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Michael C. Wright
Multiple Authors
SAN ANTONIO — Spurs guard Devin Vassell said the team needed to see an “upset Vic” Tuesday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, while San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson preferred to use the word “mature” in describing the approach Victor Wembanyama would need to use to bounce back from his first career ejection.
Wembanyama, meanwhile, had his own thoughts.
“I feel they ain’t mutually exclusive,” he said. “I’m looking for both.”
The Frenchman delivered in a 126-97 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, as the Spurs seized a 3-2 series lead. Wembanyama became the first player in NBA postseason history to tally 27 points, 17 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two 3-pointers since the 1979-80 season, when the 3-point line was introduced.
Two days removed from an ejection in Game 4 for an errant elbow to the jawline and neck of Naz Reid, Wembanyama got off to a lightning-fast start that San Antonio rode all the way to the final buzzer.
“There was a lot that happened in the last 48 hours,” Johnson said. “I think how that young man came out tonight and played in a variety of ways in a variety of situations, not just in terms of his production, was extremely mature.”
Wembanyama scored 18 points in the first quarter, tied for the most in a quarter in his postseason career and tied for the fifth-most points in a playoff quarter by a Spurs player in the play-by-play era (since 1998). Sixteen of his 21 first-half points came over a span of six minutes. Wembanyama also limited Minnesota to seven points on 3-of-11 shooting on attempts he contested in the first two quarters.
When Minnesota called a timeout with 5:44 left in the first quarter, Wembanyama had single-handedly outscored the Timberwolves 16-11.
“It’s super important for us the way we started the game because it sets the tone,” Wembanyama said. “I was fresh, feeling good. Honestly, it’s hard to tell if it was just Game 5. Obviously, I’m going to be excited. We’re going to have butterflies. Excitement is not something abnormal at this point in the playoffs.”
Nor is physicality on both ends of the floor from both teams.
Minnesota continued to knock around Wembanyama in Game 5 with multiple players, including Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle and Jaden McDaniels. This time, however, Wembanyama kept his cool in leading a Spurs attack that tallied 68 points in the paint compared with 36 for Minnesota.
The production inside marked San Antonio’s second-most points in the paint in a postseason outing since 1998, when it scored 72 in its 2008 playoff opener, and the most by any team in a postseason contest against an opponent that featured Gobert, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
“I feel like the rage-baiting would have been maybe one of the strategies [used by the Timberwolves],” Wembanyama said. “I feel like I need to stay composed.”
Wembanyama did that, and it allowed San Antonio to flourish. The Spurs embarked on a 12-2 run in the first quarter over a span of 3:15 in which Wembanyama scored nine points and snagged four rebounds. He drilled a 26-footer off a Stephon Castle assist to give San Antonio an early 15-point lead that would later swell to 30.
“When it comes down to who can be the more physical team or who could be the team that is able to withstand those hits, he did a great job at that,” Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox said of Wembanyama. “He didn’t falter whenever he got hit. We know even the strongest players in the league get hit and they fall. And when he’s playing the way he played tonight, it’s hard to beat us.”
The Spurs won consecutive home playoff outings by 29 points or more for the first time in franchise history.
“I feel like we got the Vic you’ve seen all year,” Castle said. “I think his maturity level was off the charts. He played smart, didn’t really foul much, took the shots that were there for him. When he’s playing like that, playing aggressively, with everything he brings for us defensively, I feel like we’re hard to beat. Just where his mindset has been for the last 48 hours, I know he wanted to finish Game 4. But not letting that get to him and coming out and playing like that was a big reason why we won.”
In his first interview since the ejection in Game 4, Wembanyama avoided discussing the past and chose to focus on what’s ahead, including Friday’s Game 6 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
The Spurs are 16-3 in best-of-seven series when leading 3-2.
“It was two days ago,” Wembanyama said of the ejection. “I was focused on the game today. And now, I’m focusing on the game in Minnesota in three days. It’s the playoffs. We’ve got to move on, and I’ve got to care about my team.”
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
