In the American Airlines Center, Victor Wembanyama, along with Julian Champagnie, contemplated his performance. His verdict was clear: “That was niiiice”. Minutes earlier, the French player had executed a fake that lifted P.J. Washington, and then, with a dribble, headed to the hoop and performed a spectacular reverse dunk that shook the backboard, causing the jubilation of the San Antonio Spurs bench. In a crushing 125-92 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, Wembanyama demonstrated everything he learned during a transformative summer that changed him physically and mentally. “I was much more in control of myself,” Wembanyama commented. “Mentally, I don’t worry because I saw what it’s like to face the possibility of losing a lot, whether it’s your career or your health. So I don’t take this for granted anymore. The body? I have more fun now that it doesn’t cost me so much to move. I know I still need to improve, and I’m going to keep improving.” The blocks, the dunks, the shots, the refined footwork and the post moves, not to mention the intuition to know how to deploy them in the best way, proved that Wembanyama had not played an NBA game in 8 months and 11 days before this match against the Mavericks. The residual “rust” was non-existent, as Wembanyama dominated the game, becoming the first player since 1977-78 to score 40 points with 15 rebounds, 3 blocks and 0 turnovers, with 70% field goal efficiency. Wembanyama’s 40 points are the most for a player in a season-opening game in San Antonio franchise history.
Dallas started the game with their starting lineup, with Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II in the paint. Wembanyama outshined that group, scoring 4 of 5 shots for 11 points with a block in the first quarter. Faking a pass to Harrison Barnes, Wembanyama froze Cooper Flagg enough to gain a step on the rookie and perform a spectacular dunk. Shortly after, Wembanyama assisted Dylan Harper for his first career assist. The Frenchman faked Lively to lift him up and then returned the ball to the Spurs rookie at the top of the key. Harper immediately threw the ball back to Wembanyama for a two-handed dunk over Lively.“He was out for eight months,” said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. “So we saw him seize the moment and play spectacularly. But honestly, the most impressive statistic is zero turnovers. The number of fundamentally solid plays he made tonight was impressive.”
Mitch Johnson
This is difficult now that Wembanyama’s teammates have found ways to give him high-efficiency shots. With 8:28 remaining before halftime, Stephon Castle threw an alley-oop in transition to Wembanyama, who was escaping Dwight Powell, for a reverse dunk. It’s clear that last season’s NBA Rookie of the Year spent the preseason working with Wembanyama on their chemistry. Castle and Wembanyama scored or assisted on 42 of San Antonio’s 60 points in the first half, and the Spurs led by nine at halftime.“The guy is 7-3,” Davis said. “I think some of the refereeing decisions were a little questionable. But when he’s 7-3 and standing in front of you, nobody’s going to block a shot. He’s shooting over the top. At that point, you’re just praying he misses.”
Anthony Davis
Wembanyama perhaps had his most impressive play of the night during a 10-point burst in the third quarter, in which he made 3 of 4 shots with 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal. Wembanyama blocked a shot by Lively at the rim, which Castle quickly connected to start a counterattack. The guard immediately returned the ball to Wembanyama, who faked inside before hitting a three-pointer backwards while Lively committed a foul. Wembanyama completed the four-point play to increase San Antonio’s lead to 14 points.“It’s a lot of repetitions, a lot of watching videos together,” Castle said. “I feel like that helps and is often overlooked. Being able to watch film with a player you’re going to run a lot of pick-and-rolls with and have a lot of transition points with definitely helped. Being able to know where he likes to receive the ball in a double team, where they’re going to come from. We’ve been working on that all summer, and it’s starting to take shape.”
Stephon Castle
Johnson replaced Wembanyama shortly after he connected on a 13-foot jump shot that put the Spurs up by 30. At that moment, Wembanyama admitted, he began to reflect on his summer of transformation and the long road initiated in February by a diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis.“It’s incredible. He’s a different player,” Flagg said. “You can’t know what he’s like until you’re on the court with him. It’s something I’ve never seen before. He was great tonight, but we have to do a better job trying to take away some of his shots, and we can’t foul him as much as we did.”
Cooper Flagg
“We needed to make a statement in our locker room. The feeling was really that there was nothing we could have done more to help ourselves today. I felt we did everything we needed to do. We felt ready and felt that we would have no regrets about the things we should have worked on or the things we should have done in the summer. I felt comfortable with the work we did and with the preparation up to this point. Now all the dice are cast in the Western Conference.”“It feels like we try to put a brick to build a big mansion every day, and I felt the work was done for today,” Wembanyama said. “This is what we’ve been working for. This is what we’ve been fighting for so long, and I felt it fit. I felt I was in my place.
Victor Wembanyama
