After each Victor Wembanyama game with the San Antonio Spurs, 20 minutes summarizes in a few lines what you need to remember about the prowess of the great French hope. Saturday evening, the Spurs signed their 10th victory of the season (the second in a row after the one against Portland on Friday, yay!), and not against just anyone. “Wemby” and his team, to everyone’s surprise, brought down Rudy Gobert’s Minnesota Timberwolves, leaders of the Western Conference (113-112).
His stats sheet
Unsurprisingly, when the moribund Spurs (and still last in the West with 10 wins and 36 losses) during the vast majority of this NBA season have an unexpected performance, our 20-year-old tricolor prodigy is not far away. Huge job from “Wemby” who accumulated 23 points (9/17 on shots), 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocks and 2 interceptions in 30 minutes (phew, his playing time finally increases a little). The big plus of the evening was his 3/6 from three points, a sector where he often failed during his rookie season (30.5% on average). The still frequent downside for him: he lost 6 balls against Wolves, much more than his already high average (3.4). Mention to the 25 points (at 65%) of an untenable Devin Vassell at his side. Opposite, Rudy Gobert played Rudy, with 19 points (8 out of 9 shots!) and 7 rebounds in 37 minutes, as often a bit in the shadow of franchise star Anthony Edwards (32 points).
The action of the night
As it’s too hard to decide between them, this Sunday morning there will not be one but two ultimate sweets for our Victor Wembanyama, especially since they are very complementary to highlight the crazy technical palette of the maggot , from a height of 2.24 m, it should be remembered. We were playing… the 2nd minute at the Frost Bank Center when “Wemby” inherited a 45 degree ball on the left wing, at the height of the three point line. Facing him, the imposing Karl-Anthony Towns (2.13 m), and Rudy Gobert (2.16 m) on the lookout to come to his aid, there was reason to be intimidated. Do you think, the young Frenchman feinted the shot to easily put Towns in the wind, before posing a “Eurostep” model (understand double step with staggered supports) to play against your compatriot and finish with class/grace near the circle, left hand please.
A little later in the first half, Wembanyama launched into another crazy move starting with the racket head, left hand. And then he let us dribble called “Shammgod” in the NBAin honor of former high school and NCAA star God Shammgod, addicted to this move. In Europe, the former legendary Serbian fullback Dejan Bodiroga drove around 2,768 opponents crazy during his career by performing (at 2 per hour) this dribble consisting of pushing the ball to one side then bringing it back with the opposite hand towards the reverse side. Demo in the video below with “Wemby”, the first giant to pass quietly in an NBA game. And this against the triple best defender in the League Rudy Gobert, for that matter.
His statement to remember
Victor Wembanyama returned to this “Shammgod” action which will undoubtedly be played over and over across the Atlantic: “These are moves that I really work on in almost every training session. It’s satisfying because while it’s easy to work on them, it’s harder to apply them. So I’m happy to see that my brain was able to react quickly enough to apply them in a match.” No doubt, the basketball IQ works quite well on the pitch for our rookie.
Spurs dynamics
On this side, we are on pure madness, on the scale of these 2023-2024 Spurs subscribed to the depths of the NBA (only the Wizards and the Pistons do worse in the entire League with 8 and 5 successes). Realize: San Antonio had not won two games in a row since the “back to back” victories against Kevin Durant’s Suns at the beginning of November. So seeing Gregg Popovich’s gang be able to come back from the ten points they were behind at the start of the last quarter against the leader in the West is a small sensation. It smells Bordeaux tasting to celebrate on the side of the legendary Texan coach, before having a great opportunity for a three-way pass, unprecedented this season. Because the Spurs face a very weak Wizards on Tuesday, despite the promising first steps in the NBA of Bilal Coulibaly, the great friend of “Wemby”.