Walking into the Frost Bank Center on Thursday night (May 28), Victor Wembanyama wore a hunter green tunic-style robe, appearing to channel the Buddhist mindset he picked up while training in China last offseason.
Wemby looked composed and locked in – like a young, disciplined kung fu warrior standing at the center of a temple courtyard, ready to face a seasoned adversary. It was Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Alien was set to deliver something bordering on transcendence.
“When he came in with the outfit, I think everyone knew what was going to happen,” Spurs’ rookie guard Dylan Harper said after the game.
As the ancient Chinese proverb goes, “Nothing is difficult if you are truly determined.” On the court Thursday, Wemby was laser-sharp focused, almost monk-like, as if the game itself slowed down around him.
When the dust settled, the Spurs had dominated the Thunder in a wire-to-wire victory, 118-91, pushing the series to a winner-take-all Game 7 this Saturday.
Wemby scored a game-high 28 points on 10-for-21 from the field (48%) and led his team in rebounds (10), steals (2) and blocks (3). Harper pitched in an impressive 18 points, six rebounds and four assists off the bench, and Stephon Castle added 17 points, five rebounds and nine assists.
“I think we were consistent, and we did what we needed to do,” Wemby said after the game. “[We] trusted the game, trusted the basketball gods.”
Here are our five favorite Wemby moments during Game 6 that made us believe he was operating on a different plane than everyone else.
Wemby hit three triples in the first quarter, none smoother than this step-back from behind the arc over Thunder big man Isaiah Hartenstein. As a team, the Spurs buried eight three pointers in the first 12 minutes – the most in a playoff quarter since 1998.
This is what we want to see from Wemby! As solid as he is from three-point range, he’s virtually unstoppable when he’s going downhill on isolation. Here, he spins past arch-nemesis Chet Holmgren and finishes off the glass with his left hand. Pure basketball poetry in motion.
The ball movement on this possession in the second quarter is elite. It leads to a Wemby pump fake that sends Hartenstein flying to the rafters, followed by a slow, patient Wemby drive that ends in a soft bunny in the paint over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was held to just 15 points on the night.
Very few Spurs’ plays are prettier than an Area 51 Castle-to-Wemby lob for a dunk. In the fourth quarter, Castle finds Wemby by himself on the block for an easy slam over Thunder players Kenrich Williams and Jaylin Williams, who looked like they stopped defending and started stargazing mid-flight.
We’re not sure what are favorite part of this play is – Wemby rejecting Chet to end the third quarter, or how defeated Chet looks sitting on the floor afterward, arms on his knees staring in disbelief. Either way, the entire sequence is pure cinema.