MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Victor Wembanyama will never forget this moment. He can\u2019t. It\u2019s carved into him.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama cherishes his scars. After a vengeful win over the Houston Rockets in January \u2014 one of the first true tests of perseverance he\u2019s faced in the NBA \u2014 he proudly showed them off. It was like a taste of the playoffs, the fresh blood an indicator that the basketball truly mattered.<\/p>\n
Following one of the greatest performances of his career, a 115-108 Spurs win over the Wolves to take a 2-1 second-round playoff series lead, he looked down at his arms once again. He opened his hand to examine the fresh wounds telling his story, ready to scab their way into history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to happen. They\u2019re wolves after all,\u201d Wembanyama said of his new trophies with a grin.<\/p>\n
Ever since he got to the league, he has been pining for this moment. A chance to own the biggest games in every capacity, to be backed into a corner and fight his way out with everything he has.<\/p>\n
The moment came just before crunch time, when he picked up his fifth foul. It was his first visit to the brink of disqualification in more than two months. He spent the season learning how to go from reckless abandon to meticulous aggression, fine-tuning his physical prowess to a remarkable level for a gigantic 22-year-old.<\/p>\n
For all the good that it did him, it also left him with five fouls with 6 minutes, 19 seconds remaining in the game. That\u2019s usually when Luke Kornet would check in for a while, and Wembanyama would be saved for the end.<\/p>\n
However, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson chose to keep Wembanyama on the floor despite the risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he fouled out, we deal with that when we (get) to it,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
This was the ultimate gamble, seeing how much the Wolves were feasting when Wembanyama was out. It was also the ultimate trust in a player who entered the season still struggling to control the game and who fouled out twice in the first two weeks.<\/p>\n
Entering Friday night, it had been two months since Wembanyama had even been in foul trouble. He was so used to playing free that it felt like a complete unknown whether he could survive playing every possession with his game on the line.<\/p>\n
But he wasn\u2019t alone in that battle. When Wembanyama picked up his fifth foul and Johnson kept him on the floor, Devin Vassell went to all of his teammates with a simple demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we know, really, he can\u2019t foul out. Like, he can\u2019t foul out,\u201d Spurs wing Devin Vassell said. \u201cIf somebody does get a foul close to him, just raise your hand, because the impact that he has on both ends of the floor, nobody else can do that. If anybody\u2019s close, just raise your hand. It don\u2019t matter who it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama typically is a vessel for the system, a conduit for the creation of his teammates. On defense, they funnel the ball to places where he can affect it, and on offense, they orbit his gravity to create looks for everybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the feeling I get before games, I dunno, this excitement, this heat in my heart,\u201d he told \u201cNBA on Prime Video\u201d after the Spurs\u2019 win. \u201cIt just gets stronger and stronger as the game goes on. I\u2019m built for this. I love this more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greatness requires calm in chaos. Wembanyama said the team just needed to be consistent and avoid mistakes, rather than doing incredible things. Yet, as incredible as it was to watch him operate in this game, it was Wembanyama showing the breadth of his skill set. This was not a remarkable achievement, but rather him living up to everyone\u2019s lofty standards.<\/p>\n
The idea with Wemby is that he is the biggest and most versatile player in the game. But as great as he has been, it has only been relative to everyone else. This was a rare example of him living up to the goals he set for himself and by his coach. The idea that this won\u2019t be rare \u2014 at least for him \u2014 much longer, is what makes this feel so groundbreaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nobody in the world who can stop him,\u201d Vassell said. \u201cAnd when he\u2019s clicking like that, it\u2019s nothing he can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, to put this game into historic context, Wembanyama joined Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain (unofficially) as the only players in NBA playoff history to record at least 39 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks, per Stathead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to be along with the big fellas,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cI had to resort to some things that Hakeem taught me in this fourth quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spinning fadeaway over Gobert was a Dream special. Driving right through Gobert to draw the double and drop it off to a wide-open Dylan Harper, well, that was just a dream in itself. That spot-up 3 off the flare screen was the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s only one Vic. And I think he\u2019s going to continue to put up numbers and stats that we haven\u2019t seen before or is very limited,\u201d Vassell said. \u201cBecause there\u2019s only one Vic.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was most apparent in the moments on defense when the Wolves would love, more than anything, to bait him into that sixth foul. The game could be theirs if they could send him to the bench permanently. He would get a stop or two, then Julius Randle would eventually put back a block of his or Jaden McDaniels would sneak around a back screen that Wembanyama couldn\u2019t see coming. But he was always there.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust the defensive ability to have five fouls, still go for the block, still be aggressive, still try to impose your will in the game,\u201d Spurs veteran Harrison Barnes told The Athletic. \u201cI think it just speaks to everything that he\u2019s brought to this team, but especially in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayo Dosunmu and McDaniels would attack the lane, but then pass right out of it. You have to catch Wembanyama completely off guard to get past him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a world-class defender. You\u2019re always aware of him,\u201d Dosunmu said. \u201cYeah, he\u2019s a gift at that end of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that Wembanyama has shown what it looks like when he completely takes over, like an Olajuwon or O\u2019Neal, the path forward for this series has become clear. The Wolves have to keep clawing away at him, but Wembanyama has shown he can deliver in every way.<\/p>\n
He was asked in French if this was the best game of his career but declined to weigh in, saying it\u2019s not the question he wants to ask himself right now. He\u2019d rather go back over the film and make more corrections.<\/p>\n
He did have five fouls, after all. He doesn\u2019t need that feeling that he did something great. The job is far from finished and greatness comes at the end. He needs to keep finding the heat in his heart and claw away until everything falls into place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got what it takes. We got the talent. We got the depth,\u201d Wembanyama told \u201cNBA on Prime Video.\u201d \u201cWe don\u2019t got the experience but we don\u2019t care. We need to apply. We can go to the top, the very top, if we play like tonight consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Victor Wembanyama will never forget this moment. He can\u2019t. It\u2019s carved into him. Wembanyama cherishes his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":784470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3131,1260,3138,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-784469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116545227719811936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}