Hector Ledesma Articles - Page 19

Only three times through the first 14 games of his promising San Antonio Spurs career has Victor Wembanyama failed to score at least 12 points, and two of those outings have come against the Los Angeles Clippers. Only once this season has Wemby recorded less than five rebounds. It just happened against the Clips. Ten […]

They’re forever linked. Partners for runs to the NBA Finals, including a team performance in 2014 that registers in the annals of basketball lore…to recent losing streaks at the start of seasons that come with tons of excitement. It’s impossible to tell Kawhi Leonard’s story without the San Antonio Spurs. And it’s quite possible that […]

In a season that has already seen a share of bad losses, the San Antonio Spurs just suffered what may have been their worst of the young 2023-24 campaign. Already without star Ja Morant, who is serving a 25-game NBA suspension for flashing a gun on social media during the offseason, the Memphis Grizzlies were […]

Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs found themselves on the wrong end of a 129-120 loss to the Sacramento Kings Friday night. It continues several trends for the Silver and Black. Their seventh straight setback also signified their third straight defeat in the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament. They’re now 0-2 when playing in their  […]

“He takes the worst shots ever.” Those are Hall-of- Famer Charles Barkley’s words describing San Antonio Spurs guard Devin Vassell. They came during Tuesday night’s broadcast of the Silver and Black’s blowout to Oklahoma City in a game that doubled as an NBA In-Season Tournament contest for both. Excluding a game at New York in […]

The San Antonio Spurs resume the NBA In-Season Tournament on Friday. Winless in two tournament games so far, they face the Sacramento Kings, the only team in Group C that’s played just one game in the inaugural competition. The Oklahoma City Thunder are the lone team in the group that’s played three tourney games. The Minnesota […]

Perhaps most telling about Victor Wembanyama’s first three weeks in the NBA is that the games that don’t qualify as good, don’t do so because they weren’t great. He scored 18 in a 115-114 October 31 win at Phoenix, put up 20 but didn’t get the ball down the stretch in an overtime loss to […]

“F**k this s**t.” It is safe to assume the phrase had never before been uttered on the record by any member of the San Antonio Spurs. It wasn’t said in frustration following Tuesday night’s 36 point loss in Oklahoma City. The expletive sandwich came over the weekend after practice when Jeremy Sochan responded to questions […]

Well, Victor Wembanyama vs. Chet Holmgren should turn into a rivalry that we’ll enjoy for the next decade or so. That’s all we have to look forward to right now. The first official NBA meeting between Wembanyama and Holmgren fell well short of their collective shadows. The San Antonio Spurs flopped again, 123-87 in Oklahoma […]

Victor Wembanyama has been here before. Though he’s set to match up in the NBA with Chet Holmgren for the first time officially in a game Tuesday that’ll also serve as an In-Season Tournament contest, going against the player who comes closest to matching his seven-foot-plus versatility is not foreign to Wemby. 2021 U19 World […]

Which is worse? That the San Antonio Spurs have lost games by 40, 41, and 21 points this season? Or that they’ve blown leads of 27, 22, and 19? Considering they actually won the November 2 game at the Phoenix Suns that saw them squander a 55-28 second-quarter advantage, and considering the difference of these […]

Add it to the reasons Victor Wembanyama is so intriguing. The 7’4 phenom’s performance in the San Antonio Spurs 118-113 loss to the Miami Heat doesn’t register as one of his best performances to start his NBA career. The top overall pick in June’s NBA Draft shot 8-for-22, including struggling on 2-for-9 from three-point land […]

San Antonio Spurs point guard Jeremy Sochan is chiming in on the chatter about his transition to a new role. The second-year player posted on X (followed by the emoji that signifies laughter with tears) late Saturday night, responding to a post from a Spurs fan’s comment that Sochan doesn’t believe he can play the […]

He picked up right where he left off. For Victor Wembanyama’s sake, it’s a good thing we’re not talking about him. While Wemby was coming off perhaps the worst outing of his young NBA career, Devin Vassell teamed with this past June’s top overall pick to lead the San Antonio Spurs in their hard-fought 117-110 […]

The San Antonio Spurs are set for their first NBA In-Season Tournament game. It should prove a tough match-up for Victor Wembanyama and company considering they’ve lost their last three. The Minnesota Timberwolves head into the Frost Bank Center Friday on a four-game win streak that’s included victories over the defending champion Denver Nuggets and […]

It’s going to take time. The fact that not much of the schedule has passed since the San Antonio Spurs last endured such lopsided consecutive losses proves as much. Last March, in the 71st game of the 2022-23 season, Gregg Popovich’s team lost to the New Orleans Pelicans by 35 points. The very next night, […]

Much of the intrigue around Victor Wembanyama centers on what he could be. The tantalizing skill set considering his height is just the starting point. He’s 19 years old and so the imagination will do what imaginations usually do. This much we know now though. When the time comes and Wemby looks back at his […]

