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 as the Spurs blew a 19-point lead in losing their fifth straight game. All that said, Wemby played his best all-around game statistically, scoring 18 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out seven assists.
Let's go into greater detail in our ‘3 Takeaways' from Wembanyama's outing vs. the defending Eastern Conference champions.
Wemby more aggressive – including to start crunch time
Like a boxer who effectively closes out rounds with a flurry, Victor Wembanyama scored four points in a span of 31 seconds to end the first quarter. The two baskets tripled the French star's scoring total to six and helped grow his team's lead to 14.
After quiet second and third quarters, Wemby opened the fourth with a defensive rebound on the first possession before hitting a lefty in the lane. Less than a minute later, he completed an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Malaki Branham. A three-pointer with 9:36 remaining in the game meant Wembanyama had scored seven points inside two and a half minutes.
“Every game is different but it's always one of my priorities to be aggressive. It's always something I think about,” Wembanyama responded when asked by ClutchPoints if he made a concerted effort to play more aggressively on Sunday.
Improved Passing
Not only did Sunday's effort signify Victor Wembanyama's best passing game statistically, but it did so by a mile. The seven assists nearly doubled his previous best passing efforts when he notched four assists in both Friday's loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves and the loss to the Toronto Raptors last Sunday.
Opponents have had success in double-teaming the rookie phenom, often throwing him off by running a second defender at him once he starts to make a move. As the Spurs controlled most of the game vs. the Heat, Wemby found open teammates out of the post and double teams.
Combine his seven assists with 11 rebounds, which fell just one short of his career-high (12 against the Houston Rockets) and an 18-point showing that was within a basket of his 19,7 scoring average, and Sunday easily marked the closest Wembanyama has come to his first NBA triple-double.
Frustration mounting
Normally even-keeled when he addresses the media, Victor Wembanyama had a different demeanor following Sunday's outcome. Though his answers to questions aren't usually long, they were shorter and quicker to the point after his team fell to 3-7.
The veteran Heat neutralized the Spurs star after a hot start to the fourth quarter,
“They've been prepared for that from the beginning. They know that's somebody we're going to probably go to just like they're going to go to Bam (Adebayo) or Jimmy (Butler) or whatever, that's just what they do, ” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “The difference in the game down the stretch is their physicality. And if it's that physical a game, a young team against a team that's also physically stronger is going to get a little bit on their heels. Things are going to slow down a little bit, you don't have the same movement and then the defense can really have the advantage but that's happened to us before and that's something we have to deal with.”
Wembanyama and the Spurs are now dealing with quite the turn after they won three of their first five games.
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