NEW YORK (AP) — Victor Wembanyama is not shying away from the spotlight in the NBA Finals, and the San Antonio Spurs would not want it any other way.
Less than 48 hours after missing a shot at the end of Game 2 that would have beaten the New York Knicks and evened the series, the 22-year-old big man from France who is becoming the face of the league said the pressure of the situation does not bother him as the Spurs enter Game 3 facing a 2-0 deficit.
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San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama shoots during practice prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama walks off the court as time expires during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series as New York Knicks guard Landry Shamet (44), guard Josh Hart (3), and center Mitchell Robinson (23) celebrate, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama laughs during practice prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama speaks prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama shoots a free throw during the first half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
“There’s really no reason to overthink it,” Wembanyama said Sunday. “This is what I’m built for.”
Wembanyama has not been the problem for the Spurs. He led them with 26 points in the series opener and had a Game 2-high 29 points.
Teammate Keldon Johnson's message after Wembanyama's would-be game-winning jumper clanked off the rim and out is, “Shoot it again.”
“He’s our guy,” Johnson said. "From day one, he’s been our guy. He’s the engine offensively and defensively. You can’t make every game-winner, but you can’t make a shot you don’t take. And we’re living with that shot. Every day of the week, twice on Sundays, we’re living with Vic taking our game-winning shot because that’s our guy and that’s the belief that we have in Victor.”
The belief team-wide is strong, players said before practicing at Madison Square Garden, where they know they'll confront a hostile atmosphere on Monday night. Guard Stephon Castle called each of the first two games at home winnable, but falling short has ratcheted up the urgency.
“Our sense of urgency is probably the highest it’s been all playoffs,” said Castle, who insists his ankle feels better than expected after injuring it Friday night. “I think it’s just human nature to come out with a certain sense of urgency, especially after a loss.”
San Antonio lost back-to-back games to Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals, though that came after winning the opener. The Spurs have not lost three in a row all season.
“If they’re not desperate now, I don’t know,” Knicks guard Deuce McBride said. “They know their backs are against the wall, and they’re going to have to come out and they’re going to have to fight. We’re going to be ready, we’re going to exceed that and we’re going to do everything we can do to bring home a win.”
Trying to turn things around, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson had not yet taken a walk around New York City before running practice Sunday. He and his staff maintained the same routine they've gone through all playoffs.
“You dig into the film, you argue, beat yourself up,” Johnson said. “You give each other feedback, figure out how to help the guys for the next game.”
One of his takeaways is a feeling his team has not played up to its standard as much as New York, which has won 13 in a row. Perhaps going on the road will help.
The Spurs are 6-3 on the road this postseason, including a win in Game 7 of the West finals at the defending champion Thunder. Keldon Johnson said he and his teammates believe they can win “regardless of where we’re playing at, whether it’s here, on Mars, away, home.”
Center Luke Kornet thinks there's something fun about the environment.
“All the adversity, noise and all that stuff just honestly helps you sharpen up and kind of focus even more on the basketball,” said Kornet, who played his first two NBA seasons with the Knicks from 2017-19. “That kind of you-against-everybody-else-in-the-building atmosphere, the pressure kind of brings you together.”
The pressure has never been higher, given that no team in league history has lost the first two games of the finals at home and gone on to win the title. Veteran leaders hope the Spurs can park the past and not dwell on a gut-wrenching defeat.
“The only thing that matters is what’s in front of us right now,” forward Harrison Barnes said. “We can’t take last game and bring it into this game. You can learn from it, but I think the biggest thing for us how do we focus on making the plays, focus in on just how to begin as a team and just going out there and just playing free.”
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San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama shoots during practice prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama walks off the court as time expires during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series as New York Knicks guard Landry Shamet (44), guard Josh Hart (3), and center Mitchell Robinson (23) celebrate, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama laughs during practice prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama speaks prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama shoots a free throw during the first half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the New York Knicks, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Rob Sand rallied a crowd for the first time as the official Democratic nominee for Iowa governor on Sunday, kicking off a countdown to November with the support of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
The race for governor between Sand and Republican Zach Lahn stands to be one of the most competitive in the country as Iowans face a state budget deficit, struggling agricultural economy and cancer crisis. Democrats are putting faith in him to blaze a trail in the state after struggling electorally in recent cycles, hoping his message of unity will resonate with their fellow Iowans.
