Retour
The San Antonio Spurs stretched their league-best winning streak to nine games Monday night, routing the Phoenix Suns 122-96 at Mortgage Matchup Center in a contest where the Suns struggled to get going.
Victor Wembanyama was at the center of it again. The two-time All-Star needed just 25 minutes to pile up 40 points and 11 rebounds, and his work at the other end of the floor was just as hard to miss. The two-way showing left fans in absolute awe.
Wembanyama finished 15-for-19 from the field, 2-for-3 from 3-point range and 8-for-10 at the line, with 3 assists, a season-high 9 blocks, and a plus-30 plus-minus in a game San Antonio won by 26.
The rout took shape late in the first quarter, when his tip-in dunk with 1:22 left gave San Antonio a 26-25 lead it never gave back.
Early in the second quarter, Wembanyama blocked Oso Ighodaro’s layup and then turned away Dillon Brooks’ 5-footer and went to halftime with 22 points and 5 blocks.
Legion Hoopsweighed in when the game was still underway: “Wemby is so unfair. This is ridiculous.”
Then in the fourth, Wembanyama produced another pair of blocks, denying Collin Gillespie’s jumper and then another 5-footer four seconds later before finishing a running dunk off a De’Aaron Fox pass at the other end and drawing a foul.
Hoop Central ran through the Spurs superstar’s numbers and boiled them down to one word: “Unstoppable.”
All told, Wembanyama scored 8 points in the opening 2 and a half minutes of the fourth, the last coming on a running dunk after a Stephon Castle steal that made it 104-70 with 9:34 to play.
Tyler Britton, the creator of Hoop Venue, came away just as impressed:
“This Victor Wembanyama stuff is getting ridiculous. He somehow took another leap defensively, while deciding he’s just going to dunk everything the entire season.”
Britton then sized up where the Spurs star is headed: “He’s inching closer and closer to that level of peak.”
Monday marked Wembanyama’s third 40-point game of the season, all of them in his last six outings. He had 43 against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 31, then set career highs with 52 points and 24 rebounds, along with 8 blocks, in a 112-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks last Wednesday.
One NBA fan turned the conversation to the MVP race: “I’m sorry Luka FC but this MVP is ours.”
Another saw more coming: “Wemby is just getting started.”
The 40-point night lifted Wembanyama to 331 points, 131 rebounds, and 48 blocks through 11 games. He entered Monday averaging 29.1 points per game and has scored at least 29 in seven of the nine games during San Antonio’s winning streak.
The Frenchman will carry a 30.1 ppg average into the clash against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, when the Spurs put their nine-game winning streak on the line against Tiago Splitter’s team.