Knicks face a tall order: Beating Victor Wembanyama and Spurs in NBA Cup final

LAS VEGAS

After the Knicks beat the Orlando Magic on Saturday in the NBA Cup semifinals, Karl-Anthony Towns wandered through the corridors and tunnels behind the court at T-Mobile Arena still wearing the construction vest and hard hat  he’d earned as the defensive player of the game.

After having his defensive failings picked apart by critics for years, who could blame him? And maybe  coach Mike Brown employed a bit of psychology in handing Towns the award in a game in which Mitchell Robinson blocked four shots in 17 minutes and both OG Anunoby and Josh Hart had three steals to go along with a blocked shot.

In front of Towns and the Knicks is a challenge in which  belief might be as important as size or skills. While the Knicks dream of the championship, trophy,  banner and prize pay in Tuesday night’s NBA Cup final, to get all of that, they have to find a way to stop Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.

There is no easy solution or strategy to cope with Wembanyama. He is listed at 7-4 by the NBA, a number no player thinks is real, and it’s the rare case in which they are sure he’s taller than that. He returned to action from a left calf strain and contributed 22 points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench to help the Spurs beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 111-109, in a Cup semifinal game on Saturday.

In his lone appearance against the Knicks last season, Wembanyama had 42 points (including six three-pointers), 18 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots on Christmas Day in the Spurs' 117-114 loss.

“Well, you're not going to be able to guard a guy like that one-on-one,” Brown said. “You try to put length, size, physicality at the point of attack when it comes to him, but it's got to be five guys guarding the basketball at all times. We do that no matter who we're playing, but especially when it comes to a guy like Wemby, because at his size and his skill set, nine times out of 10, he's going to miss because he misses.

“But we have some pretty good defenders with length, and hopefully they can, at the point of attack, try to make it as difficult as possible with him, knowing that they have help behind them.”

When the Knicks faced him last season, they used an assortment of defenders. Towns had the task most of the time. Wembanyama was 0-for-2 (both shots were from beyond the arc) and went scoreless with the 6-7 Anunoby on him. He was 7-for-16 against Towns and 5-for-5 against  Hart. The Knicks didn’t have the 7-foot Robinson that day, and he might be the best matchup physically.

“Just try to make it as difficult as possible,” Anunoby said. “Try not to let him be comfortable. It’s easier said than done. Just try to make things difficult, pressure the ball, the usual stuff. Physicality and then just instincts as well. Just try to make it difficult, really.”

But as Brown said, when Wembanyama misses, it’s basically because he missed, not because you got in his way.

“I mean, yeah. He's 7-5, and he's very talented,” Towns said. “For us, we're going to have to do a good job of executing our defensive game plan and offensively as well. Everything for us is about execution. I think that's what's made us really good recently playing basketball is our execution. So we've just got to go out there and find a way to do that for 48 minutes.”

In his third season, Wembanyama is averaging 25.8 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.5 blocks per game. He led the NBA in blocked shots per game in each of his first two seasons.

“You've got to find ways to pull him away from the basket, and you've got to obviously be smart,” Jalen Brunson said. “You can't just go in there and think no one is going to come and affect the shot. He's great at what he does, and we've just got to be smart as a team, playing off two feet and reading where he is and just trying to get the best shot as possible.”

The Knicks have spent the week here talking about how important the game and the in-season tournament title would be, and there also is the money in front of the team. Players on the winning team Tuesday night will get $530,933 and the runner-up will earn $212,373. Both figures are a huge bonus, particularly for the players on the back end of the roster (two-way players receive half of that number).

"We feel like we deserve to be here,” Brown said. “We want to take advantage of being here by going out and trying to get this win.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.