The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs last night to win the third annual NBA Cup. It was a thrilling, back-and-forth game, but in the end, NBA Cup MVP Jalen Brunson and his teammates were able to do enough to overcome a fourth-quarter deficit and give Knicks fans something to cheer about.
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On the other side, there had to be mixed emotions for the Spurs. They had just knocked off the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday, handing the defending champs just their second loss of the season in one of the most exciting games of the year. Falling one step short of winning the whole thing had to be discouraging after that win, but they have to feel good about where they are as a team heading into the final two-thirds of the season.
Victor Wembanyama had an up-and-down game by his standards against the Knicks. He got hot in the third quarter to help the Spurs take control, but he also had a quiet fourth quarter when things got tight, and he seemed to shy away from the physicality of Mitchell Robinson as the game went on. Unlike when he dominated against the Thunder, the Spurs lost big during Wemby’s minutes in this one, as he finished -18.
Brian Windhorst and The Hoop Collective spoke about Wemby afterward. Windy pointed out that the Spurs lost the lead in the fourth quarter before Wemby came back in with around eight minutes left, but he didn’t like what he saw from that point forward.
“Victor’s temperament over that last eight minutes was not what you want to see from a player of his level,” Windy said. “He takes four shots, three of them are 3s … He does not have a rebound. While the Knicks are dominating on the boards, Victor is nowhere to be found on the boards … If there’s gonna be a takeaway from this game, Victor can’t have a non-impactful fourth quarter in a game with stakes where it’s decided in the fourth quarter.”
Windhorst didn’t find out until a bit later that Wemby was grieving over the loss of his grandmother earlier that day, so he gets a pass on that front, but it was great that Tim Bontemps immediately kneecapped him by deadpanning in response, “That’s a very high-level analysis there. The best player on the Spurs needs to be better if the Spurs are gonna win high-level games. I would agree with that.”
Was this Wemby’s best game? Absolutely not. But Windhorst seems to have forgotten that the French superstar was playing on a minutes restriction, because he had just made his return from a calf injury that kept him out almost a month.
Star players are going down left and right with Achilles injuries, so the Spurs were right to play it safe with Wemby’s calf, even though they were playing for the NBA Cup title. His long-term health is paramount, and that also could have figured into why he lingered on the perimeter instead of banging more down low.
The problem with Wemby is that he’s shown the ability to do superhuman things that basketball fans have never witnessed before. When the bar is that high, anything below it is seen as a failure or a disappointment. He’s his own worst enemy in that sense, since people won’t be satisfied unless he constantly clears that bar.
Wemby’s injury and minutes restriction, plus the fact that he was dealing with the loss of his grandma, should be more than enough to give him some grace for what, by his standards, was a subpar performance. He still did finish with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks in 25 minutes, so it’s not like he was a bum.
This loss should do nothing to diminish the excitement over Wemby’s potential, or the Spurs’ outlook as one of the teams best positioned to challenge the Thunder for the next few years. Wemby is as competitive as they come, and this will only fuel him to become better.
