Las Vegas (AFP) – San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama says he’s ‘feeling great’ as he prepares to end a 12-game injury absence in the Spurs’ blockbuster NBA Cup semi-final against the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder. The French phenom has been sidelined with a left calf strain since November 14, but the towering 21-year-old returns just in time to take on a Thunder team who at 24-1 have tied the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors for the best 25-game start to an NBA season.
“Right now, I’m feeling great,” Wembanyama told reporters in Las Vegas, where Saturday’s Cup semi-finals will be followed by the in-season tournament’s title game on Tuesday. “I’m ready to go.” The Spurs are 9-3 since Wembanyama was sidelined, their ability to thrive without him signaling their progress after six seasons without a playoff appearance. They are fifth in the West, just one game behind the second-placed Denver Nuggets.
Related news
But the reigning NBA champion Thunder have been all but unstoppable. Since their lone defeat, in Portland on November 5, they have reeled off 16 straight victories, with NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaging 32.6 points per game this season. The Thunder arrive in Vegas on a high note, having handed the Phoenix Suns the most lopsided defeat in franchise history with a 138-89 rout in their Cup quarter-final. The Thunder fell to the Milwaukee Bucks in last season’s Cup final, and even after their run to the NBA crown and their breathtaking start this season, Gilgeous-Alexander admitted it would be sweet to go all the way in the in-season tournament.
“It would be phenomenal,” he said. “Whenever you get a chance to play for something and win, it’s always the goal to win. It’s always the same feeling.”
– ‘Hunter’s mentality’ –
Their scorching start to the season makes them the favorites in every game they play, but Gilgeous-Alexander said the young Thunder team don’t think of it that way. “We go out there with, I think, a hunter’s mentality ourselves,” he said. “And honestly, we go out there to just better ourself. We are trying to be a better version of ourselves every night we go out there, and we like to hunt in that form.”
The Spurs team, fueled by All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and rookie Dylan Harper — with Keldon Johnson adding a vital spark off the bench — toppled LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday to punch their ticket to the Cup semi-finals. “As a group, it’s important to us to be able to prove ourselves to the rest of the NBA, that we are a legit team,” Johnson said. “And what better way in this first part of the season to make some noise in the Cup and go have a run at the Cup for real.”
In Saturday’s other semi-final, the New York Knicks and Orlando Magic face off in a game touted as an Eastern Conference playoff preview. The Magic won the first two of three bruising encounters between the two teams already this season. But the Knicks triumphed in their most recent meeting, and New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns said the next installment of the rivalry provides a good chance to gauge the team’s early-season progress.
“I think that tomorrow is going to be a good game for us to show how far we’ve come in discipline and game plan and execution and our system execution,” Towns said. The knockout stages of the Cup require an unusual double focus for players as they aim to advance in the tournament while knowing the regular season rumbles on. “It’s a journey,” Knicks star Jalen Brunson said. “And regardless of who we are playing, where we are playing, what the circumstances are, Cup games or not, it’s an opportunity for our team to go out there and compete.”
© 2024 AFP
