Victor Wembanyama scored 39 points, pulled down 15 rebounds, and added five blocks Friday night at Target Center as San Antonio beat Minnesota 115-108 in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals. The Spurs lead the series 2-1 with Game 4 in Minneapolis on Sunday.
Five days after he broke the NBA's single-game playoff blocks record with 12 in Game 1, Wembanyama answered the Game 2 plot — Spurs blew them out at home by 38 — with the kind of stat line that has only ever belonged to Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O'Neal. Per Fox Sports, Wembanyama is the fourth player ever to log 35-plus points, 15-plus rebounds, and 5-plus blocks in a playoff game.
The shot of the night
With the Spurs needing a bucket late in the fourth, Wembanyama backed Rudy Gobert down on the left block and rose into a turnaround spin fadeaway over Gobert's outstretched arm. He told reporters after the game the move came directly out of his Hakeem study tape: "Hakeem… especially that spin fadeaway." The visual was on the nose — the player who broke Hakeem's 35-year-old playoff block record in Game 1 just made a Hakeem signature move with Hakeem's fellow Hall of Fame center on his back.
The supporting cast finally showed up
Wembanyama can't carry a series alone, and the Spurs' second-round prospects always depended on whether the role players would shoot. They did Friday. Carter Bryant, Keldon Johnson, and Julian Champagnie each hit two threes, and rookie point guard Stephon Castle ran the offense without unforced turnovers. Minnesota's defense — top-five in the regular season — kept the help rotations honest, but San Antonio finally had enough off-Wemby gravity to punish them.
The series read
The Wolves are now in the inverse of where they wanted to be. They got Game 1 at San Antonio with Wembanyama putting up the most efficient defensive game in playoff history and still couldn't widen the margin. They got blown out by 38 in Game 2 with a healthy roster. And they lost Game 3 at home with their crowd, with their best defender (Gobert) in foul trouble, and with Anthony Edwards held to a quiet 24 on inefficient shooting.
San Antonio is the only team in the second round whose star is also their best defender, their best rebounder, their best rim protector, and their best end-of-clock scorer. Wembanyama's Game 3 — the volume, the efficiency, the closing-time fadeaway — is the version of him that ends series. The Spurs need one of the next two in Minnesota or they're back home with a chance to close it out at the AT&T Center.
Game 4 is Sunday, May 11, at 3:30 PM ET on ABC.
Comments