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Michael C. Wright
DALLAS — Victor Wembanyama stood next to Julian Champagnie at the scorer’s table at the American Airlines Center, admiring his own work.
His conclusion?
“It was nice.”
Minutes earlier, the Frenchman faked it, sending PJ Washington skyward, then dribbled toward the basket for a thunderous reverse windmill dunk that shook the rim of the mic, sending the San Antonio Spurs bench into a frenzy. In beating the Dallas Mavericks 125-92, Wembanyama showed on Wednesday everything he had gleaned from a transformative summer that changed him physically and mentally.
“(I was) much more in control of myself,” Wembanyama said. “The mind, I don’t worry about that because I’ve seen what it’s like to be faced with potentially losing a lot, whether it’s your career or your health. So, I don’t take that for granted anymore. The body? I’m having more fun now that I don’t have as much trouble moving. I know I still need to improve, and I’m going to improve further.”
The blocks, the dunks, the shots, the fancy footwork and post moves – not to mention the intuition required to know how best to deploy them – belied the fact that Wembanyama hadn’t played in an NBA game in 8 months, 11 days before the win against the Mavs. Residual rust was non-existent as Wembanyama raced through Dallas, 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 record 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 spectacularly. But honestly, the most impressive line (is) zero turnovers. The amount of fundamentally sound plays he made tonight was impressive.”
Dallas started the game with its big lineup including Anthony Davis and Derek Lively II in the frontcourt.
Wembanyama ran through this group, hitting 4 of 5 shots for 11 points with a block in the opening period. Pretending to pass out on Harrison Barnes’ wing, Wembanyama froze No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg just long enough to one-step the rookie for a driving tomahawk dunk. Shortly after, Wembanyama pointed to second choice Dylan Harper for his first career assist. The Frenchman faked Lively to get it off the ground, then fired it back to the Spurs rookie at the top of the key.
Harper immediately sent it back to Wembanyama in a back-and-forth two-handed jam against Lively.
“Man, this guy is 7-3,” Davis said. “I think some of the fouls were a little questionable. But when he’s 7-3 and standing in front of you, no one’s going to block a shot. He shoots over the top. At that point, you’re just praying he misses.”
It’s tough now that Wembanyama’s teammates have found a way to get him a high shooting percentage. With 8:28 left in the intermission, sophomore guard Stephon Castle fired an alley-oop in transition to Wembanyama, who was passing Dwight Powell, for a reverse dunk. It’s clear that last season’s NBA Rookie of the Year spent the offseason working with Wembanyama on their chemistry.
Castle and Wembanyama scored or assisted on 42 of San Antonio’s 60 first-half points as the Spurs led by nine at intermission.
“(It’s) just a lot of rehearsals, a lot of film together,” Castle said. “I feel like it helps and is often overlooked. 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 a 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.”
Wembanyama notched perhaps his most impressive highlight of the night during a 10-point burst in the third quarter in which he shot 3 of 4 with 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal. Wembanyama fired a Lively shot to the rim that Castle quickly connected to initiate a fast break. The goalkeeper immediately returned the ball to the Frenchman, who faked inside before completing a stepback 3 as Lively committed the foul.
Wembanyama completed the 4-point play from the free throw line 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 great tonight, but we have to do a better job of trying to take away some of his looks and we can’t foul him as much as we did.”
Johnson replaced Wembanyama shortly after connecting on a 13-foot fadeaway that gave the Spurs a 30-point lead. At that point, Wembanyama admitted, he began reflecting on his transformative summer and the long journey that began in February with a diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis.
“It feels like every day we try to lay a brick to build a huge mansion, and it feels like the job is done for the day,” Wembanyama said. “This is what we worked for. This is what we fought for for so long, and I felt like it was a good fit. I felt like I belonged. We had to make a statement in our locker room. The feeling really was that there really wasn’t anything more we could have done to help ourselves today. It felt like we had done everything we needed to do. We felt ready and we felt like we wouldn’t have any regrets about things on which we should have worked or that we should have done this summer. I was comfortable with the work we did and the preparation so far. Now all the die is cast in the Western Conference.”
