Barbara Barker: What do you have to say now, Wemby?

SAN ANTONIO — Are you worried now, Victor Wembanyama?

If not, you should be.

The Knicks are not the Minnesota Timberwolves. They are not the Oklahoma City Thunder with that skinny Chet Holmgren you can dunk over.

What the Knicks are is a team that is two wins away from ending your season and winning its first title in 53 years.

The Knicks have done the seemingly impossible. They came into your house and won two games. With their 105-104 victory over your Spurs on Friday night, the Knicks are headed to Madison Square Garden with a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.

Two days after you very publicly shrugged off a bad Game 1 by declaring that you weren’t worried, you crumbled down the stretch, committing a costly turnover and then missing a potential game-winning shot.

The Knicks have won 13 straight games and have the second-longest winning streak in playoff history. They have done it because they have figured out how to stop you when it matters most.

The Knicks, led by Karl-Anthony Towns, made you work for every point early. That fact may have had a lot to do with what happened in the final 9.5 seconds of the game.

You looked tired, and tired players make mistakes like the bad pass you threw that resulted in a turnover and a foul that sent Jalen Brunson to the line for what would become the winning free throw.

You managed to recover enough to get off a decent shot, which wasn’t all that easy to do given the fact that you had to rise over Mitchell Robinson, who already had caused you problems on an earlier possession.

Towns has long been considered one of the best big men in the game. You’ve got to imagine he’s gotten a little weary of hearing all the hype about how you are the future of the league.

Here you are, Victor Wembanyama, in the NBA Finals in your third year in the league. It’s taken Towns 11 seasons to get to the same place, but along the way, he’s learned a few things. How else can you explain the series he is having here?

Towns is no Holmgren. He’s not some thin man you can push around the paint. What he is is a guy so determined to shrug off that label of being soft that he is playing the series of his life. Towns finally has found a way to use his size advantage to make your life complicated. 

Towns not only has made you work for every point, he’s played with force on offense, driving again and again to the basket.

Towns had your number in Game 1, when you shot 6-for-21 from the floor and turned the ball over six times. The Knicks’ defense managed to keep you away from the rim, where you clearly have an advantage over almost everyone else in the league. According to NBA.com, you were 2-for-11 with five turnovers when Towns was your primary defender.

Still, you refused to give him or the Knicks credit after that game.

“We’ve been down in a series before,” you said. “Never in the Finals, obviously. But I’m not kicking myself about anything, really. I’m not worried in the slightest.”

It was a pretty bold proclamation for a 22-year-old, even one who has been labeled by many as the future of basketball. With all the confidence of a grizzled veteran, you admitted that you had a subpar performance and indicated it wasn’t something you intended to have again.

Your stats were better in Game 2. You finished with 29 points, with 10 coming in the final quarter as you helped dig your team out of a 14-point hole. Afterward, you admitted that this opponent is not like others you have played.

“What I think of it? It’s very different from previous series,” you said when asked about Towns’ defense. “It’s bringing us into difficult areas because they’re good players. He’s a good player. Yeah, I mean, we just need to figure it out.”

Figure it out, but you’d better do it fast.

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.