As spectacular as he's often been on the court, San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama has displayed introspection and understanding beyond his years. We saw another example following the Spurs 125-120 loss to Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
“It's a very special team to play against.”
That was just his starting point. Wemby went into much more detail.
“I guess communication goes into it, for sure. But, also trusting each other, trusting the game plan. I can remember moments, whether it's myself or my teammates, doing things on the court out of fear, out of a lack of trust. Maybe that my teammate is not going be there or that the person I don't see, in the back of my head is going to do their job and I need to rotate or need to stay home.”
One of the league's top teams through the first three weeks of the season, Wemby's Spurs fell short against a franchise that is three years removed from it's fourth NBA championship and sixth Finals appearance since 2015. It's a notion not lost on San Antonio's generational talent.
“I mean, even before getting to the league I knew from watching the Warriors for years and years, when they've got the momentum they're really good,” Wembanyama said. “So, it's hard to stop them. You need to keep them in the first gear.”
Victor Wembanyama details Spurs struggles in loss to Warriors
After the Spurs held the Warriors to 14 points in the first quarter, Golden State ran off 35, 43 and 33 points in remaining periods, outscoring the Silver and Black by 15 in a critical third quarter. When told that star teammate De'Aaron Fox said that communication breakdowns on defense led to their woes, Wemby didn't object.
“Part of it, for sure. For sure, more discipline. Frustrating part as well 'cause sometimes it feels like there's stuff you can't control, but we've got to be more disciplined.”
The Spurs' generational talent, who along with Stephon Castle became the Spurs first teammates to notch a triple-double in the same game, noticed offensive mistakes as well. Though, he acknowledged that on a night in which they scored 120, it wasn't their biggest issue.
“I think we go back to what we do well so far, what we know the most. “With our lineups right now, it's not too hard to find advantageous match-ups for us. So, this is what we need to go back to. I don't think we necessarily did a bad job of it on offense,” Wemby said before pivoting. “But on defense, playing against this team is different than playing against any other team.”
“Curry had 46,” the Spurs' leading scorer continued. “The game was played for 48 minutes and we didn't do our job. We did a good job at times, but not for 48 and when it comes to finishing games and playing the whole 48, this is the type of match-up where they can really make you pay for mistakes.”
The Spurs get another chance at Curry and the Warriors right away when they'll meet for the second time in three days in an NBA Cup tilt on Friday.
“I guess it also goes back to maturity and trusting the process, but it's a good test to play against this team. We need that,” the 2023 first overall draft pick revealed.
“We'll learn from it.”
The rest of us will find out quickly.
