Knicks & Spurs on Wrong Side of History with Rare Stat, What Did Brunson & Wemby Say After Losses?

Four months after meeting in the NBA Finals, the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs find themselves on the wrong side of history to start the 2026-27 season with both teams sitting at 0-2 after their first two games.

Per ESPN Insights, this marks the third time in NBA history that the two reigning conference champions lost their first two games the next season.

Overreacting to every NBA team's first game

The Knicks fell to 0-2 with a 107-103 loss to the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. The Spurs lost 114-110 to the Houston Rockets on Friday, dropping each off their first two games at home after going 32-8 at Frost Bank Center last season.

Coming out of the Knicks' loss against Boston, Jalen Brunson was able to find some positive takeaways from their performance relative to how they played in Tuesday's opener against the Philadelphia 76ers.

"I think we took a stride, just not big enough strides," Brunson told reporters . "There's positives and negatives to take from this game. We know what we have to do, and the things I think are glaring to us are controllable. So that's a positive we can take from this."

The Spurs' loss was highlighted by Victor Wembanyama's last-second layup that would have tied the game being blocked by Amen Thompson.

Wembanyama admitted afterward that he "would have dunked the ball" instead of going for a layup if he could do that sequence over again.

One thing Wembanyama responded to was a question about closing the game with the three-guard lineup featuring Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle and De'Aaron Fox rather than going with more three-point shooting by keeping at least one of Julian Champagnie or Devin Vassell on the floor.

"I feel like we're comfortable with it," said Wembanyama. "We've finished games with this lineup before and in the playoffs as well. It's not a concern for us."

Other Spurs players offered their assessment of what's gone wrong for the team thus far. Fox attributed it to them having a poor preseason and not being able to sneak up on teams like they did last season:

"I think, starting off, our preseason was s--tty. That's what happened, and we can't try to be a team that's just trying to flip a switch. ... We knew coming into this league that we weren't surprising anybody. I think last year, when we started off 8-0, it was a surprise to people. So coming into this year, I don't think anything that we will do will surprise anybody, and we've seen that already."

Dylan Harper cited "lapses on defense" as an issue they need to correct.

"I feel like we have a lot of lapses on defense," Harper said. "I raise my hand to that, and I feel like I and the team. We all got to get better."

Harper did note they still have 80 games remaining, so there's no panic setting in right now: "It's not going to be perfect from Day 1."

Among the key stats from the slow start for both teams is New York's offense and San Antonio's defense. The Knicks had the fourth-best offense by rating last season; the Spurs were third in defensive rating.

Through two games this season, the Knicks rank 20th on offense and the Spurs are 17th on defense.

It's still very early to have any big takeaways, but the slow starts for two teams that were expected to be among the best in the NBA does open the door for others to take advantage while they search for answers.