Played 21 minutes off the bench, making his presence felt with a goal difference of +21.
In the semifinals of the NBA Cup, it was a battle between the Thunder, who have an overwhelmingly strong record of 24 wins and 1 loss in the Western Conference, and the Spurs, who had Victor Wembanyama back in action. With Wembanyama starting on the bench due to limited playing time in his first game back, the Thunder showed their usual strength with an 11-point lead in the first quarter, but when Wembanyama appeared in the second quarter, the atmosphere of the game changed completely.
The first thing that made a difference for Wembanyama was his offensive rebounding. The Thunder’s strength lies in their strong defense against the opponent’s handlers, and the Spurs’ young Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper were being pushed by this pressure and were forced to take difficult shots, but Wembanyama helped them out. Even when he is boxed out, he uses his long arms to get involved with the ball, sometimes tipping it directly into the hoop, or flipping the ball and passing it out to connect with Harper’s 3-point shot, allowing him to score on second chances.
On the other hand, the Thunder’s offense repeatedly passed out to avoid Wembanyama’s rim protection, but could not land a 3-point shot. Even so, they could not penetrate the bottom of the goal where Wembanyama’s block was waiting, and the offense became dysfunctional. Although Wembanyama only played 7 minutes in the first half, he showed an overwhelming presence with a +20 goal difference when he was on court.
In the second half, Spurs’ play improved dramatically even with Wembanyama on the bench. Especially on the defensive side, the number of times he can stop the drives of Shai Guilty Alexander and Jalen Williams with his man mark will increase. On the offensive side, they have gotten used to the Thunder’s pressure and have fewer turnovers, attacking aggressively and bringing the game to even play.
When Wembanyama returned to the court, he forcibly scored with an alley-oop that took advantage of his unreasonable height, and even when a teammate’s pass was about to be snatched away, he used his long limbs to cover it. Above all, the Thunder’s offense became all about jump shots out of fear of attacking the paint, and their success rate decreased.
It was a tough game with both players having a field goal success rate of 41%, but Wembanyama was able to tenaciously take off-balance tough shots and had 22 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 21 minutes of play. In the end, it was a foul game, but the Spurs won the game 111-109.
It was as if Wembanyama’s presence alone had thrown all of Thunder’s calculations into disarray. In the second half, Spurs were full of confidence, thinking, “With Wembanyama, we should come out on top in the end,” and that turned out to be a good performance, a complete change from the first half. The superstar had an overwhelming presence, drawing all allies and enemies into his pace.
