SALT LAKE CITY — The mark of a great player is the reaction to a bad game. And on Wednesday night, in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Victor Wembanyama had the kind of game he would just as soon forget. It was more than the career-low six points he scored. There was just too little of an impact holistically on the game for a guy of his vast talent.
There was no panic, though. There was a film session, of course, looking at what he could have done better. There were conversations with coaches. But, mostly, Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs knew that the rapid-fire nature of the NBA would be good for them in this instance.
“Playing the next night was good for us,” Wembanyama said. “That was our luck. The thing with this league is that you have so many chances during the season to get better. There are so many chances to fix what needs to be fixed. It was best for us that we had a back-to-back because it was the quickest way to get back to winning.”
Victor Wembanyama has given plenty of hints of the superstardom that is to come. He averaged 21 points and almost 11 rebounds per game in his rookie season. He was legitimately one of the best defenders in the league. He’s made a living at appearing on the nightly highlights. But nothing tells the story of his all-around brilliance more than what he accomplished on Thursday night in a 106-88 win over the Utah Jazz.
There have been 23 5x5s in NBA history, a stat line of at least five points, five rebounds, five blocked shots, five assists, and five steals. Of those 23, only two had done it more than once as of Thursday night. Those two are Hakeem Olajuwon and Andrei Kirilenko, whom Jazz fans know well. Wembanyama walked into Delta Center on Thursday night celebrating Halloween disguised as No-Face from the movie “Spirited Away,” a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film. He walked out of Delta Center as one of three players in NBA history to have multiple 5x5s.
The Wembanyama Halloween tradition continues! 🎃
(via @nba)pic.twitter.com/wkOlrs9Rjm
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 31, 2024
And he has accomplished the feat in 76 career games.
“It tells me that I need to get my standards up,” Wembanyama said. “It tells me that I’m able to help my team in all of those areas and that this should be a consistent thing. As I’ve said before, I thought this was a game that we must have. So I was glad that I was able to help my team in every area.”
For the night, Wembanyama scored 25 points, grabbed nine rebounds and handed out seven assists. He notched five steals and blocked five shots. The Spurs outscored the Jazz by an astounding 43 points when he was on the floor.
things we love to see >>> https://t.co/iP49gRDWOq pic.twitter.com/X1ghh1PL9S
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) November 1, 2024
This was obviously one of the best individual games of the young NBA season. But there is always a bigger picture to look at. Wembanyama knew he didn’t play well on Wednesday night. He shot 1 of 5 from the floor, showing how little aggression he played with. He didn’t impact the game on either end of the floor, and the Spurs don’t have much of a chance to win games if he plays like that.
But Wembanyama is nothing if not mature beyond his years. And he embraces the expectation that comes with being a star. One of the things the Spurs did this offseason was to bring in Chris Paul to help with Wembanyama’s development. It’s one of the reasons San Antonio ran a steady diet of pick-and-roll between the two on Thursday night. The goal was to get Wembanyama involved in the offense, early and often.
“That was the good thing,” Paul said. “We didn’t have to say too much. That’s the thing about this league. There are so many chances and so many opportunities to get better. That dude has been a pro for a long time. He’s young, but he’s had a lot of experience. We knew that he was going to bounce back.”
In bouncing back, Wembanyama answered some questions about himself in the process. How would he react to a bad game? How would he come out the next night? Is there a toughness there that coincides with having a short memory?
Wembanyama took a 3-pointer on the very first possession of the game. It missed. On San Antonio’s second possession of the game, he took a 3-pointer. It missed. On the fourth possession, he took a 3. It splashed through, all net.
It wasn’t the shots he took. It was the aggression. There was no way Wembanyama wasn’t going to look for his offense on Thursday night. And as the game progressed and he found a rhythm, there was no way he was going to allow the Spurs to lose this one. In this sense, Wembanyama has the trait that all the great ones have. He can endear himself to you with his smile. As his Halloween costume can attest, he is bursting with charisma. But he has a fierce competitive instinct, and that instinct wouldn’t allow him to have consecutive bad nights.
“I’m absolutely OK with him taking a lot of shots from the perimeter,” San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich said. “He is more of a perimeter player than he is a post player. We want him to be able to do everything. We want him to isolate. We want him to shoot. We want him to do the entire deal. We just can’t do it all at once. It depends on the situation and what is going on.”
For the night, Wembanyama got up a career-high 13 3-point looks. He made four of them. But he got into the lane and finished at the rim. He got stuff in the mid-post area. He ran pick-and-roll with Paul to perfection, especially down the stretch. And because he was so engaged offensively, he was engaged everywhere else on the floor as well.
It added up to one of those performances that you don’t easily forget, especially if you saw it live. There was no area of the floor that Wembanyama didn’t impact on Thursday night. And it’s one of the reasons why he has for so long been considered a generational prospect.
“We knew that we needed this game,” Wembanyama said. “It was less individual than wanting our offense to progress. Basketball is a game that we get to play and have fun with. But what comes with that is being aggressive and making sure that you aren’t hesitating when you are on the floor.”
(Photo: Rob Gray / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
