The Minnesota Timberwolves picked up an impressive 104-102 win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of their second-round matchup in the 2026 NBA Playoffs. The Timberwolves landed the opening punch despite Spurs center Victor Wembanyama rewriting the NBA’s history books with a single-game Playoff record of 12 blocks in the loss.
Wembanyama had a triple-double with 12 blocks, also scoring 11 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. His impressive shot-blocking display isn’t a surprise, given that he won the Defensive Player of the Year award unanimously just a few weeks ago. However, we have seen very few double-digit shot-blocking performances in the NBA Playoffs, with Wembanyama breaking a three-way tie between Mark Eaton (1985), Hakeem Olajuwon (1990), and Andrew Bynum (2012), who each had 10 in a game.
Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch was asked about the historic defensive display from Wembanyama by reporters in the post-game press conference. Finch shared a simple response where he acknowledged Wembanyama’s feat before pointing out that he had multiple blocks that were actually uncalled goaltending.
“Yeah, he had a lot of blocks. He had a couple of uncalled goaltendings, too. So, those are valuable points we’d like to have back. I thought there was a smarter offense to be had in the second half, and I think we did a better job of finding that.”
A fan shared a compilation of Wembanyama blocks from the first half, where he alleges that at least five shots were actually uncalled goaltending. After reviewing the footage, there are, at a minimum, three blatant missed goaltending calls, with others being more marginal. The fact that the referees were going easy on the goaltending calls was evident to all fans who watched the game.
Thankfully, this didn’t lead to the Timberwolves losing the game, which is why this will likely be overlooked to celebrate Wembanyama’s historic night. Wembanyama set his record for all players since 1973-74, when the NBA officially started to track blocks.
Basketball Reference recently went through archival NBA footage to update their database of in-game blocks before the NBA officially started tracking them, which would show that Wilt Chamberlain has the record with 16 blocks in a game, with Wilt also having three Playoff games with 12 or more blocks.
Until the NBA confirms the unofficial stats and includes blocks tracking before 1973, this will be Wembanyama’s record in the eyes of the league.
The Timberwolves overcame this historic performance behind Julius Randle’s 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Anthony Edwards returned from injury off the bench to score 18 points (8-13 FG) in 25 minutes of action. Four other Timberwolves players scored in double-digits, giving the team enough offense to overcome Wembanyama’s interior domination on defense.
The Spurs couldn’t maximize Wembanyama’s historic night, with Wemby himself failing to make an impact offensively. They had seven players score in double-digits, led by rookie Dylan Harper’s 18 points, four rebounds, and four steals off the bench. Stephon Castle and Julian Champagnie both had 17-point nights, but Wembanyama going 5-17 from the field and De’Aaron Fox scoring just 10 points meant the Spurs couldn’t keep up.
Game 2 of this series will take place on Wednesday, as the Spurs hope to avoid losing back-to-back home games to a giant-slaying Timberwolves squad with all the momentum in the world.
