{"id":652522,"date":"2026-05-19T14:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652522\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:44:08","slug":"victor-wembanyama-admits-its-personal-going-against-sga-thunder-after-mvp-snub-i-want-to-get-that-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652522\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama admits it’s personal going against SGA, Thunder after MVP snub: \u2018I want to get that trophy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Wembanyama admits it’s personal going against SGA, Thunder after MVP snub: \u2018I want to get that trophy\u2019<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals was any indication, Victor Wembanyama<\/a> is out for blood against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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He has plenty of reasons for extra motivation; not only is a trip to his first NBA Finals on the line, but the Spurs<\/a> and Thunder also built a rivalry in the regular season that saw Wembanyama’s side win four different games, some of the few OKC losses all year.<\/p>\n

When Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> was named the NBA’s back-to-back MVP on Sunday, it gave Wembanyama yet another reason to take the matchup personally \u2014 and he showed out by dominated Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the Game 1 numbers from Wembanyama and Gilgeous-Alexander, and what the Spurs star had to say about his MVP snub.<\/p>\n

NBA PLAYOFFS HQ:Live NBA scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NBA playoff schedule<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NBA playoff bracket<\/a><\/p>\n

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Victor Wembanyama vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Game 1 stats<\/p>\n

The final numbers for Gilgeous-Alexander were much more on-par with his stardom, masking an extremely slow start. But it’s also no understatement to say that Game 1 on Monday night may have been one of his worst performances of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

Coming off the heels of his MVP announcement, Gilgeous-Alexander went for 24 points, but on 7-of-23 shooting (30.4%) from the floor. He did add 12 assists and five steals with five turnovers, but his plus-minus sat at -15, the worst on the Thunder.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama, meanwhile, put forth perhaps the most dominant performance of his career to date, considering the circumstances: in his first playoff run, he guided his team to a Game 1 win on the road of the Western Conference Finals by commanding both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

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Not only did Wembanyama play a new career-high 49 minutes, but he was outstanding in all 49. He finished with 41 points, 24 rebounds, three assists, three blocks and three turnovers while shooting 14-of-25 (56.0%) from the floor, with his plus-minus of +16 being the Spurs’ best.<\/p>\n

Between his total figures, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to post 40 points and 20 rebounds in a playoff game, and his collection of clutch plays, including a stunning 3-pointer from near the logo to tie it at 108 in overtime, Wembanyama looked like the best basketball player in the world on Monday night.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Where Victor Wembanyama, SGA rank among best remaining players in NBA playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n

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Victor Wembanyama opens up about MVP snub<\/p>\n

Wembanyama’s performance came just one day after Gilgeous-Alexander officially finished first on MVP ballots, receiving 83 first-place votes, while he finished in third with five first-place votes.<\/p>\n

Postgame, Wembanyama was asked if “any part of tonight” felt personal due to the MVP results.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, for sure. Everything you just said,” Wembanyama said, agreeing with the notion that he took the matchup personally.<\/p>\n

A follow-up question asked Wembanyama what it felt like to see Gilgeous-Alexander get the MVP award, then go out and dominate in Game 1.<\/p>\n

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“Feels like I still got a lot to learn,” Wembanyama said. “I want to get that trophy many times in my career.”<\/p>\n

MORE:Why Victor Wembanyama’s clutch 3-pointer is drawing 2016 Steph Curry comparisons\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama admits it’s personal going against SGA, Thunder after MVP snub: \u2018I want to get that trophy\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[137787,355,272693,281397,6402,6407,99,281398,3781,32090,69310],"class_list":["post-652522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-gilgeous-alexander","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoff-bracket","tag-nba-playoff-schedule","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-sports","tag-spurs-and-thunder","tag-steph-curry","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-western-conference-finals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}