Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs did not exist last night during the reception of the Phoenix Suns. They were swept aside without any possible discussion (106-131), and the holders, including Wemby, even remained sitting on the bench for the entirety of the fourth quarter, when the gap was already made.
The Spurs had however beaten the Suns twice at the start of the season. “It was kind of a warm-up at the time for them,” jokes Gregg Popovich, the Texan coach. Six months later, the situation has changed and Phoenix, 6th in the Western Conference, is firmly established in the race for the play-offs. San Antonio, on the other hand, is struggling at the bottom of the rankings, and the only positive point of this difficult season will be the possibility of inheriting a new advantageous Draft round, with the best choices being reserved for the worst teams from the previous year.
With only 15 successes this season, San Antonio will surely do worse than last season (20), which was already a historically bad year. Last night, against the Suns, the presence of Victor Wembanyama changed nothing. The Frenchman finished with one of his worst performances of the season (13 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block and 5 turnovers). Except during the first quarter, where he crossed the arc in two strides to score, the Frenchman seemed a little out of his depth, sometimes opposing Nurkic, sometimes Durant, or even Bol Bol, l the other giant of the NBA (2.21m).
The failure, however, is more collective than individual. On the other side, Kevin Durant scored 25 points and Devin Booker 32, the great architects of Phoenix’s victory in Texas.
Used more often than usual in attack, Victor Wembanyama frequently carried the ball and organized the game, but was not necessarily very happy in the exercise. “We have mainly focused, since the start of the season, on making him work on his defense, his counterattacks, his rebounds,” explains Popovich. This perhaps corresponds more to his natural qualities. The rest will come later. » Spurs have 11 games left to improve before the end of the season. But given the ranking of San Antonio, already eliminated from the race for the final stages, it is now during the Draft and the transfer market that everything will be decided for the Texan franchise.
