In just his fifth career NBA game, French sensation Victor Wembanyama exploded for 38 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks in a monster night to lead Spurs to a 132-121 win over the Phoenix Suns.
He became the first rookie player to tally that scoreline, in what was a new career-high in pointscoring for the 19-year-old centre.
Wembanyama tallied 20 points by halftime as the Spurs took a 75-55 lead over the title-contending Suns, capped off by a huge dunk on the stroke of halftime.
“Look out, lift off and detonation for Victor Wembanyama,” the commentator said.
His ‘detonation’ of the Phoenix defence continued in the second half, with Wembanyama finishing with a game-high plus-minus of +21, shooting 15/26 from the floor for a 57.7% accuracy, and adding three triples from six attempts.
It handed the superstar duo of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker their first loss as a combination, having gone 9-0 when playing together before tonight.
Spurs led by as many as 27 points before the Suns roared back in the second half, tying the game with four minutes to play.
But Phoenix was out-rebounded and gave up the ball far too often with 14 turnovers to eight, and Wembanyama took over at the death to claim a big win and a 3-2 record.
Booker tallied a near triple-double with 31 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds, while Durant had 28 points and six rebounds.
But they weren’t able to keep up with the 7’4” centre who led San Antonio to back-to-back wins over the Suns, who slip to 2-3 for the season.
The Frenchmen’s 38 points was the equal third-most from a rookie in franchise history.
Sixers journalist Kye Neubeck wrote: “He is absolutely destroying these dudes my god.”
EMBIID’S SIXERS GET THE JOB DONE
Joel Embiid scored 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead Philadelphia on Thursday to a 114-99 victory over the Toronto Raptors in the 76ers’ first NBA game since trading James Harden.
Kelly Oubre Jr. and Tobias Harris added 23 points apiece and Tyrese Maxey had 18 for the 76ers, who notched a third straight victory and improved to 3-1 in a young season that had so far been overshadowed by Harden’s trade demand.
Maxey insisted that Harden’s professionalism meant there were no distractions for a team adjusting to new coach Nick Nurse.
“Everybody was really focused on trying to get better,” Maxey said of pre-season preparations. “This is Coach Nurse’s first year, so we were trying to learn schemes, learn how he thinks … there wasn’t much of a distraction at all.” Nurse said before the game that from a competitive standpoint Harden’s trade to the Los Angeles Clippers “would have been better a month ago.” Of the new arrivals in the deal — Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, KJ Martin and Marcus Morris — only Covington and Martin entered the game — in the final minutes.
Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Embiid made just eight of 22 shots from the floor but connected on 12 of 13 from the free-throw line and handed out seven assists.
Oubre started in place of PJ Tucker — who was part of the Harden trade — and connected on five of six three-point attempts.
“He’s got a high compete level,” Nurse said of Oubre, who scored 10 points in the third quarter and drained a three-pointer in the fourth that helped halt a Raptors rally bid.
“He’s competing at both ends … when we kind of needed a little boost here and there he made some plays to kind of keep the momentum rolling our way or turning back our way.”
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SCORES
76ers 114 bt Raptors 99
Pelicans 125 bt Pistons 116
Jazz 113 lost to Magic 115