Victor Wembanyama made a historic defensive stand on Monday night to kick off the Western Conference semifinals.
Wembanyama set the NBA’s single-game postseason blocks record on Monday night in the Spurs’ Game 1 matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He had 10 blocks through three quarters at the Frost Bank Center, which is something that only three others had done in league history.
He then came up with an 11th block to break the record minutes into the fourth quarter, stuffing Anthony Edwards at the rim.
Andrew Bynum, with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2012, was the last player to record double-digit blocks in a playoff game. Hakeem Alajuwon and Mark Eaton are the other two.
Though now, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year stands alone atop that list. And it was only the sixth playoff game of his career.
Victor Wembanyama matches blocks record through 3 quarters
Edwards returned on Monday night after missing nine days due to a bone bruise in his left knee, which he first went down with during Game 4 of the Timberwolves’ series with the Denver Nuggets. Edwards played on a minutes restriction and came off the bench, but looked like his old self.
After a quick foul right away, he immediately made an impact. Edwards helped spark a big 12-2 burst to keep the Timberwolves out in front just barely in the opening quarter, which included burying a huge 3-pointer and then immediately letting the Spurs bench know about it.
But the Spurs never went away, and the two teams went into halftime tied up looking very level. Wembanyama had seven blocks at the break, too. Two of those came on the Timberwolves’ first two offensive possessions of the game, and two more came when he blocked Julius Randle consecutively down low to force a shot clock violation midway through the second quarter.
Though Wembanyama shined defensively, he had just six points and went 0-of-5 from the 3-point line in the first 24 minutes.
Wembanyama opened the second half with a quick left-handed dunk right through Rudy Gobert, but both teams kept going back and forth the entire third quarter. The Spurs only took a three-point lead into the final period after a wild buzzer-beater floater from KeldonJohnson.
At that point, Wembanyama had matched the league’s single-game playoff block record. That was also the most in Spurs’ franchise history.
Then just minutes into the fourth quarter, Wembanyama blocked Edwards at the rim for his 11th block to set the record. That set up a layup from De’Aaron Fox on the other end, too, which put the Spurs up by three at the time.
This post will be updated with more information shortly.
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