Michael C. Wright
Multiple Authors
SAN ANTONIO — Still contemplative in the aftermath of a 104-102 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama lamented what he described as energy mismanagement for ruining a historic defensive performance.
Wembanyama racked up an NBA-playoffs-record 12 blocks Monday night and scored 11 points with 15 rebounds, becoming the third player in postseason history to log a triple-double with blocks, after Andrew Bynum and Hakeem Olajuwon.
But Wembanyama believes his energy could have been used more effectively.
“I feel like I had to use my energy,” he said. “Obviously, I used a lot of it on one side of the court. On the other side, offensively, I used too much energy on things that didn’t really help our team. So, that’s on me. There was some good and some bad. It’s a lot on me because my game wasn’t feeling good tonight [to] where the team is going to look for me. If I had been better, if the offensive leaders on our team would have been better, it would have been different. So, basically, if everything was different, it would have been different.”
Wembanyama’s last remark drew chuckles from the assembled media, but what wasn’t a laughing matter was his performance and decision-making on the offensive end. In addition to connecting on his lowest field goal percentage (29%) so far in the playoffs, Wembanyama missed all eight of his attempts from 3-point range, which registered as the most misses from deep without a make by a player in Spurs playoff history.
Minnesota’s tenacious defense played a role, especially the frontcourt duo of Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle, which continuously pushed Wembanyama off his spots and prevented him from establishing a presence in the paint. The Timberwolves contested 14 of Wembanyama’s 17 attempts, holding the 22-year-old to 5-of-14 shooting on those attempts.
A four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Gobert defended Wembanyama more than anyone else, especially in the first half. But Randle took the assignment for the majority of the second half. On the 24 plays that ended with Randle as the final defender, the Spurs averaged 0.73 points per play, shooting 5-of-16 with three turnovers.
Wembanyama shot 0-for-2 on those plays with one turnover.
“Honestly, I need to look at the film again to see a little bit more, the dynamics,” he said. “Right now, it’s a little bit blurry for me. I think I played the last 16 minutes of the game, maybe, and it just went by like this. That’s not good. It means I didn’t have the grasp on the game that I wish I did.”
That didn’t stop Wembanyama from establishing a block party vibe early at Frost Bank Center. He swatted away two Terrence Shannon Jr. attempts at the rim over the first 40 seconds of play. Wembanyama tallied three blocks in the first quarter and finished the opening half with seven total as the teams entered intermission deadlocked at 45.
“Yeah, he had a lot of blocks,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “He had a couple of uncalled goaltends, too. So, those are valuable points we’d like to have back. I thought there was smarter offense to be had in the second half, and I think we did a better job of finding that.”
San Antonio searched, too, but came up empty. Wembanyama and veteran point guard De’Aaron Fox shot a combined 10-of-31 with nine turnovers.
The Spurs entered this second-round series shooting 42% from 3-point range throughout the playoffs but connected on just 27.8% in Game 1. Fox and Wembanyana came into Game 1 averaging a combined 41.2 points in the playoffs.
With 3:49 left to play, Randle gave Minnesota its biggest lead of the night by knocking down a 13-foot turnaround jumper. But with 30.9 seconds remaining, a Dylan Harper dunk pulled San Antonio within two points.
Julian Champagnie missed a potential game winner from 26 feet out at the buzzer.
“We’re going to watch film and stuff, but I don’t need to hear it from somebody else that I played bad,” Fox said. “I know I played bad. But you take it on the chin, move on and try to play better next game.”
At 22 years and 120 days old, Wembanyama became the youngest player in Spurs history to log a triple-double in the playoffs, surpassing Hall of Famer Tim Duncan, who accomplished the feat in 2002 at 25 years and 360 days old.
“He played great,” Harper said. “We didn’t get the win, but I think for him it’s another building block and building stone on just how good he can truly be on offense and defense. Next game is going to be even better because that’s the type of guy his is.”
ESPN’s Anthony Slater and ESPN Research contributed to this report.
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