Victor Wembanyama bounced back from his Game 2 blunder with a dominant performance, Stephon Castle capped a big night with some clutch shot-making, and the San Antonio Spurs beat the New York Knicks 115-111 on Monday to cut the Knicks’ NBA Finals series lead to 2-1.

Wembanyama, whose last-minute turnover helped put the Spurs in an 0-2 hole on Friday, responded with 32 points, eight rebounds and six assists while shooting 11 of 18 from the field. He also had three blocked shots and two steals as he earned his first career win in the NBA Finals.

The Knicks mounted a late rally, but Castle rescued a seemingly lost possession with a deep 3-pointer that put the Spurs up 111-104 with 1:53 remaining.

Castle also hit a pair of crucial free throws with seven seconds left to seal the win. He finished with 23 points, five rebounds and five assists.

After New York had cut the deficit to 111-108 on a Jalen Brunson 3-pointer, De’Aaron Fox sank a contested jumper over OG Anunoby from the free throw line with 12 seconds remaining. Fox ended with 12 points and eight assists.

The road team won for the third straight game in these Finals, as the Spurs sent a once-fevered Madison Square Garden crowd home in disappointment.

In his 3 career NBA Finals games, Victor Wembanyama has 85 points and 10 blocks.

The last player to hit each of those marks over a span of three NBA Finals games in a season was Shaquille O'Neal in 2001. pic.twitter.com/HRz3vkqXeS

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) June 9, 2026

Pre-game, the buzz centred on Donald Trump, who became the first sitting President to attend an NBA Finals game. Trump was loudly booed in the arena when he was shown on screen during the national anthem.

After tip, however, it was all hoops.

Wembanyama’s re-commitment to playing in the paint was evident from the start, as the Spurs’ first two buckets came on dunks from the towering Frenchman.

A desperate San Antonio team came out of the gates firing, scoring the first seven points of the game and leading by as many as 12 late in the first quarter.

New York, however, chipped away at their deficit in the second quarter and closed the first half on a 10-1 run to go into halftime with a 64-57 lead.  

The Spurs crawled their way back into the lead by committing just three turnovers and shooting 20 of 24 from the free throw line in the second half.

For the third consecutive game, the Knicks got off to a sluggish start. New York has been outscored by 28 points in first quarters in the Finals.

Only, this time, their attempt at a fourth-quarter rally came up short.

Brunson scored a team-high 32 points and again hit some shots in the clutch, but he finished 11 of 25 from the field.

Anunoby scored 28 points, and Josh Hart had 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists, but the Knicks did not get enough from other key contributors.

Karl-Anthony Towns, whose play in Games 1 and 2 had put him in the early Finals MVP discussion, was fairly quiet, attempting just 10 shots. He finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.

Mikal Bridges had just two points on 1-for-5 shooting in 29 minutes.

Game 4 is in New York on Wednesday, as the Knicks look for their first Finals win at the Garden since 1999.