There have been moments these playoffs where Victor Wembanyama has looked otherworldly. Like the best player on the planet. Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals was the perfect example, when he dropped 41 points with 24 rebounds and looked every bit the best player on the planet.
Then there are nights like Game 5 on Tuesday: 4-of-15 shooting, 0-of-5 from 3 and just 4-of-9 in the paint. While he finished with 20 points (thanks to a dozen free throws), he did not impose his will on the game. Wembanyama was not the best player on the court, he wasn’t the best player on his team.
“He’s got to take more than 15 shots, even with the free throws. He’s going to have to score more than 20 points, for sure…” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “OKC did a good job. We’ve got to do a better job.”
If San Antonio is going to advance to the NBA Finals, what is required of Wembanyama is both straightforward and incredibly arduous:
He has to be the best player on the court in a series against the defending champions led by the two-time MVP.
He was that in Games 1 and 4, and the Spurs won those two.
He was not in Game 5. He was again pushed out to the perimeter too often by Isaiah Hartenstein and did not dominate the paint like the Spurs needed.
“It’s a team defense,” the Thunder’s Jared McCain said of how they defended Wemby. “We talked about it. We made adjustments to it. We know that when he gets going, their whole team gets going.”
His first playoffs
The criticism of Wembanyama’s performance is both justified — he simply wasn’t good enough in a pivotal game — and overlooks the simple fact that this is his first playoff run. At age 22.
Every future star’s first playoff run is messy (Magic Johnson excepted). Kobe Bryant was airballing shots against the Jazz. LeBron James put up numbers but learned hard lessons about efficiency and physicality from the Pistons. On NBC’s postgame show, Vince Carter and Trace McGrady recalled their first playoffs, when Carter shot 30%, McGrady 39%, and their Raptors were swept by the Knicks. Carmelo Anthony’s Nuggets won one game in his first playoffs, when he shot 33%.
The stakes are higher for Wembanyama: If he isn’t the best player on the court, the Spurs lose. That’s happened three times in this series.
Now he has to turn that around and have back-to-back epic games — he has to play like he did in Games 1 and 4 — or San Antonio’s season ends. That’s a tall task against the best defense in the NBA, one that has made him uncomfortable like no other in this series.
But that’s the air Wembanyama has put himself in, a challenge he relishes.
It’s just a big ask, especially in a first playoff run.
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