Victor Wembanyama’s historic night wasn’t enough in Spurs loss to Lakers

The Spurs hung around but spent most of the night playing catch-up due to a rough shooting night.

One night after missing out on a historic 5×5 statline by one assist, Victor Wembanyama achieved it the next with 27 points, 13 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 blocks and 5 steals against the Los Angeles Lakers, becoming the first player to achieve the 5×5 since Jusuf Nurkic in 2019. He also became the first player to average a 5×5 statline across multiple games since blocks started being tracked in 1973-74. Unfortunately, it didn’t lead his team to a win as the Spurs hung around nearly all game but just didn’t have the juice or talent to outclass the Lakers on this night.

Wemby had his hands all over the first quarter for the Spurs. He scored 13 of their first 15 points, including two threes, and a steal started off the fast break for the other two points. Unfortunately, his teammates were ice cold, shooting 1-8 to open the game, and it got no better as the subs came in. The Lakers defense was able to just sit back and guard the paint while the Spurs offense looked completely helpless. They got behind by as much as 13 before Wemby had to sub back in early thanks to three quick fouls for Zach Collins, and the Spurs instantly went on a 9-0 run to close the quarter down only four, 26-30, with 16 of those points belonged to Wemby.

Other Spurs finally started scoring to in the second quarter, with the bench ending up outscoring the Lakers’ 22-4 for the half, but Darvin Ham made the adjustment of subbing LeBron James back in after the majority of the Spurs’ run to close the first came with both him and Anthony Davis on the bench. The Lakers got the lead back to double-digits thanks to two threes from D’Angelo Russell, but in what would be the running theme for the rest of the game, the Spurs fought back. Although the Spurs could never go on a big enough run or get enough stops to threaten to retake the lead, they at least kept the Lakers from running away and found themselves only down 59-66 at the half.

Wemby started the second half with another offensive show, this time as a passer, but again, the Spurs couldn’t get stops on the other end. The third quarter pretty much followed the same mantra as the second, as the Lakers would get back up by double digits, the Spurs would refuse to go away and respond with a little run of their own, rinse and repeat. The bench unit again did a nice job to close the quarter, getting as close as three after being behind by has much as 15 before the Lakers scored the last four, making the score 90-97 heading into the final frame.

Unfortunately, the Spurs didn’t have any juice left to make a final push. They couldn’t get anything to fall outside of Malaki Branham, who finished with 17 points off the bench, and although Wemby just needed two assists to add another triple-double to his resume, his teammates couldn’t hit the shots he set up for them. Still, he had his big moment in the final two minutes, when Austin Reeves tried to take him one-on-one on two straight possessions and got blocked both times, giving Wemby the 5×5 (he didn’t learn from Grady Dick last week).

As they had done to end the other three quarters, the Spurs made one final little push in garbage time to make the final score of 118-123 appear more respectable, but on theme with the rest of the game, the outcome was never truly in doubt.

Game Notes

• Wemby entered the game having stollen another NBA record last night against the Kings. This time, it was becoming the youngest player in NBA history to record five blocks and five assists in a game at 20 years and 48 days, taking the record from his counterpart tonight in Davis, who did it at 20 years and 236 days old. To add insult, he did it again tonight.
• Collins finally hit his first three in the month of February from the right corner in the third quarter. It was a much-needed make for him, but perhaps more noteworthy was it was the only one he took within the flow of the game (although he took and made another corner three in garbage time, just before the final buzzer). Otherwise, he appeared to make a notable effort to work more under the basket and in the pick-and-roll, making good use of his reliable jump hook. He finished the night with 14 points on 6-8 shooting.
• Yet another confusing situation when it comes to the refs and video review. With just over four minutes remaining, Wemby appeared to block a LeBron fadeaway and force and a shot clock violation, but the refs called a foul, and everyone thought Gregg Popovich had challenged the call as they went to video review, which appeared to confirm Wemby blocked the shot before making incidental contact with LeBron’s follow through hand. Instead, the refs came out of review just to say the foul occurred before the shot clock expired. Then Pop challenged the foul call, and it was successfully overturned. I guess my question is, what prompted the refs to go to video review over the shot clock outside of the last two minutes, and if they’re already there, why not let them make sure the call is correct then? As Sean Elliott says, I don’t even know the rules anymore.

Play of the Game

Branham is not what you’d consider an explosive player, be he exploded to posterize his idol LeBron as part of his best performance in quite a while.

Up next: Sunday vs. Jazz

The penultimate game of the Rodeo Road Trip will take place at the home of the struggling Utah Jazz. Tipoff will be at 7:00 PM CT on Bally Sports Southwest.