{"id":693931,"date":"2026-05-25T17:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T17:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/693931\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T17:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T17:25:09","slug":"victor-wembanyamas-half-court-buzzer-beater-showcased-a-master-in-complete-control-victor-wembanyama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/693931\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama\u2019s half-court buzzer beater showcased a master in complete control | Victor Wembanyama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Wembanyama called for the ball. His San Antonio Spurs were up by nine at the tail end of the second quarter, but had led by as many as 16 in the first half. Down 2-1 in the Western Conference Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder, building the lead in the final seconds of the half felt urgent \u2013 in the previous game, the Spurs had exploded into a 15-0 lead, only to lose heavily<\/a>. In Game 4 on Sunday night, the klaxon was closing in, and so might the Thunder. Wembanyama got in a couple dribbles, but only had time to reach half-court before the clock forced him to shoot. He hoisted the ball into the air from 43ft; the buzzer sounded. The ball slammed cleanly into the basket<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Buoyed up by that shot and the Thunder clanking almost all their three-point attempts off the rim as if in solidarity with one another, the Spurs completed a 21-point annihilation<\/a> to tie the series.<\/p>\n

The buzzer-beater brought to mind the long three Wembanyama hit in Game 1<\/a>, which forced a second overtime when the Spurs were struggling for offense and on the brink of defeat. (Another point to consider: Three-point shooting is not even the Frenchman\u2019s most potent skill.) That shot was from a mere 32ft, but was executed under more pressure, when other, safer options were available. If you\u2019re not a fan of shots behind the arc, maybe the moment on Sunday when Wembanyama missed a tip-in, then corrected it with a backwards tap over his head was what made your heart sing. Or the most spiteful of his blocks. Or one of the many times when an opposing player streaked to the basket for a layup, spied Wembanyama in the paint, and kept right on dribbling by. He is beginning to stack magical moments atop each other.<\/p>\n

Through four games of this postseason matchup, it seems clear that the Thunder are the better and deeper team. San Antonio\u2019s starters have narrowly outplayed Oklahoma City\u2019s, but the Thunder\u2019s bench has proven stronger by about five times that margin. The depths of Wembanyama\u2019s talents have been required just to keep this series competitive.<\/p>\n

In Game 1, Wemby produced a 41-24 double-double<\/a> that had many a podcaster wondering if the Thunder \u2013 the defending champions, best-record-in-the-league Thunder! \u2013 could do anything to stop him. Thunder\u2019s hulking German center Isaiah Hartenstein has offered the rejoinder, wrapping his 7ft 4in opponent in a buffet of bear hugs that evade referees\u2019 whistles, minimizing the Frenchman\u2019s ability to get into the paint and slam home dunks or snare rebounds. Wembanyama had a milder performance in Game 2. In Game 3, his voice in the paint \u2013 only four boards! \u2013 felt quiet to the point of silence, given that he\u2019s capable of making more noise there than anybody who\u2019s ever lived.<\/p>\n

At that point, the Spurs\u2019 astonishing Game 1 triumph felt like a pyrrhic victory. Their starters played so many minutes. The Thunder felt like they had an endless reserve of second-stringers capable of leaping off the pine and delivering a sweatless 18 points, and with several of them in Game 3 they brutalized San Antonio\u2019s reserves while letting the stars rest. How that problem wouldn\u2019t compound over the rest of the series felt hard to imagine.<\/p>\n

But Wembanyama put up 33 of the Spurs\u2019 103 points in Game 4, supplementing it with his usual defensive impact, and what may be even more encouraging is that he only played 31 minutes. With the Spurs enjoying a healthy lead late in the fourth quarter, he got a head start on his recovery on a stationary bike in the tunnel.<\/p>\n

The Spurs have a path to victory here, but it remains precarious: Get herculean performances from Wembanyama, and just enough from everybody else. The Spurs\u2019 crucial offensive creators in De\u2019Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper are compromised, Devin Vassell and Stephon Castle are excellent on both ends of the floor but don\u2019t take over games (not to mention Castle\u2019s copious turnovers this series). Wembanyama knows the deal. It was there in that ridiculous 32-footer to rescue Game 1. He knew his teammates\u2019 ability to generate offense was dying a fast death. As absurd as it sounds, he took that long three-pointer with 19 seconds left on the shot clock out of necessity. <\/p>\n

More than anything, you can see how vital Wembanyama is to his team when he has to rest and his backup, Luke Kornet, comes in. Kornet is a perfectly good player; he could start on the Lakers. But in this series, at this standard, he borders on unusable. He\u2019s incinerated as soon as he steps on to the court. It raises the question of whether the Spurs could somehow play Wembanyama for all 48 minutes, at a limited intensity. Kornet\u2019s stat line from his 13 minutes of playing time on Sunday sparkles: six points on three-of-four shooting, seven rebounds, two blocks. The Thunder still outscored the Spurs by nine in that time. The Spurs won Wembanyama\u2019s minutes by twenty-nine.<\/p>\n

The Spurs are deep enough in this series to believe that Wembanyama\u2019s sorcery will be enough to win it. You feel bad for those who have staked out anti-Wembanyama campsites already. The Spurs are young and dealing with enough injuries \u2013 and the Thunder are a special enough team \u2013 that Wembanyama is the underdog. His triumphs can still feel unlikely, and are worth cherishing for as long as that\u2019s true. One day he and the Spurs will be so good that we\u2019ll laugh at the memory, or maybe mourn it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama called for the ball. His San Antonio Spurs were up by nine at the tail end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-693931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}