Victor Wembanyama returns with 40-point showing in Spurs’ win

Dallas– Victor Wembanyama stood beside Julian Champagnie In front of the scorer’s table at the American Airlines Center, praising his work.

His conclusion?

“That was great.”

A few minutes ago, the French pump-fake, was sending pj washington Skyward, then a dribble toward the basket for a thunderous, reverse windmill dunk that shook the mic-up rim, sent San Antonio Spurs Bench in a frenzy. pacing a 125-92 Stomping of dallas mavericksVembanyama on Wednesday showed all he had learned from the transformative summer that changed him physically and mentally.

,[I was] “There is a lot of self-control,” Wembanyama said. i’m not worried about brains [that] Because I saw what it’s like to be faced with potentially losing a lot, whether it’s your career or your health. So, I am not taking it lightly anymore. Body? I’m having more fun now because I don’t have to struggle as much to move. I know I still need to get better, and I’m still going to get better.”

The blocks, dunks, shots, sophisticated footwork and post moves – not to mention the intuition to know how to best deploy them – belied the fact that Wembanyama had not played in an NBA game in 8 months, 11 days before the win over the Mavs. The residual rust was negligible as Vembanyama played poorly, becoming the first player since 1977–78 to score 40 points with 15 rebounds and 3 blocks with no turnovers, while shooting 70% from the field.

Wembanyama’s 40 points are the most for a player in a season opener in San Antonio franchise history.

“He’s been out for eight months,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “So, you saw him take advantage of the moment and play great. But honestly, the most impressive line [is] Zero turnover. The amount of original sound they produced tonight was impressive.”

Dallas started the game with its big lineup featuring anthony davis And Derek Lively II Managing the frontcourt.

Vembanyama joined that group, hitting 4 of 5 shots for 11 points with a block in the opening frame. feigning a pass out on the wing Harrison BarnesVembanyama freezes No. 1 draft pick cooper flag Long enough to take a step over the newbie for the driving Tomahawk Dunk. Shortly after, Vembanyama installed the No. 2 pick dylan harper For the first assist of his career. The Frenchman pump-faked Lively to get him into the air, then threw it back to the Spurs rookie at the top of the key.

Harper immediately threw it back to Wembanyama for a two-handed jam on Lively.

“Man, that guy’s 7-3,” Davis said. “I think some of the foul calls were a little questionable. But when he’s 7-3 and standing in front of you, nobody’s going to block a shot. He’s shooting over the top. At that point, you just pray he misses.”

It’s tougher now because Wembanyama’s teammates have found ways to get him high-percentage shots. With 8:28 remaining before halftime, the second-year guard stephen castle In the transition towards Vembanyama drove an alley-oop, heading past Dwight PowellFor reverse dunk. It’s clear that last season’s NBA Rookie of the Year spent the offseason working on his chemistry with Wembanyama.

Cassel and Wembanyama either scored or assisted 42 of San Antonio’s 60 first-half points, while the Spurs led by nine at the break.

,[It’s] Just a lot of reps, watching a lot of film together,” Castle said. “I think that helps and it gets overlooked a lot. Being able to watch film with a guy that you’re going to do a lot of pick-and-rolls with and having a lot of transition buckets has definitely helped. Being able to know where he likes the ball with the double team, where they’re going to come from. Man, we’ve been working on this all summer, and it’s starting to take shape.”

Vembanyama had perhaps his most impressive highlight of the night during a 10-point, third-quarter outburst in which he made 3 of 4 shots with 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal. Vembanyama hit a lively shot at the rim that Castle immediately connected on to start the fast break. The guard immediately threw the ball back to Wembanyama, who drove in before hitting a step-back 3 as Lively drew the foul.

Wembanyama completed a four-point play to extend San Antonio’s lead to 14 points.

“He’s unbelievable. He’s a different player,” Flagg said. “You don’t know what it’s like until you’re on the court with him. It’s something I’ve never seen before. He was very good tonight, but we have to do a better job of taking away some of his looks, and we can’t get him to foul as much as we did.”

Johnson beat Wembanyama shortly after connecting on a 13-foot fadeaway, putting the Spurs up 30 points. At that time, Vembanyama admitted, he began to contemplate his summer of transformation, and the long journey began with a diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis in February.

“It feels like every day we try to place a brick to build a huge mansion, and it feels like the job is done,” Wembanyama said. “This is what we’ve been working for. This is what we’ve fought for for so long and I felt like it fit. I felt like I belonged in my place. We needed to make a statement in our locker room. The feeling really was that there wasn’t anything we really could have done more to help us today. It felt like we did everything we needed to do. We felt prepared and we felt like we had no regrets about those things.” There will be things we should have worked on or things we should have worked on. Summer. I was comfortable with the work we’ve done and the preparation we’ve done up to this point. “Now all the dice are thrown in the Western Conference.”