Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, left, and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama center, battle for the ball on Sunday, Nov 2, 2025, in Phoenix. MIKE CHRISTY / AP
Victor Wembanyama looked like an MVP candidate and his San Antonio Spurs appeared unstoppable through the first five games of the season. Then came Sunday’s reality check. The 7-foot-4 Wembanyama had a rare off night in San Antonio’s 130-118 loss to the Phoenix Suns, on Sunday, November 2, finishing with nine points on 4-of-14 shooting. He also had nine rebounds and six turnovers.
It was the first time he was held to fewer than 10 points since October 30, 2024, when he had six against Oklahoma City. “They were expecting everything that we did,” Wembanyama said. “That makes everything hard for us.”
The 21-year-old Wembanyama never looked comfortable against a physical Suns defense, struggling to get clean catches in the paint. The French center came into Sunday’s game averaging 30.2 points and 14.6 rebounds per game.
‘Just playing team defense’
First-year Suns coach Jordan Ott said the goal against Wembanyama was to try to force him to catch the ball in places on the court where it’s hard to do damage. “Just playing team defense,” Suns forward Ryan Dunn said of the defensive effort on Wembanyama. “He’s a one of a kind player [we] made it tough on him, gave him different looks.”
“I know our next opponents watched this game tonight, and they’ll take some things away from it,” Wembanyama said. “The preparation starts now.”
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Stephon Castle led the Spurs with 26 points but the Suns, led by 28 points and 13 assists from Devin Booker, took control with a 31-point first quarter and didn’t trail after the opening minutes. “We’ve got to give him more space where he can see where the double teams are coming from,” Castle said. “We’ve watched film on this, we’ve just got to do better.”
Later he added: “I feel like we kind of needed this. I feel like we were starting to get a little comfortable. This is kind of a wake-up call for us. I’ll be happy to see how we respond on Wednesday.”