The shot came close. For their NBA Cup debut, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs almost overthrew the defending champions, LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers (115-120 defeat). Oddity of the organization, the meeting counts for both the regular season and the mid-season cup, an objective which the players have seized and in particular Wemby, who has repeated for several days that he is already focused on this meeting.
The duel with LeBron James, between the star of the last twenty years and perhaps the star of the next twenty, caused a lot of talk before the match. We had forgotten that another player also holds this Lakers team: Anthony Davis, an ultra-talented pivot who combines technique and physicality.
Davis made Victor Wembanyama suffer. “There are evenings where it is difficult to analyze our performance,” notes the Frenchman at the end of the meeting. We had good moments, but we didn't control the game enough. It's still promising. »
More generally, the desire of the Californians to constantly attack the Frenchman, to not let him breathe and to oppose him with enormous intensity, constituted a headache for Wemby. “I noticed quite quickly that there was a lot of physical intensity on their part,” he admits afterwards.
No free throws
Rare thing: Wembanyama did not benefit from any free throws in the game. Either he didn't know how to provoke the fouls, or the referees didn't give them to him. San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson has his own idea: “Victor was very good, but it's hard to accept that he didn't get a single whistle. He had solid penetrations in the racket and we will have to continue to try to help him find solutions to attack the circle and get those whistles. »
Wemby still finished with 28 points on the clock, as well as 14 rebounds which gave him a new double-double, his 5th of the season. But Wembanyama also lost six balls, most of the time snatched from his hands by opposing defenders with extremely mobile arms. This is the NBA's response to the Frenchman's insolent efficiency in recent matches. An aggressiveness to which he will have to adapt.
Will he get there? The magician Wembanyama has more than one trick up his sleeve. Even attacked, even watched, Wemby often managed to find the solution, against the Lakers. From the start, he catches a lob from Castle over the head… of LeBron James. A few moments later, he was left alone behind the 3-point line and punished. “Come on!” “, we see him encouraging his teammates. Unlike his last outings, however, he did not have the same success from a distance (4 out of 13).
Paul's 12,000th pass… for Wemby
During the first quarter, San Antonio's veteran point guard, Chris Paul (39), made the 12,000th assist of his career. Only John Stockton and Jason Kidd did better. The pass, obviously, was converted by an alley-oop from Wemby.
Victor Wembanyama continues his performance with a relentless duel with Anthony Davis, who at 31 years old and 12 years in the NBA, has posed himself as a formidable threat (40 points 12 rebounds last night). In the last quarter, the American hit the Frenchman's knee; Wemby goes into the locker room for a moment to make sure everything is okay. “I was quite shocked,” he admits. My leg is pretty badly affected. But it's just a shot, I didn't twist anything or anything like that. »
LeBron, for his part, is doing his little thing: calmly in his corner, he achieves a triple-double (15 points, 16 rebounds, 12 assists), the fourth in a row. This is the first time, in his long career, that LeBron James has achieved this feat during four games in a row… “It was nice,” smiled LeBron James as he returned to the locker room at the end of the game. It was a hell of a match, I'm glad to have taken part! »
The last minutes of the game are unbreathable: the Spurs, trailing for a long time, come back into the match and even go back in front twice. With a minute to go, the Texans have a ball to take the lead again. Wembanyama tries another three-pointer, which he misses.
The Texans will still have two balls, including one given by an altruistic Wemby to rookie Stephon Castle, but will not take advantage of it. They bow and Victor Wembanyama comes off the floor, grimacing and holding his knee, after posing for the photo with his fellow Lakers rookie, Armel Traoré (who did not come into play). San Antonio continues with a new match this Saturday evening, in Dallas. Not sure that Victor Wembanyama participates.
