Add a 50-point game to the growing legend of Victor Wembanyama.
The San Antonio Spurs sophomore star reached the milestone before the midway point of the fourth quarter as the Spurs pulled away from the Washington Wizards a 139-130 win in San Antonio on Wednesday. Wembanyama pulled off the feat in 32 minutes of game time, hitting 18-of-29 shots and eight 3-pointers along with six rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
50 POINTS FOR WEMBY AND COUNTING 🚨
There is still six minutes left in the game 👀
🎥 @NBApic.twitter.com/EMGKtNSO2k
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) November 14, 2024
Wembanyama entered Wednesday with a career-high 40-point game in late March against the New York Knicks.
At 20 years, 314 days old, Wembanyama becomes the fourth-youngest player in NBA history to reach 50 points in a game, trailing Brandon Jennings, LeBron James and Devin Booker.
Before Wednesday’s game, Wembanyama’s second season was off to a slower start than his rookie campaign, averaging 19.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game with lower field goal and 3-point percentages than 2023-24.
With Wednesday’s win, the Spurs improved to 6-6. The team has been coached on an interim basis by assistant Mitch Johnson for the past seven games since coach Gregg Popovich suffered a mild stroke on Nov. 2, a medical update shared by the team Wednesday.
A HISTORIC night for Wemby.
🔥 Career-high 50 PTS
🔥 Career-high 8 3PM
🔥 Fourth-youngest player to score 50
🔥 First Spurs player with 50+ PTS and 5+ 3PM pic.twitter.com/mCSSssKWPQ— NBA (@NBA) November 14, 2024
Wembanyama’s historic shooting run after poor start
Wembanyama’s first 50-point game comes right as he’s starting to get hot this season. After struggling with his jumper early — making only 21.4 percent of his seven 3-point attempts per game through his first eight games — he’s been on fire for his last three. The 7-foot-4 prodigy has made at least six 3s in each of his last three games, and hit an absurd 20 of his 36 3-point attempts in that time.
Per Basketball-Reference, he’s the first center to ever hit at least 20 3s in a three-game span. In fact, as far as I can tell, he’s the first player over 6-foot-9 to ever hit 20 3s in a single three-game stretch. — Sam Vecenie, senior NBA writer
Wemby cooked the Wizards bigs all night
It is, of course, worth noting that the Wizards might be the team in the league least-equipped to deal with Wembanyama. They’re now 2-8 this season with the 26th-ranked defense in the NBA. On top of that, the matchup just does not feed into their hands.
The Wizards’ starting center, rookie Alexandre Sarr, is not strong enough to body up Wembanyama and keep him from getting to the basket. However, their backup center, Jonas Valančiūnas, is not quick or flexible enough to stay in front of his drives. Each had moments where Wembanyama was able to get free from them either off of the bounce or off the ball in order to fire a 3.
All of that led to a number of highlight-reel moments where Wemby would drive using an impressive array of eurosteps or crossovers in order to separate and either score at the rim or get fouled. Even when the Wizards bigs were able to wall him up and stop his drive, he also showcased a couple of impressive midrange jumpers with his high release point allowing the French phenom to fire over the top of defenders who were merely 7-foot tall.
Given his success, this game was probably the best encapsulation of why Wembanyama is such a mismatch problem league-wide. He has the propensity to get smoldering hot from 3, but then can also drive and attack when the Spurs need a shot, or when he gets an opportunity in space on an empty side of the court. And let’s not forget his ability to crash the offensive glass and create extra points via put-backs or tip-outs. He only had one of those tonight, but typically he’s creating a significant number of points beyond that per game. — Vecenie
Where does this leave the Spurs early in the season?
Largely through the early part of the season, San Antonio has been the team’s defense led by Wembanyama that has kept them afloat. Coming into tonight, they were eighth in defensive rating league-wide, allowing just 110.3 points per 100 possessions. Wembanyama has been the biggest piece of that defensive structure, dissuading opponents nightly from even attempting shots on the interior due to his length. With Wembanyama in the game, Spurs’ opponents only shoot 56.3 percent at the rim, a number that would be the best mark league-wide if he played all 48 minutes per game. He’s been that dominant on the interior.
Following this win, the Spurs are now tied for 10th in the West, and look dangerous as a potential spoiler for a Play-In Tournament berth if Wembanyama stays healthy all season. They have wins over the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings, and have been competitive in every game outside of a loss on the road to the Rockets. — Vecenie
Required reading
(Photo: Ronald Cortes / Getty Images)
