If there were any doubts that Victor Wembanyama would be hampered in the playoffs due to his rib injury, they were quickly silenced on Friday night. Wembanyama secured a First-team All-NBA spot and the Defensive Player of the Year award in his 65th game, putting up an eye-popping 40 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks in a 139-120 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
It was exactly the type of game the Spurs needed from their superstar big man. Wembanyama has been on a scoring tear since March.
For all the external doubt about his ability to take over the game offensively… Wembanyama has been taking over the game offensively. His two-way impact has never been better than it has in the last two months. The only thing that could have held him back in the playoffs was that rib contusion.
Beyond the stats, it was the way he played on Friday that should reassure Spurs fans. He moved fluidly on the perimeter, handled the ball with ease, got up for blocks, and most importantly, didn’t look held back by his body. With Wembanyama close to 100%, San Antonio looks ready for a deep playoff run.
Takeaways:
- I would like to share this clip of Wembanyama doing head calcs (short for calculations) on how many minutes players should have to play to qualify for awards. He can do it all.
- The Mavericks hung around in the game despite being down several key contributors. When the Spurs finally pulled away in the third quarter, it was driven by an offensive outburst from De’Aaron Fox. San Antonio’s point guard scored 14 of his 18 points in the third. Fox has put together a nice stretch of games recently. His ability to take over games offensively will be valuable come playoff time. Fox also led the team with his passing, dropping 10 dimes for a double-double.
- Carter Bryant is hooping right now. He had 12 points against the Mavericks, including three triples. He was one of the few players who could contest Cooper Flagg, blocking his jumper at one point. Overall, Bryant just looks more confident. He’s been slowly ascending all season. Now he’s a legitimate rotation player. Is he a playoff rotation player? That’s something we will find out in the next few weeks. At the very least, he looks like a player the Spurs can count on to play a more significant role next season.
- Speaking of Flagg… that kid is a beast. He should be the rookie of the year, no offense to Kon Knueppel, but Flagg is on another level. He was unstoppable on Friday night with 33 points on 13-25 shooting. It felt like no matter who the Spurs put on him, he was able to get to his spots and score. It’s funny to think about what San Antonio would look like had they gotten him with the first overall pick.
- After dropping 15 points on Friday, Harrison Barnes is sitting at 9.9 points per game with one contest left. He’ll have to score 17 points in San Antonio’s last game for the team to have 8 players average double-digit points.
- Game 82, against the Denver Nuggets, could matter a lot. With a Los Angeles Lakers win on Friday, they now hold the tiebreaker for the three-seed. If the Spurs beat the Nuggets on Sunday, they’ll drop Denver down to the four seed, which means the Spurs would face either the Lakers or Minnesota Timberwolves in a potential second-round matchup. It’ll be up to Mitch Johnson if he wants to play the starters and try to avoid the Nuggets in the playoffs.
