Where did Victor Wembanyama go? The spectacular player who invented new gestures in each match, drew exclamations from the spectators, and pulled his team to the top? Last night, during a clear defeat for the Spurs in Oklahoma City (105-93), he produced the worst performance, if not the worst, of his young NBA career: 6 small points including 4 on free throws, only 5 shots attempted and none in the second half. Defensively, he didn’t have much more impact, despite 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. Above all, the Frenchman gave the unpleasant impression that something is not right.
All evening he seemed annoyed, not into it. In the last minutes of the match, sitting on the bench like most of the starters while the score is already decided, we see him moaning while pointing to the floor, along with Jeremy Sochan.
Not since his debut on American courts a year ago has Wemby scored so few points in a match. Never had he drawn so many sighs of disappointment and impatience from the supporters of his franchise. “Everyone is in the right state of mind,” said the Frenchman in the locker room after the match. But I don’t know, maybe it’s our youth, but maybe we also feel a little lost. »
Nothing went his way during the meeting, where he was shaken, as often since the start of the season. He caused a technical foul by being pushed in the back by Luguentz Dort, then he received (unintentionally) Chet Holmgren‘s elbow in the face. In the meantime, he had slipped on the floor during a duel with Ajay Mitchell, twisting his ankle, forcing him to return to the locker room for a few minutes.
Is Victor Wembanyama physically impaired, or is there something else? “I have no concerns about him,” assures his teammate Harrison Barnes. I meet him closely: his state of mind is the right one. He just needs time. » We must add to the record of his night 4 ball losses while he only spent 27 minutes on the floor. He seemed lost, often in a bad place, perhaps tossed between his desire to play out wide when he wanted and the staff’s wish to see him get closer to the circle. After a while, Oklahoma even stopped defending with two on the Spurs pivot. The Wemby magic has disappeared for the moment.
Contrast with his rival Chet Holmgren
The contrast with Chet Holmgren is total: while the American chained successful three-point shots in the heart of the first half (19 points and 70% success rate), Victor Wembanyama, for his part, persisted in failing in the long run. distance (3 failures in quick succession). “You shouldn’t look at things individually,” Holmgren elegantly eludes about the duel he largely won last night. We take these meetings as an opposition of teams; This is the state of mind we are all in. » The Thunder player felt so confident facing the 2023-2024 rookie of the year that he tried this gesture that both of them had succeeded in last season: sending the ball against the board before recovering it to mark. Wemby, who had felt the blow, avoided the humiliation of a highlight at his expense with a movement of his hand.
The Spurs, who aimed to be in the fight for qualification in the playoffs, seem to have regressed compared to the end of last season. Enough to annoy coach Gregg Popovich, who clearly cannot find the right formula despite the reinforcement of two experienced players in the offseason (Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes), and who took out his nerves on his players at the start. outcome of the meeting.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting,” he apologized to journalists after the meeting, “but I had things to say to my team. I love the Thunder, they’re a better team than us, fighting for the playoffs and maybe more, but that shouldn’t be an excuse: we’re trying to reach their level, and we have to is improving. » The Spurs will be able to benchmark themselves this Thursday evening, in a back-to-back match against the Utah Jazz. Ill in recent days and injured in the ankle in Oklahoma City, Victor Wembanyama could be left to rest.
