NBA Playoff Takeaways: Victor Wembanyama’s Signature Game Propels Spurs; Knicks Rout 76ers Again

The Friday night slate of the 2026 NBA playoffs delivered.

The Knicks continued to do what they do best, cooling off an early 76ers surge and cruising to a comfortable 108–94 victory at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Jalen Brunson had 33 points as New York continued its stress-free jaunt through the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Over at Target Center in Minneapolis, it was the Victor Wembanyama show. After watching Anthony Edwards steal a game in San Antonio on Monday, Wembanyama returned the favor in the Spurs’ 115–108 victory to take a 2–1 series lead over the Timberwolves.

Here is one takeaway for each team in Game 3:

Victor Wembanyama does it all

If there's such a thing as a signature game just seven appearances into a player's playoff career, we’d like to label Wembanyama's performance Friday night as just that.

In 37 minutes, Wembanyama tallied 39 points on 13-of-18 shooting to go with 15 rebounds and five blocks. But it’s the way he finished the game that was most impressive.

The Spurs have had the Wolves on the ropes before. In fact, in all six matchups between the two teams this season, San Antonio has led entering the fourth quarter. But the Wolves outscored the Spurs by 17, 15 and nine points in the fourth quarters of their regular-season clashes.

Wembanyama made sure that didn’t happen in Game 3.

The 7’4” phenom played 10:42 in that fourth quarter and scored 16 of the Spurs’ 29 points on 5-of-7 shooting. He all but clinched the win with one particular sequence around the four-minute mark.

With just under four minutes to play and the Spurs clinging to a four-point lead, Wembanyama spun around in the paint and hit a Dirk Nowitzki-like fadeaway jumper in the face of his longtime mentor Rudy Gobert. When Wolves center Naz Reid answered with a three-pointer on the other end, Wemby then nailed a cold-blooded trey to keep San Antonio’s lead at six.

The Spurs might have looked inexperienced in their Game 1 loss. But in Game 3, Wembanyama played like a grizzled playoff veteran as he stood out and what will surely be one of many signature playoff games.

The Timberwolves need more from Jaden McDaniels

McDaniels was a hero in the Wolves’ opening series against the Nuggets. He bothered Nikola Jokić just enough, called out Denver’s entire roster for being poor defenders and backed up those comments by ending their season with a 32-piece in Game 6. 

The second round, however, hasn’t been the same story. McDaniels was fine in Game 1 but scored a playoff-low 12 points in Game 2. On Friday night, he was ice cold, starting 1-for-8 from the field and finishing 5-for-22 for 17 points. 

Outside shooting has been an issue for McDaniels during this playoff run. He entered the night an abysmal 2-for-21 beyond the arc after shooting a career-high 41.2% in 73 regular-season games. McDaniels was better Friday night, finishing 3-for-8 from deep, but his cold shooting has been a trend Minnesota needs to end.

With Donte DiVincenzo out, the Wolves need McDaniels to step up as an impact offensive threat every night. Seventeen points on 22 shots just won’t cut it.

The Knicks looked beatable—for about one quarter, anyway

The 76ers started Friday’s Game 3 with a 9–0 lead and had a four-point lead at the end of the first quarter. It looked like Philadelphia had a chance to get back into the series in Joel Embiid’s return, but New York quickly put an end to that as the Knicks bested the Sixers 33–21 in the second quarter. Karl-Anthony Towns was in foul trouble for much of the game after earning a few quick whistles in the first quarter, but that turned out to be no issue as Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges led the way with Towns on the bench and OG Anunoby out with a hamstring injury.

Towns had just eight points Friday, but Brunson led the way with 33 points along with 23 from Bridges. Landry Shamet was huge for New York with 15 points off the bench as Philly’s reserves struggled as a whole. The 108–94 win continued a dominant stretch for New York, which has won its past five games by a whopping 139 points combined.

Philadelphia needs more help from its bench

The Sixers’ bench was held scoreless until the fourth quarter, which simply won’t get it done at this stage of the playoffs. Philly has the fewest bench points per game of any team left in the playoffs with just 17.6 points per night. The Spurs’ bench, meanwhile, has scored 39.6 points per game and Oklahoma City’s contributes 36.7, the two highest marks thus far of any teams left standing.

Jared McCain, who Philly dealt at the trade deadline for minimal draft capital. has been effective off the bench for the Thunder. Down 3–0, it’s likely too little, too late for the Sixers. But some help off the bench would go a long way with almost everything resting on the shoulders of Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Paul George.

Catch up on Sports Illustrated’s live blog of the Game 3 action on Friday night:

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