Karl-Anthony Towns thinks the Spurs’ biggest Finals problem came down to age.
San Antonio spent much of the 2026 NBA Playoffs brushing off the talk about its lack of postseason experience, and for a while the young roster made that noise look foolish. The Spurs kept winning, kept advancing, and eventually pushed all the way to the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks.
But once the Finals arrived, the inexperience everyone had been pointing to started showing up in the worst possible way. San Antonio kept building big first-half leads, only to watch New York chip away and finish the job. Towns, one of the central figures in the Knicks’ run, believes the difference was pretty simple: the Knicks were the steadier, more mature group.
The contrast between the teams was obvious. New York had veterans in their late 20s and 30s, while San Antonio’s only real seasoned voices beyond former champions Harrison Barnes and Luke Kornet were limited. The Spurs did have a promising young core in Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper, but those three had just six combined NBA seasons between them.
Even so, Towns said the Knicks never approached those moments like a team trying to survive.
“I think sometimes when you’re a young team you look to not lose the game, and we were looking to win the game. That’s what made us bring such aggression to the game, and I think they were just trying to protect the lead," Towns said about the Spurs' problem on The New York Times' The Interview.
That showed up most clearly in Game 4, when the Spurs blew a 29-point lead.
Towns’ read on the series was blunt, and it lined up with the way the Finals played out. The Spurs were talented enough to get there, but the Knicks handled the pressure better when the games tightened.
For San Antonio, the lesson was harsh. For New York, it was another sign that experience still matters when the stage gets biggest.
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