Note that phrase \u2014 \u201cwe will rest in July.\u201d<\/a> It’s May. If the Spurs play in June, it’ll be in the NBA Finals. That’s clearly the hope and if you listen to Wembanyama, it’s clearly his plan as well.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a rare desire to step into every moment that\u2019s in front of him,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cAnd I think he has showed in his three years, in a lot of different situations, with a lot of different circumstances, that he\u2019s going to attack those moments. Doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll always work out for him or be exactly the outcome that he wants, but he has some rare God-given ability. He puts in even more work and preparation into maximizing that and his disposition and mentality and approach is reflected at times in the way he handles those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poor Dylan Harper. All the Spurs guard did in Game 1 \u2014 as a rookie \u2014 was have 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and seven steals. He joined Magic Johnson as the only rookies with 15 points, five assists and five steals in a conference finals game.<\/p>\n
That’s a monster night. And Wemby overshadowed that as only a 7-foot-4 man can.<\/p>\n
A look inside the night that was for Wembanyama:<\/p>\n
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41 points, 24 rebounds<\/p>\n
At 22, he’s the youngest to do that in NBA playoff history, seven months younger than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was when he had a 46-point, 25-rebound game in 1970.<\/p>\n
He’s the second-youngest to have such a game in the NBA, including regular season. Bob McAdoo had a 45-point, 25-rebound game as a 21-year-old in 1973.<\/p>\n
A 10th 40-point game<\/p>\n
The big games just come with more regularity now for Wembanyama. He now has 10 games of 40 or more points in his career. Of those, five were in his first 2 1\/2 seasons \u2014 and the last five have come in the last three months.<\/p>\n
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A career-best in rebounds<\/p>\n
The 24 rebounds topped his previous career-best of 23 rebounds, done on his 21st birthday \u2014 Jan, 4. 2025, against Denver. Since that was in the regular season, it’ll still be generally considered his \u201ccareer-high\u201d and the playoff one will stand on its own.<\/p>\n
12 free throws<\/p>\n
The 12 free throws made (he was 12 for 13) matched his second-most makes from the line in any game as a pro. He had 16 in a loss to Denver last month. The 12-of-13 effort was one of his best from the line during his NBA career; he was 12-for-12 against Phoenix in March and 16-for-17 in that game against the Nuggets in April.<\/p>\n
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The last word<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s one of a kind.\u201d \u2014 Harper, on Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
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AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) celebrates with teammates after winning Game 1 in a third-round NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[90344,1615,90343,17570,15131,23681,202,196,88116,42094,61343,942,82,84,83,109015,509],"class_list":["post-300012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bob-mcadoo","tag-denver","tag-kareem-abdul-jabbar","tag-magic-johnson","tag-mitch-johnson","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32001-ap-online-basketball-news","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40807-ap-oklahoma-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-spurs-wembanyama-playoffs-game-1","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}