Victor Wembanyama San Antonio Spurs, Victor Wembanyama stats, Victor Wembanyama Spurs All-Star selections De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson, LeBron James, Luka Doncic
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Victor Wembanyama had a stat line of 40 points in 26 minutes in the Spurs' win over the Lakers, setting multiple records in the process.
On a near-nightly basis, Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spursdoes things on abasketball court that have neverbeen done before, and that was once again the case with his performance in theteam’s 136-108 blowout win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Along with setting numerous records with his 40 points inonly 26 minutes,perhaps one statistic from his game against the Lakers stands out toshow Wembanyama’s dominance injust his third NBA season.
According to theNBA’s official record books, Wembanyama has now passed five-time champion Tim Duncan, perhaps the best and most successful player in franchise history, in 40-point games.The young French star has only played in 156 total games compared toDuncan’s 1392, but now has six 40-point games, compared to the BigFundamental’s five.
Legion Hoops
Victor Wembanyama already has more 40-point games than Tim Duncan had.
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Wembanyama started the game in Los Angeles shot out of a cannon, scoring 25 points in the first quarter, and ended the first half with 37, both of which were the most of his career. The seven-and-a-half-foot-tall center recently received his first All-Star starter selection, and games like the one versus the Lakers make it easy to see why.
VictorWembanyama’s Historic Stat Line Against The Lakers
Along with passing Duncan in 40-point games, Wembanyama set multiple records with his total stat line of 40 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block in only 26 minutes.
Those include the most points in a quarter (25) and most points in a half (37) in franchise history. he also scored 40 points in the quickest amount of time since Sleepy Floyd did it in 1991. While the 40 pointsare tied for the third-most inhis career, Wembanyama said he wanted to have an even more impressive statline.
“I was also pushing to go back, but I mean, they did the right thing by keeping me on the bench,”Wembanyama said, according toESPN’s Tim McMahon. “We got to think long term. But yeah, these kind of games, you got to have the greed. I mean, every game you have to have this greed to want more every time, because you know at all times itdoesn’t matterwho’s on the court,it’s somebodywho’s going to want to stop you from doing what you do out there. So you got to be greedy.”
But while the point total was still ten away from his career-high, the most impressive aspect aboutWembanyama’s stat line was how quickly and efficiently he put up those numbers. The big man shot 13/20 from the field, 4/6 from three-point range, and 10/12 from the free throw line.
“What got me going was just honestly proving myself a point, proving my team a point,”he added.“I’m not worried about us, not worried about me against good teams, but history has showed that I need to be worried about us against teams like this.Soyeah,I mean, wedon’t just talk about what we need to do. We needto actually act.”
Wembanyamais now tied with Manu Ginobili and LaMarcus Aldridge for the fourth-most 40-point games inSpurs’ history. Only Mike Mitchell (10), David Robinson (22), and George Gervin (67) have more.
Spurs Call Out Lakers, LeBron James For All-Star Selection
While Wembanyama led headlines for his performance against the Lakers, the Spurs team made sure to have theirfeelings heard after beating Los Angeles, a teamthat had two All-Star selections in Luka Doncic and LeBron James, compared to theirjust one.
De’AaronFox had previously commented about not getting the All-Star nod, throwing shade at IndianaPacers’Pascal Siakam, but this time, San Antonio players made a direct call to the league.
“I do thinkit’s very interesting thatDe’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle have not been named an All-Star,”Keldon Johnson said. “SoI’ll answer that question thatwasn’t asked. But seven teams in this league have multiple All-Stars, andwe’ve played pretty good against a lot of the top teams in this league.”
The NBA hasbeen criticized forgetting an All-Star selectionin what some havecalled a lifetime achievement award rather thanactually deserving the honor. Yet still, thathasn’t changed theleague’s decision to keep Wembanyama as theSpurs’ lone All-Star.
“We’re No. 2 in the West,”Harrsion Barnes added about Fox and Castle. “Teams below us have two All-Stars. Idon’t know a case where ifyou’re talking about having an impact on winning, either of themshouldn’t be selected and/or at least under consideration.”
The Frenchman himself has claimed multiple times that he is ready to play hard in Sundaynight’s game, whether his fellow competitors are on board or not.