Victor Wembanyama “will be remembered forever”

The most compelling 1-on-1 matchup possible to decide an NBA game took place on the third night of 2025.

Nikola Jokic holding the basketball at the free throw line. Victor Wembanyama defended the basket and protected a one-point lead.

Nine years separated the generational centers as Jokic attempted his patented shot, the Sombor Shuffle, Friday night in Denver. But here’s how quickly Wembanyama is catching up to arguably the best player in the world: When they faced each other 24 hours later in San Antonio, they were only eight years apart.

The younger man won the battle at Ball Arena, surviving a clash that puts hairs on his chest every time. A few hours later, he was 21 years old.

“MVP multiple times. He will be MVP again soon,” Wembanyama said, describing Jokic. “I couldn’t ask for a better way to improve.”

The three-time league MVP returned the compliment by calling Wembanyama “the one we’ll remember forever.”

The final play will likely appear on Wembanyama’s list of highlights for his bid for Defensive Player of the Year. Jamal Murray handed the ball to Jokic with 17 seconds left and played chase, receiving a handoff to start a two-man play that “usually works well” in clutch situations, as Jokic pointed out. Murray, who took the blame for the 113-110 loss after a 6-of-17 shooting night, dribbled to the left elbow then passed to Jokic at the nail. The point guard moved back to the perimeter while Jokic assessed Wembanyama and prepared to improvise.

“Maybe I should shoot him right away,” Jokic said looking back. “Then I tried to get in touch, and Champagnie kind of slipped in. I couldn’t get in touch with Wemby.”

The double team was a drag. Jokic was afraid that Champagnie would push the ball away if he continued to move backwards on Wembanyama.

“I tried to shoot the fadeaway, but it already gathered, so I (thought) he would block it,” Jokic continued. “So maybe I should let him block it, and hopefully the ball goes out of bounds (off San Antonio).”

Instead, he tried to be audible as he launched his shot – one of the most unhittable shots in the sport. The Sombor Shuffle, nicknamed after his hometown in Serbia, is so special in part because Jokic seems to reserve it for only the most essential situations. In the quarterfinals of the Olympics last summer, he went there in the final minute of overtime, completing a 24-point comeback against Australia to send Serbia to the medal round.

It’s a one-legged fadeaway, catapulted out of a bizarre but impenetrable release spot behind the 6-foot-11 center’s head.

Jokic rarely gets out of this release point, because he rarely needs it. Wembanyama is the exception. Sensing the Frenchman’s stature, Jokic tried to throw a cross pass to Michael Porter Jr. on the left wing. It never stood a chance. Devin Vassell intercepted it and returned it for a dunk.

“It was a bad turnover,” Jokic said.

Only his second of the match. The Sombor Shuffle had met the Le Chesnay Lean.

“I got a little piece of it,” Wembanyama said. “It’s not an easy thing to do in a full game, contesting that specific shot for a full game. Because there are a lot of counters (Jokic uses). But in a position like this, it was good defense.

“Of course he can do it,” Jokic said, “because he’s a special player.”

The Nuggets could have used a timeout to advance the ball with 1.7 seconds left, but the Spurs were disorganized after the dunk. Murray rushed to the ball and threw a long inbounds pass to Porter, who raised a pretty clean 3-pointer at the buzzer. It was wide to the right. Jokic, in retrospect, thought it wasn’t a mistake on either Michael Malone’s or the players’ part to call one out. Porter felt that “when a team is up three points these days, teams just zone at the 3-point line, and they foul as soon as you inbound the ball, so sometimes it’s better not to call for time dead.”

“It hasn’t been us. Usually we were very good in terms of closing out games and finishing games, and we just couldn’t do that tonight,” Malone said.

Denver’s spacing around Jokic was particularly costly in allowing San Antonio to generate the game-winning steal. After catching the ball at the foul line, the Nuggets drained the strong side, giving him half the court to operate. Champagnie’s double team naturally had to leave someone relatively open on the weakside perimeter, and the Spurs were content to leave Russell Westbrook, a 32 percent outside shooter this season. Often when Jokic posts up, Denver keeps a shooter on the strong wing so he has an escape valve in case of a death.

This time his only choice other than trying his luck with the Sombor Shuffle against Wembanyama was to throw a desperate crossfield pass towards Porter. Jokic didn’t take issue with his teammates’ spacing “because it wasn’t a post-up; it was a game of nails, isolation of nails,” he said. “And I kind of waited and then I went to the station. Yeah, so it was different (spacing). I could definitely do better, at least just to give it a try.

“I think it’s good to eliminate guys,” Porter said. “And then you just have to space the right way in the back. … It happened pretty quickly, because we all thought he was going to try to score.

Jokic finished with 41 points and 18 rebounds, but shot 15 of 36. Wembanyama, fittingly playing his 100th career game, led the Spurs with a more efficient 35 points and 18 rebounds. He played most of the fourth quarter with five fouls, knocking down crucial pull-ups and sidestep 3-pointers that would have seemed unfathomable for a 7-foot-4 center to attempt two years ago.

“When I watch (the Spurs), it kind of reminds me of how we use Nikola,” Malone said before Friday’s game. “They put him in every action imaginable. He’s going to set up a ball screen. He’ll handle a ball screen. He’s going to install a pin. He’s going to get a pin. He will receive an elbow iso.

The moment Wembanyama was drafted first overall by San Antonio in 2023, contenders such as Denver were immediately on board to maximize their championship windows. The Spurs (18-16) are already surpassing their performance in his sophomore season as he averages 26 points and four blocks. His 100th game was also a reminder that Jokic’s “best in the world” window is limited – even if he still gets an MVP nod from Wembanyama himself.

“Jokic is one of those guys that, even though they’re double-teamed every game, he makes his teammates better,” the 20-year-old said (at the time). “And that’s 100% what I want to be.”