Victor Eclipses the Suns: Wemby Watch Week 2

The phenom burns bright despite Suns’ stars

Disclaimer: The author is a lifelong San Antonio Spurs fan. He may be blinded by optimism. Let him have this.

Twice this week, the San Antonio Spurs battled the Phoenix Suns, and twice this week, they emerged Victor-ious (admit it, you chuckled). I have previously covered Victor Wembanyama’s clutch time antics, but he showed so much more than killer instincts when going toe-to-toe with one of the basketball world’s most stacked teams. Now, I think it is worth noting that the Suns were not at full strength for either contest. But, they did resemble their final form in the week’s rematch, and when they were strong, Wemby showed strength of his own.

October 31st, Spurs @ Suns, 115-114

Once again, walking into the final quarter of play of their first meetup felt underwhelming. The Suns had done well in limiting Wemby offensively. After the first half, he was a disappointing 1-for-6 from the field. In the third quarter, he only took one shot. But once again, when his team needed him the most, he delivered. Are you sensing the theme?

He very quickly got himself going with a spot-up triple. Watch the clip below, and notice his feel for the game. He drifted into the open space and when his defender ventured into the paint to help, and he smoothly got into his shooting motion. Notice also the footwork. His left-right footwork getting into the shot is textbook guard shooting. He even staggered his steps to ensure he could easily flow into his motion. From a guy who is 7’4? Simply. Amazing.

One thing I have failed to talk about in detail is Victor’s basketball IQ. He isn’t just some lumbering beanstalk on the court, he is very much a reader of the game. Yes, he misses reads from time to time but he knows when his teammates get open. As his game matures, some of his more errant passes will turn into highlight reel dimes. Take for example the clip below.

Hitting a three in that moment would have been huge. The Spurs had shrugged off a rough game to bring the score within seven points. Hitting a three would have turned the Suns’ advantage into a two possession game. Rather than taking a three with two defenders in his vicinity, he recognized a defensive lapse. Jusuf Nurkic played drop coverage to prevent Tre Jones from getting to the rim, but he did not recover in time to Wemby who popped out to the three point line. Yuta Watanabe tried to close out to Victor and lost Osman on the cut. Admittedly, it is a simple read (guy open, get guy ball), but Wemby using a shot fake into the pass is a nice wrinkle that potentially made Osman’s path to the rim easier. I also think in the future, depending on the situation, he will learn to hit the corner man when his defender tries to stop the cut. That was not necessary in this particular situation, though I’m sure that read is on his radar.

It is no exaggeration to say Victor’s fourth quarter was audacious. With under a minute to play, the Spurs were down five. In those situations, teams have to execute perfectly on both ends of the floor to pull out the win. The Spurs had just given Kevin Durant of all people an easy dunk. The clock was ticking, and if they wanted to win, they needed to act quickly. Enter Wembanyama. After missing an ill-advised three pointer, the Spurs were fortunate enough to get an inbound opportunity. In the closing minutes of an NBA game, urgency is often confused with speed. Playing with urgency does not necessarily equate to playing quickly. Wembanyama played with urgency, and it showed in shots like this one.

Again, note the footwork. Exact same sequence as his aforementioned deep ball. How many rookies, with expectations as crushing as a neutron star, would have taken that shot? And how many of those would have nailed it with such poise? His expression after the fact tells the story of a man focused on the end, not on what just transpired. Melodramatic? Maybe, but the best things in sports are, and the drama hardly stopped there.

For whatever reason, no one in a Suns uniform found it prudent to box out the 7 ‘4 alien streaking toward the basket with under 10 seconds left to play, and Wemby made them pay with perhaps the easiest dunk of his life to make it a one point game.

Now, Victor did not win this game by himself. The entire team played well as the clock wound down, and some late game heroics from Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson sealed Phoenix’s fate. However it is noteworthy to look at Victor’s fourth quarter as compared to the rest of the game. In total, he took 12 shots on the night. Five of them came in the fourth. He made all but one. While I’m not in love with him waiting to do his damage until the end, I cannot help but admire the artistry in it. With every game, he silences more and more naysayers. And in the rematch, he would put to rest any doubt that he had arrived and he is here to stay.

November 2nd, Spurs @ Suns, 132-121

The second battle with Phoenix would prove a greater challenge. For one, the Suns surely felt that they should have won the first contest. After all, it took a last second steal and layup to defeat them previously. For two, Phoenix would get to employ their one-two punch of Kevin Durant AND Devin Booker this time. Though they were still missing third co-star Bradley Beal, they had more than enough to put away the young, scrappy, and inexperienced Spurs. That is, until Victor Wembanyama decided to have the best game of his young career, scoring 38 points, grabbing 11 boards, and blocking four shots.

