Wembanyama powers – Victor Wembanyama delivered a career-high 49 minutes and turned a lopsided, second-guessable Game 1 into a 122-115 double-overtime win for the Spurs over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The longest night of Victor Wembanyama’s NBA career was over, but his body didn’t seem ready to return to normal. After the postgame media responsibilities ended, he found his father and a few other people in a quiet hallway near the San Antonio Spurs locker room.
He didn’t walk back to the room. He got a ride — in a wheeled office chair, pushed by a Spurs staffer. “Save some steps,” Wembanyama said.
It was a simple line. but it landed on a night that demanded more than simple explanations: a 41-point. 24-rebound playoff performance. delivered in a career-high 49 minutes. to carry the Spurs to a 122-115 double-overtime victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Monday night.
Only a handful of players had ever reached the 41-point, 24-rebound mark in playoff history. Wilt Chamberlain did it eight times, Hakeem Olajuwon did it twice, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it once, and Charles Barkley did it once. Wembanyama now joins that list.
Stephon Castle didn’t hold back when asked about the level of play. “The best player in the (expletive) world,” Castle said in a postgame interview.
Officially, the league’s current best player comes with a different trophy.. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the one honored with a second consecutive Most Valuable Player award in a pregame ceremony with Wembanyama looking on.. Wembanyama wanted that award, and the scene of Gilgeous-Alexander raising the trophy stayed with him.
“He’s competitive. If you’re a competitor and you see another competitor get rewarded with what you want. … If that’s motivation, we all get motivated by different things,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “As a competitive person, that would be my approach and perspective.”
Wembanyama, for his part, kept it rooted in the future. “I’ve still got a lot to learn,” he said. “And I want to get that trophy many times in my career.”
Then he added something more revealing than bragging: “The world is 8 billion people,” Wembanyama said. “That’s 8 billion opinions.”
On the court, his own numbers told the part of the story nobody could argue with.. Wembanyama finished 14 for 25 from the field and went 12 for 13 from the foul line.. His lone 3-pointer came late in the first overtime, tying the game from well beyond the arc.. Without that shot, there likely wouldn’t have been a second overtime.
He blocked three shots and changed countless others. He dunked on the Thunder and flexed more than once. At times, he smiled and posed for cameras, even after a first conference finals game on the road.
The Spurs leaned hard into the matchup, too. They outrebounded Oklahoma City 61-40. Wembanyama’s production didn’t just fill the box score—it dragged the game back into San Antonio’s hands every time it seemed to be slipping away.
This was supposed to be the hard night for the Spurs.. They were underdogs on the road, missing injured point guard De’Aaron Fox.. They were facing the defending champions, a team that had been unbeaten in the first two rounds of the playoffs.. A 10-point lead in the fourth quarter was given away. and the Thunder weren’t used to losing in the final moments.
But none of it mattered once Wembanyama took over. The series now moves to Game 2 on Wednesday night with the road map through San Antonio becoming a realistic question for both teams. If the Spurs win all their home games the rest of the way, they’ll be NBA champions.
That’s still far away. Still, what mattered immediately was the message sent in a moment that stretched longer than most would ever want to remember.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault pointed to the way elite play forces adjustment in real time.. “I think he’s a great player with high impact obviously. and when you play against those players it’s kind of an acquired thing. ” Daigneault said.. “You’re learning as you go.. We’ve gone through that with other great players.”
Wembanyama framed his own night in the language of readiness and insistence.. “The message would be that we as a team are ready to go into any environment. in any place. against anybody. ” he said.. “And even though we’ve still got a lot to learn, our effort should be over anybody else’s.. And tonight, we were relentless.”
Victor Wembanyama Spurs Thunder Western Conference finals Game 1 double overtime Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Mitch Johnson Stephon Castle De'Aaron Fox