of a defeat that can sting into focus: their Game 3 loss ended a 13-game playoff winning streak and left them with a correction opportunity at home. They also came in fresher than San Antonio, having played four fewer games and nearly 200 fewer postseason minutes, 821 to 1,018, while carrying nine players averaging at least 10 minutes per game to the Spurs’ seven. Their reserves had outscored San Antonio’s 77-64 through three games, a plus-13 swing that can matter when legs start to go late.
That rest advantage is real, but so is the contradiction inside it. The Knicks were the deeper and fresher team, yet the immediate fuel for Game 4 was not a strategic edge so much as irritation, because the loss in Game 3 stripped away the cushion of 13 straight playoff victories. They had also swept the previous two rounds, so this was the first time in a while that they were forced to respond rather than cruise.
The pressure point on the floor is Jalen Brunson, whom Spurs guards Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper have made work harder for his shots. San Antonio has used young, quick, physical perimeter defenders to keep him from getting comfortable, the same kind of disruptive approach it used against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the Western Conference Finals. That history matters because it suggests the Spurs believe the path to another win runs through the same kind of pressure, even if Jalen Williams was missing for much of that earlier series.
Game 4 was the last Finals game coming on just one day of rest before the schedule opens up to two days off between later games. That gives both sides a breather after Wednesday, but it also makes this matchup feel like a hinge point: if Wembanyama keeps rising and the Knicks cannot turn their rest and depth into a cleaner answer for Brunson, the series could shift again in New York before the longer pause arrives.