A few hundred people in Des Moines roared, waved campaign signs and snapped photos as Sand took the stage, a state flag hanging behind him.
“You might think we have a big hill to climb. I've seen bigger,” Sand said. “We're building a coalition of — not red versus blue — but of the well-fed versus the fed-up.”
Sand, who was unopposed on the primary ballot, learned who his opponent would be after Tuesday’s primary settled an unpredictable five-way Republican contest.
The rally was the first one that Tracy Schloss has ever attended. A lifelong Democrat, Schloss said he doesn't like the state's direction after nearly a decade of total Republican control, saying the leaders have “lost sight of the common people.”
“It's time, you gotta step up or the country will still keep going the way it's going," said the 62-year-old retiree from Ankeny, a suburb of Des Moines.
Schloss said he thinks Sand is a “bright spot" who can get voters excited, and he's more optimistic than he's been in recent years that the election will be a success for Democrats.
Iowa has open races for both governor and U.S. senator for the first time since 1968, plus three battleground congressional races. National attention on the state has soared in recent months, drawing President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to Iowa.
Democrats still have a 200,000-person deficit in statewide voter registration, and they are outnumbered in every House district. Sand, along with Senate candidate Josh Turek, say they can win over independents and Republicans who are frustrated with party politics and a Republican trifecta in Washington and Des Moines that they blame for the state's challenges.
Turek will face U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who already has portrayed Turek as a liberal puppet for party leader Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Lahn has also rejected Sand's nonpartisan pitch.
“Rob Sand is not a moderate,” Lahn said in his victory speech Tuesday. “He’s a liberal career politician pretending to be someone he’s not.”
As he has during campaign events over the past year, Sand asked attendees to sing the first verse of “America the Beautiful.” And when he introduced himself, he talked about his upbringing hunting, fishing and going to church.
Even if Sand is elected governor in November, he will likely have to work with Republican majorities in the state House and Senate, which recently passed bills to restrict the executive’s power that outgoing Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law.
Sand said it's good to have balance rather than a political system centered around amassing power and punishing political enemies.
“We have found ourselves in this position because we have too many people who want us to only think about red or blue,” Sand said Sunday. “Red and blue are colors.”
Neither Sand nor Lahn use their party's traditional blue or red in campaign materials, opting instead for green. They both say they aren’t beholden to their party establishments and that Iowans want a new direction, though Lahn’s Republican Party has held a statehouse trifecta for nearly a decade.
Little known before his bid for governor, Lahn made a splash as a business owner criticizing farm consolidation and tax breaks for corporate giants, a regenerative farmer who subscribes to Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement and a former political operative who galvanized Iowa’s conservative grassroots.
Sand’s campaign has given about $750,000 to the Iowa Democratic Party already this cycle, funding that Republicans call hypocritical for a candidate who claims he is not a party man. The Sand campaign says that sum reflects his investment in a state party-run coordinated campaign that will help him get elected as governor, even as it also supports candidates up and down the ballot.
“Rob Sand loves to talk about rising above the ‘two-party system’ — right up until it’s time to campaign, cash checks, and share the stage with Democrat Party insiders," Iowa GOP spokeswoman Jade Cichy said in a statement Sunday.
Beshear, chair of the Democratic Governors Association and a potential presidential candidate in 2028, told a cheering crowd Sunday that he's “all in” for electing Sand.
As Democrats continue to debate what went wrong in 2024 and the direction of the party, Beshear has offered up his own example as the leader of a red state for lessons on how the party can go forward.
“I am living, breathing proof that Democrats can win anywhere, and we should be fighting everywhere,” Beshear told the crowd Sunday.
In addition to rallying with Sand, Beshear also attended a “Beers with Beshear” fundraiser for congressional candidate Sarah Trone Garriott, who wants to unseat Republican Rep. Zach Nunn in the competitive House district that includes Des Moines. Beshear told The Associated Press that he would see Turek, too.
The Democratic Governors Association, which Beshear chairs, gave the Iowa Democratic Party about $140,000 so far this cycle, according to filing reports.
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand speaks during a campaign rally, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand poses for a photo with supporters during a campaign rally, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear poses for a photos during a campaign rally for Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand speaks during a campaign rally, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, left, greets Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear during a campaign rally, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Iowa democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand speaks to media after voting on primary Election Day, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Bryon Houlgrave)
