San Antonio Spurs v Los Angeles Clippers
LOS ANGELES — It’s a challenge to adjust to the NBA, even if you are a phenom such as Victor Wembanyama.
The last postgame question Wembanyama got from the media — after his Spurs were blown out by the Clippers 123-83 to fall to 1-2 on the season — was in French, and it was if this was the first time he felt so overwhelmed in an NBA game.
No, the third time, Wembanyama said.
Wembanyama finished with 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting with five rebounds and a block in his third NBA game, in Los Angeles Sunday night. What follows are 10 observations and quotes from and about Wembanyama out of that third game.
1) “Everybody’s gonna be physical with him, try to knock him off balance and that sort of thing and he’s got to get used to that,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Wembanyama’s adjustment to the NBA. “That’s probably the biggest difference for him, all that physicality, and valuing the basketball. Turnover wise, that was an important night for everybody.”
The Spurs turned the ball over 25 times against the length, physicality and aggressiveness of the Clippers. That works out to 24% of the Spurs possessions (according to NBA.com), or basically one every four trips down the court.
2) Along those lines, on their first possession of the game, the Spurs tried to get the ball into Wembanyama who had sealed off his defender deep in the paint, but Paul George and Kawhi Leonard quickly doubled him before he could make a move they had stripped the ball and were off in transition. That’s the physicality and aggressiveness that is still an adjustment for Wembanyama and the young Spurs.
3) There were bright spots that reminded everyone why Wembanyama is such an insane prospect.
In the first quarter alone Wembanyama poked the ball away from Westbrook on a drive (when Wemby wasn’t even covering Westbrook, he just dug down, reached out and knocked it away), he contested a Paul George 3 that had to be higher-arcing than he wanted (and missed), and forced Ivica Zubac to pass out under the basket rather than go up and try and dunk over him. He stole an inbounds pass Kawhi Leonard tried to…
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