Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama has second 5×5 night of his career in win over Jazz

Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama has second 5×5 night of his career in win over Jazz

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San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama added to his list of career achievements Thursday night by recording his second 5×5 statistical line game in just his 76th NBA game.

Wembanyama tallied 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five blocks and five steals in the Spurs’ 106-88 win over the Utah Jazz at Delta Center. It marked the 23rd time a player has tallied at least five points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks in a game in NBA history, dating to when the league started tracking blocks in 1973. It’s the first one since Wembanyama accomplished the feat last season in a February loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 20-year-old was a plus 43 overall for the game, dominating every inch of the court in every aspect. He accomplished all of this in 33 minutes.

“It tells me that I need to get my standards up,” Wembanyama said. “It tells me that I’m able to help my team in all of those areas and that this should be a consistent thing. As I’ve said before, I thought this was a game that we must have. So I was glad that I was able to help my team in every area.”

Wembanyama becomes the third player in NBA history to have multiple 5×5 games, joining Andrei Kirilenko (three) and Hakeem Olajuwon (six).

 

Wembanyama set the tone for the night early. He took 3-pointers on San Antonio’s first two possessions. And in all, he took 13 threes on the night, a career high. But he also mixed in everything in between. He got into the midrange. He got to the basket and went aggressively to the hoop. He shut down the paint defensively, and he was a menace on both ends all night.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich took Wembanyama out of the game with six minutes remaining when the center needed one steal and one block to accomplish the feat. With the Spurs leading by 19, it looked like Wembanyama’s 5×5 quest was over. However, he returned to the floor less than two minutes later and secured his final block and steal as the game wound down.

Wembanyama’s big night follows the worst performance of his young career, which occurred Wednesday night when he amassed only six points, eight rebounds, two assists, three blocks and no steals in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and rival Chet Holmgren.

On Thursday, after arriving in a Halloween costume of a character from the Studio Ghibli film “Spirited Away,” Wembanyama turned in one of the NBA’s best individual performances of the season. It encapsulates why so many are enamored with his talent and long-term upside.

“We want him to be able to do everything,” Popovich said. “We want him to be able to isolate and shoot the ball. We want him to do the whole deal. We just can’t do it all at once. It depends on the situation and what is going on.”

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(Photo: Rob Gray / Imagn Images)



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