The 1 Change Victor Wembanyama Just Made To Save Spurs From 0-3 NBA Finals Disaster

Put the brooms away, New York Knicks fans.

Victor Wembanyama has finally decided to live in the paint.

After the San Antonio Spurs' 115-111 victory at Madison Square Garden in Game 3, a New York championship suddenly feels far from certain.

In the first two games of this series, Wemby shot 40.5 percent from the field and 26.7 percent from three. He attempted 15 total triples. Of his 42 total shots, 22 came from outside the paint.

As a result, the Knicks started the Finals with two road wins, and Karl-Anthony Towns' individual defense was understandably the talk of the NBA world.

But reports of Wemby's demise may have been greatly exaggerated. And his lack of a presence on the inside may have had as much to do with him as it did KAT or the Knicks.

In Game 3, basically from the opening tip through the final buzzer, Wembanyama looked determined to get to the basket, sometimes as a driver, but mostly as a cutter. His teammates clearly wanted him there too. They consistently got the ball to him in the paint, and there weren't really any Knicks who could bother him there.

In Monday's victory, Wemby totaled 32 points on 11-of-18 shooting. He only took four threes (and made half of them). And all but five of his total shot attempts came from, you guessed it, the paint.

The adjustment was so simple it almost seems silly it took him this long to make it, but the Knicks weren't making it easy to get inside. And Wemby has earned plenty of leeway to try to do some damage from the outside.

Instead of leaning into the more finesse approach, allowing Wembanyama to initiate from the perimeter and hoping his jumpers would fall, the Spurs used him a lot more like a traditional big in Game 3.

He was often a rim-runner. When the Knicks switched guards or wings onto him, he immediately slipped to the basket and either caught a lob or lead pass, or he camped out underneath until someone found him.

He typically didn't have to wait long.

Of course, there were other aspects of the game in which the Spurs were clearly better than they were in Games 1 and 2.

Their defense remained hyper-physical, but it came with more focus on Monday. Even when the Knicks had the ball whizzing all over the floor, San Antonio's athletic, lengthy guards and wings were usually able to rotate and be where the ball was on the catch or shortly thereafter.

Stephon Castle had a huge individual game, too. He was a force on offense in the first half and finished with 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting.

And in addition to perhaps the most under-discussed story of the series so far, Jalen Brunson had another flat-out bad night. For the third time in three games, he shot under 50 percent from the field. Monday, he also had five turnovers and five threes. Every time he has the ball against the overly handsy defense of Castle, Dylan Harper or really whoever winds up on him, it feels like there's a solid chance something will go wrong for New York.

But above all else, San Antonio's win and the potential shift in this series were because of Wembanyama reasserting himself in the "best in the world" argument and remembering he's half a foot taller than the biggest Knick.

The Spurs still have a long, steep uphill climb to actually win this series. They're down 2-1 with another game at MSG before the series moves back to San Antonio. The Knicks may try to meet Wemby's force (which has sometimes crossed the line) with a little more physicality of their own. They may be less willing to give up switches to him. New York could play more through Karl-Anthony Towns to try to neutralize the effect of Castle and Harper on Brunson.

But ultimately, they could also be up against the single most unique matchup problem in the history of the NBA. On nights when Wembanyama is determined to dominate inside, the Spurs are nearly impossible to beat.

Wemby made nine twos on Monday. It was the 14th time he's hit that mark during this campaign (when you combine the regular and postseason), and San Antonio is now 12-2 in those games.