A large part of the reason for his coming out party is the fact that it appears as if his teammates are finally getting the hang of playing with him. After all, none of them has ever played with a 7 ‘4 wing with an 8ft. wingspan and buttery jumper. During the initial Spurs onslaught, Jeremy Sochan found a streaking Wembanyama in the paint for an easy dunk in transition. A couple minutes later, Sochan again found Wemby, this time standing in the paint essentially unguarded. Near the end of the first quarter, he had a putback after being stripped by Kevin Durant. A nice six point quarter to get himself going. But it was his second quarter where he really got himself into rhythm.

Victor went off for 13 points in nine shots during the second quarter. After his first shot barely rattled out, Tre Jones found him on a lob, and I love the recognition involved.

It started with “get” action at the top of the key with Tre Jones. Already, I love getting the ball into Tre’s hands. Jones has consistently looked for Wemby on lobs and has found him more often than not, including here. For some reason, the Suns had the 6’3 Eric Gordon guarding 6’11 Zach Collins down low. Collins then back screened Wemby’s defender, and notice the subtle second screen from Doug McDermott to ensure the big bodied Drew Eubanks could not make it back to Victor on time. Though it wasn’t needed (and not even a great screen), it showed some creativity in getting Wemby the ball near the rim. With Collins’ screen, Gordon was the help defender, and there was no way he was going to overcome the roughly 13-inch difference between himself and Wemby to bother the dunk.

For his next bucket, he picked on Gordon again, hitting a frankly disrespectful turnaround.

Oh, and just for good measure, he hit two threes to push San Antonio’s lead to 20 going into halftime.

If not for two shots that rattled out, Victor would have taken 25 points into the locker room. Instead, he had to settle for 20. And in the third quarter, he refused to let off the gas. Again, there were some really nice “Eureka!” moments with his teammates. His first made shot came off a beautiful lob from Malaki Branham off a give-and-go, and it just wasn’t a pass Branham would have made in the first four games of the season. It took only 29 seconds of game time before he got another such lob from Keldon Johnson, albeit that one was more a bail out pass. But hey, when you have a teammate with an 8ft. wingspan, sometimes you just have to throw it up to him and let him bail you out (side note: Wemby again victimized Eric Gordon. Ouch). Even if it felt like a bit sloppy in execution, the IQ was on display yet again. It was simple. All he did was ghost a screen for Keldon after he recognized that no one was in the paint. Once Eubanks committed to stopping the ball, it was over, and Wemby made the Suns pay with a nice finger roll.

Not every lob was a success. He did miss one in the third, but the threat is always present, and teams have to either respect it or get punished. He also showed off some skills, punishing Eubanks’ strength with a little finesse and a jaw dropping finish.

But wouldn’t you know it, this game had fourth quarter heroics from Wemby too. As if he again needed to prove he can show up in crunch time. With 3:33 left to the play, the young Spurs let the Suns claw their way back into the game. Durant and Booker hit their fair share of clutch shots. The crowd’s energy was empowering their beloved Suns. Things appeared dire. San Antonio’s inexperience was on full display. They were going to blow the game, not dissimilar to Suns’ very own choke job only days prior. Victor would not let them spoil his career night. After grabbing the rebound and making his way down the floor, he ended the possession by baptizing Eubanks off the gorgeous Collins feed.

For good measure, Victor made three of his four free throw attempts in the fourth quarter. The guy keeps coming up big. By now, we have watched his play for two weeks. In the grand scheme of things, that isn’t a lot to go on. However, there are some things I would like to see improve. For Victor’s part, his handle needs work. It is good enough to get him by slow footed bigs, but things get dicey once he gets into traffic. I’d also like to see him not leave the floor so often on defense, especially inside the three point line. He’ll get plenty of blocks by being patient, no need to give guys free points by fouling them on pump fakes. As for the Spurs’ system, there has to be more pinch post and splits coming. I’ve already discussed Wemby’s IQ. He has what it takes to be a playmaking hub. Sure, it isn’t something to go to every time down the court. But there is a lot of potential. Between that and dribble handoffs with Devin Vassell, expect to see a diverse playbook from San Antonio as the season progresses.

The Spurs’ next game is November 5th against the Toronto Raptors, and it will be interesting to see how Victor Wembanyama responds after his 38 point, 10 rebound performance in Phoenix.