The San Antonio Spurs beat Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors last night (104-94), thanks in particular to an immense Victor Wembanyama in the last quarter.
It took him a while to get back into the swing of things, but his fantastic fourth quarter led the San Antonio Spurs to victory: back from injury after a week’s absence (hematoma in the leg), Victor Wembanyama was last night one of the key players in a prestigious victory over the best team in the Western Conference, Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors (104-94).
Trailing by 17 points towards the end of the third half, the Spurs managed quite unexpectedly to turn the situation around at the end of the game, and while everyone in the Texan squad more or less rose to the occasion, Wemby once again dominated the whole team by a wide margin.
24 points, the best total of the match, but also 9 assists and 7 rebounds: the French pivot didn’t come very far from a triple-double. Not very successful at the start of the match, clearly tired and out of rhythm, he found the target at the end of the match. “It took me a little while to find the rhythm, to catch up, he admits. My physical condition was a little difficult in the first half, but it was better in the second period.”
The fourth quarter at Wemby? A model of its kind. He started it with a brilliant pass to Julian Champagnie, then with two counters in a row that we will probably never get used to, two seconds apart, first on Jackson-Davis then on Kuminga. He then showed himself in attack: with three steps, he crossed the racket and deposited the ball in the circle without anyone being able to intervene.
“I hope we’ll be taken seriously one day”
During a rather difficult evening from three-point range (only 4 out of 13), he succeeded in one of his attempts from afar in the middle of the third quarter, bringing his team to within 1 point of the Warriors. But Stephen Curry responded to him immediately, like a bitter remake of the Olympic final. Victor Wembanyama finished the match like a cannonball, while others, after several failures in the first half, would have thrown in the towel. “Stop shooting? Never!”, replied the player. “Every night, I’ll keep shooting.”
The Frenchman also made people play around him, serving Barnes twice while the entire defense had their eyes fixed on him. “I get a lot of satisfaction from it,” confided Wemby. “Before, I didn’t make as many assists. But I’m now at a stage in my career where I have to do better on this point, for my development. I want to force opponents to defend me with several players. » Defensively, the Spurs raise their voice and only concede 13 points in the final act.
The victory against the Warriors was also made possible by the tireless activity of rookie Stephon Castle (19 points), assigned to defend Stephen Curry; and the efficiency of veteran Harrison Barnes (22 points). Not to mention the presence of the precious Chris Paul, a master in the art of knowing how to play with the strong and weak moments of a match. “It’s priceless to work with him,” admires Wemby. “He saved me a lot of time by teaching me to read how defenses adapted to me.”
For the Spurs, things are starting to take shape: they now have a positive record (9-8), after having notably beaten… the top three in the Western Conference (Warriors, Thunder, Rockets), the toughest. “Chris Paul told us in the locker room: we celebrate the wins, but there’s not a single game where we shouldn’t expect to win,” Wemby said. “We’re on the right track, we’re making progress, and the statistics show it. The more wins we have, the more seriously we’ll be taken. I hope we’ll be taken seriously one day.”
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