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 overall draft pick's first NBA win as a member of the San Antonio Spurs.
Victor Wembanyama doesn't mind the trash talk
“He's tall. That's really it.”
Those words came from Rockets forward Dillon Brooks when asked pregame about his first impression of the Spurs' 7'4 marvel:
With 4:18 remaining in the extra period of a game that saw Wemby outscore Brooks 21-17, out-rebound him 12-2 and out-block him 3-0 despite playing eight fewer minutes, the Spurs forward pointed at the cantankerous Rockets forward after shaking him on a move off an inbound pass and hitting a jumper over him. Perhaps that simple gesture was a fitting Wemby rebuttal. He didn't actually say anything…because he didn't need to based on his performance against Brooks and the Rockets.
Slow starts
It's becoming an early Victor Wembanyama trademark. Whether in his first Summer League game when he didn't play well or his second Summer League game in which he scored 27 points, with nine in the second and 10 in the fourth, Wemby doesn't usually explode out of the gate.
In fact, the preseason finale at Golden State when he put up 12 points and blocked three shots in the first 10 minutes stands as the anomaly. On Friday, he did score five points in the game's first three minutes, which ranks as one of his faster starts thus far, but he tailed off for the rest of the first half before a big fourth quarter.
Spectacular in the open court
Maybe it's his size. Maybe it's because NBA players expect him to slow the game down. Maybe it's that we haven't seen a giant man move like he does in a while, if ever. Opponents — and Spurs teammates — seem surprised that Victor Wembanyama runs the court so well. He dunked an alley-oop over his own teammate, Jeremy Sochan, partly because Devin Vassell didn't find him earlier on the break.
In that game-changing fourth quarter, Tre Jones did find Wemby in transition. The result: one of the night's biggest NBA highlights in the form of a two-handed alley-oop slam with his back to basket while on the run:
Defense delivers in clutch
With just under 5:30 to go in a pressure-packed fourth quarter and Houston up two, Wembanyama blocked Alperen Sengun's shot out of bounds. But it was a sequence with 2:14 left and the Rockets threatening to pull away that left most in awe and the man he victimized impressed.
Jabari Smith Jr. attacked the rim for a highlight-worthy dunk that would've put the road team up five and possibly six had a foul been called on the NBA's top draft pick. Instead, Wemby turned away last year's No. 3 overall pick at the rim. To add insult to injury, he rejected Smith again two seconds later on an attempted putback.
“It’s tough,” said Smith after the game. “He’s tall, athletic.
Victor Wembanyama is playing big when it matters most
Off the heels of scoring nine points in just three minutes in the opener against a Dallas Mavericks squad that expects to contend in the West, 16 of Wembanyama's 21 points vs. Houston came in the second half, with all but two in the fourth quarter and overtime. He scored the tying bucket with 20.2 seconds in regulation before finishing the job in OT.
“I really, really love winning,” Victor Wembanyama said. “It’s what I love most in life.”
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