The step was too high but Victor Wembanyama still tried to climb over it. The Frenchman delivered another big performance with San Antonio on Thursday on the legendary floor of Boston, solid leader of the Eastern Conference. The Celtics won (117-98) without much surprise against the last of the Western Conference but “Wemby” finished as the best scorer of the meeting with 27 points, including 10 in the first quarter where the Spurs hung the “C’s “, deprived of Latvian pivot Kristaps Porzingis and leader Derrick White.
“They all know their role”
The Frenchman, whose playing time increased slightly on Wednesday (27 compared to 24 usually due to an ankle under surveillance), also took 5 rebounds. In seven matches played in January, he scored on average 23.7 points. Wednesday , the 20-year-old giant (2.24 m), displayed his wide offensive range, between long shots, finesse approaches to the circle or a nice poster dunk over pivot Luke Kornet (2.16 m).
But Boston was able to count on Jayson Tatum (24 points) and Jrue Holiday (22 points) and still leads the Eastern Conference with 32 wins and 9 losses, while remaining undefeated at home (20 wins). Which impressed the former Paris-Levallois player.
“Everyone is a threat on the pitch,” he declared after the meeting. “But at the same time, they all know their role. And they’re all willing to share the ball, from the franchise’s most important players to the rotation players. Everyone is willing to compete and make sacrifices.” A subliminal message for his teammates?
At the end of the match, Gregg Popovich, legendary Spurs coach, sent a message to his troops. “We are going to lose a few more games,” he said. “We’re not going to win 47 games. It’s not important to me, and I’ll make sure it’s not important to them. We all like to win rather than lose. But if they don’t compete in a certain level or don’t perform to a certain level, we’ll be on them as much as if we won. If there’s someone who can’t handle that, they’ll go away.”
Original article published on RMC Sport
2024-01-18 05:30:54
#sacrifices #Wembanyama #brilliant #impressed #Boston #Spurs #defeat
