San Antonio (AFP) – Victor Wembanyama is making a lasting impression in his first playoff run, inspiring awe-struck comments from his opponents on the eve of the NBA Finals opener. Wembanyama, in only his third NBA season, will lead the San Antonio Spurs against the New York Knicks when the best-of-seven championship series begins Wednesday in Texas. The 7-foot-4 (2.24m) center was a unanimous pick as this year’s NBA Defensive Player of the Year after leading the league in blocked shots for a third consecutive season.
The 22-year-old Frenchman, the 2023 NBA Rookie of the Year, has lifted the Spurs from a 22-win season in his debut campaign to a 62-win season and a trip to the finals in his first playoff run. New York’s Jalen Brunson, the top playoff scorer with 26.9 points a game, was amazed at what “Wemby” can do on the floor. “Watching him as a player, it’s pretty unbelievable,” Brunson said. “Things he’s able to do on both sides of the ball, people have never really seen before, for a person of his size. It’s incredible to watch from a player’s perspective.”
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“As an opposing player, it’s something you constantly have to be on watch for. You just never know the things that he’s capable of doing. That’s why game planning and our game-planning discipline, our attention to details, are so important when it comes to playing because he’s pretty incredible.” Knicks guard Josh Hart doesn’t really focus preparations on trying to avoid Wembanyama’s often-dominating defensive skill. “I don’t know if you can really prepare for that because there’s not a situation that’s similar,” Hart said. “If we focus on ourselves and focus on the habits that we’re building, we’ll put ourselves in good situations to be successful. We can’t focus too much on one player, focus on Wemby too much, because they’ve got a lot of extremely talented guys that can go off any single game. We’re focused on them as a whole. But he’s an interesting guy to game plan for.”
British forward O.G. Anunoby has guarded “Wemby” in prior contests despite giving up nine inches (0.23m) to the Frenchman, finding him a different challenge than such big men as Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Golden State’s Kristaps Porzingis, or Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid. “He’s pretty unique,” Anunoby said. “There are little things like maybe guarding Jokic or Porzingis or Joel. He’s different. He’s taller. Just being aware of where he’s at all over the floor. He can do everything. Super talented. Just being aware of him at all times, try to make it as difficult as possible.”
Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns, a key figure in New York’s current 11-game playoff win streak, says discipline in schemes will be vital to containing Wembanyama. “He’s a special talent and the NBA is blessed to have him and for him to be able to showcase his talent to the world,” Towns said. “For us, we just have to have discipline in our game plan and execute at a high level.”
– ‘Adjust on the fly’ –
San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson, the NBA’s 2026 Sixth Man of the Year, says “Wemby” has spent the season learning how to quickly adapt to how rivals defend him. “It’s crazy because he’s 22 years old,” Johnson said. “You send any coverage at him, he knows how to adjust on the fly. It just shows how locked into the game of basketball he is, how much he gives to the game…I feel like he’s seen every coverage.”
“At times, people have thought they had the answer. They thought they had Vic figured out, and it’s like one layer after another, he continues to adjust and evolve and get better. It’s just a testament to hard work.”
© 2024 AFP
