LAS VEGAS — There was a moment during Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinal game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder when it started to feel like Victor Wembanyama’s return was a ruse.
I looked into whether a team could violate the NBA’s player participation policy by dressing a player following an injury but not actually playing him. Spurs had said Wembanyama was I’m coming back after missing 12 games with a calf stump. This would have been big news regardless of the match. But his first return game was going to be against the Thunder, winners of 16 straight, in Las Vegas, with a spot in the Cup final on the line. Many people before the week wondered if such an intense game and environment was asking too much of a star coming off an injury.
And then… Wemby wasn’t playing. He didn’t start and he didn’t play at all in the first quarter. Was it a bet? Did he change anything while warming up or stretching before a possible recording? Were we just impatient and paranoid? Just before the end of the quarter break, with the Spurs trailing 31-20, we could see Wemby sitting with four teammates on the bench while Mitch Johnson coached them. Then he stood up and the warm-ups began, as the crowd erupted.
The first results were astonishing.
• He played three minutes and 27 seconds and the Spurs cut the deficit to four.
• When he left the game, the Thunder went on a 14-2 run over the next four minutes and 48 seconds.
There was simply no way the Spurs could stay in this game if Wemby didn’t play big minutes. He returned for the final 3:52 of the first half. The Spurs finished the second quarter on a 13-0 run to cut the deficit to three. We now had a game, provided Wembanyama could get enough minutes in the second half to fend off a seemingly unstoppable force.
It’s not like he’s killing it statistically. Wemby had five points, five rebounds, one assist, one steal, one block and three turnovers in seven minutes and 19 seconds in the first half. But the Spurs were +20 on the field in those minutes, and the eye test confirmed the plus/minus numbers.
Wembanyama increased the situation in the second half, more precisely in the fourth quarter. More importantly, the Spurs were galvanized and fended off the Thunder’s intractable defense. De’Aaron Fox scored 11 of his 22 in the third quarter, as San Antonio took the lead in the fourth. That’s when Wembanyama decided to end this winning streak and remind everyone of the problem in front of him. The Spurs won 111-109 and will face the New York Knicks in Tuesday’s championship game.
Remember France losing to the United States in the gold medal game at the 2024 Paris Olympics? Wemby has issued a warning to the world. He said he is learning from his experiences and worried about his opponents in the next two years. He was asked to clarify whether he was talking about FIBA/Olympics or the NBA. His response?
“Everywhere.”
Before the OKC game, Wembanyama praised Nikola Jokić as the most complete offensive player in the world (duh) and said he thought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Giannis Antetokounmpo could be the best overall players. But he also mentioned that he was about to be in that conversation and win that title. We all thought he meant someday. Not Saturday. In the fourth quarter, he scored 15 points and helped close out the victory against the Thunder. It was shocking, and he seemed to have the building in the palm of his Jack Skellington-like hands.
I couldn’t tell if Spurs fans were traveling in large numbers or if people were simply tired of the Thunder dominating everyone this season or if they had won over the crowd at a neutral site. As loud as the crowd was for him, his game was even louder. Maybe we forgot how dominant he was early in the season and the ridiculous idea that the league had solved how to defend him using smaller, physical players. The Thunder have the best defenders in the world of this so-called prototype. He pushed each one away like ants scurrying on his hand.
This is becoming Wemby’s world, and as he warned a year and a half ago, “everywhere” should be worried.
