Victor Wembanyama put up another stat line that registers as a once-in-a-season night – for players special enough to produce them. Yet, these sorts of performances are becoming far from rare for the generational talent. Wemby scored 33 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, blocked seven shots and dished out seven assists in a 122-115 overtime victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night.
It's his fifth game of 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, 5+ assists, and 5+ blocks this season. NBA writer and podcaster Brett Usher says that no other player has more than two such games this season.
“He’s going to show us things that none of us have ever seen before here and there, and that was one of them,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, alluding to a Wembanyama reverse alley-oop dunk.
Victor Wembanyama's continued ascension for the Spurs
ClutchPoints asked the 20-year-old rookie if he feels as if he's hit another gear in a season that's seen him improve since day one.
“Yeah. There are always steps. Looking back on the season, I can see our progression, but also my progression,” Wembanyama said. “Even though it feels like it’s little by little every game, when you do it every day, after a whole season, it adds up to something big. This is stuff I wouldn’t have been able to do in the first game of the season. I’m proud of the way we got better.”
“He's a multi-talented young man. He's getting more and more solid, more and more discipline,” Popovich added.
“Getting more and more used to the contact that he gets, the attention that he gets, it's a tough position for him to be in, but he handles it with class, and with pretty good smarts,” the Hall of Fame coach continued.
“Victor's Victor. We have leaders on the team and he leads in his own way. Sometimes it's vocal, sometimes it's in other ways but he's definitely one of the leaders on the team,” Spurs forward Keldon Johnson said.
Johnson was third on the team with 24 points off the bench, matching his scoring rank on the squad for the season. Devin Vassell added 25, also finishing where he usually does among their scoring hierarchy. Including Johnson's three-pointer with 1:04 left in regulation that gave the Spurs a 110-107 lead and Vassell's five points in the extra period, both hit crucial shots and made other key plays down the stretch.
Of course, the same can be said about Wembanyama. The top pick in this past summer's draft scored nine points in the fourth quarter, and he added another two baskets and a game-altering block of a Dennis Schroder layup with 25.1 seconds left in overtime. Initially ruled a goal-tend, it was overruled and enabled San Antonio to maintain a one point lead. A Johnson layup five seconds later gave the Silver and Black a cushion they wouldn't lose.
And for the packed stat sheet and his moments in crunch time, it's that aspect that highlighted Wembanyama's night.
“I love it. It’s those moments where we progress, where we get better, rather than any other moment in the game. So, it’s really, really enjoyable. Especially when we win.”
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