What are the odds? Or maybe this is the way it’s supposed to be. 39 years ago to the date that Michael Jordan dazzled in his Madison Square Garden debut, Victor Wembanyama plays his first-ever game at the “Mecca of Basketball.” But, fair or not, it’s another one of the game’s greatest players with whom […]

“It’s just basketball.” One of the most nuanced men in the NBA, probably all of sports, isn’t so complex when it comes to the game in which he’s made his legend. The military veteran who considered a career in the CIA and frequently publicly expresses critical thoughts on societal and political matters, often dismisses the […]

A little more than 24 hours and five quarters earlier, the San Antonio Spurs enjoyed a double-digit lead and were looking to close out their third straight victory.  Even more impressive when you consider the Spurs picked up two wins against the daunted Phoenix Suns. The nearly 1,200 miles between San Antonio and Indianapolis represented […]

As the San Antonio Spurs get set for their first back-to-back of the season, they also face their first set of games without a starter. The organization told ClutchPoints on Saturday morning that Devin Vassell was considered day-to-day with a mild groin strain after he exited Thursday’s 132-121 win in Phoenix. Immediately following that game, […]

Victor Wembanyama’s fourth quarter brilliance in Thursday’s  San Antonio Spurs victory over the Phoenix Suns overshadowed a blown 22-point lead. There was no escaping the loss of another lead of more than 20 points, though, because there were no Wembanyama heroics this time. After all, Wemby hardly saw the ball in the closing moments of […]

Five games into his first NBA season, guess who leads the San Antonio Spurs in scoring? Considering the headline of this piece, you won’t need more than one attempt at the answer: Victor Wembanyama. Not surprised, though? After all, what else would you expect from a generational talent joining a 22-win team? How about this, […]

San Antonio Spurs guard Devin Vassell will miss Sunday’s game against the Toronto Raptors and will be day-to-day moving forward after suffering a groin injury in a thrilling victory over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night, according to Andrew Lopez of ESPN. The Vassell injury was a damper for the Spurs on an otherwise big […]

San Antonio sat in collective disbelief. Efforts aimed at processing what they had just seen in Phoenix actually matched their joy. Because of a national television broadcast, many around the country watched in awe as well. The heralded big man and unanimous top overall pick in the most recent NBA Draft had just put the […]

The term “Big 3” isn’t thrown around San Antonio lightly. In fact, using it in a local basketball context is blasphemous. That said, what Keldon Johnson, Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell showed during Tuesday’s stunning victory over the Phoenix Suns both served as a marker and a preview of what the 2023-24 San Antonio Spurs […]

He’s good for one or two every game. OK, he’s probably good for three or four of them. Actually, he’s good for five – seemingly every outing. And so we present our daily dose of the five ‘Woah!’ and ‘What did I just see’ moments of the latest Victor Wembanyama performance of his fledgling NBA […]

The collective fascination with Victor Wembanyama centers on his combination of size, sharpness and skills. The game’s greatest big men have often featured fantastic footwork with their size, or amazing athleticism for their frame, or supreme skills (shooting, passing) despite their length. However, at 7-foot-3 at least, none have combined the agility, ball handling and […]

The honeymoon period for the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama will probably last all season. And it probably should. While the parallels to David Robinson in 1987 and Tim Duncan in ’97 are undeniable, there’s a stark difference between those franchise altering top overall draft picks and this year’s. No one expects these Spurs […]

Thanks to five NBA championships and numerous Hall of Famers, including four inducted in the last four years, a number of dates stand out in San Antonio Spurs lore. From their title-clinching victories to historic draft nights that landed David Robinson, Tim Duncan and, more recently, Victor Wembanyama, most of those significant dates deliver great […]

Just when Victor Wembanyama critics appeared to be on the brink of collectively exclaiming “I told you so,” the 19-year-old French phenom turned the tables. It’s a measure that spilled onto the court in Friday night’s 126-122 overtime win versus the Houston Rockets and is one of five things to take away from the top […]

Versatility is the name of today’s NBA game. But the San Antonio Spurs may find out that the very chic term, ‘position-less basketball,’ isn’t synonymous with multi-dimensional players finding success in different spots. The team started 6’8, 230 lb Jeremy Sochan as their ‘point guard’ in the season opener. What fans saw was a Spurs […]

A Dallas Mavericks victory versus the San Antonio Spurs isn’t surprising. The Mavs are expected to contend in the West, while the Spurs aren’t in many playoff projections even with the addition of phenom Victor Wembanyama. That said, there were aspects of the Mavs’ 126-119 victory at the newly renamed Frost Bank Center that stood […]

Two Summer League games and four preseason exhibitions later, the long-awaited official debut of Victor Wembanyama came Wednesday night. Plagued by foul trouble, the ballyhooed rookie scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds in only 23 minutes of action during the San Antonio Spurs’ hard-fought 126-119 loss to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. But […]