Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs delivered the final nail in the coffin of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ championship hopes this season, closing out their Western Conference semifinals series (4-2) with an emphatic 139-109 road win.
Following tonight’s win, Victor Wembanyama sat down for an interview with the crew of Prime’s Nightcap, when Udonis Haslem asked him how he managed to keep his composure after his ejection in Game 4 and not let the Timberwolves’ trash-talking and physicality get under his skin in the subsequent games.
“You know, I had to make a statement coming back. I knew, obviously, what they were going to do,” said Wembanyama.
“I knew, of course, there was going to be a certain narrative, but I felt like if I gave in to the physicality and the dirtiness, I would have that would have helped them. And I knew I couldn’t go over the edge again, so you know, I had to beat them by playing basketball.”
There was a lot of chatter about the controversial physicality in this series, as tensions flared on several occasions on the floor throughout this series. In Game 4, Wembanyama was ejected for throwing an elbow in Naz Reid’s face (and somehow avoided a suspension).
Upon coming back, the media asked the Timberwolves players what they felt about Wembanyama avoiding a suspension, and they said they would much rather face him so that they have the chance to beat the best.
But in Games 5 and 6, despite several attempts from the Timberwolves to touch a nerve and play extremely physical with him, the French starlet kept his calm and focused on playing winning basketball. Even when Ayo Dosunmu tried to ragebait him by trash-talking in Game 5, Wembanyama just laughed and walked away.
What Victor Wembanyama Really Said To Ayo Dosunmu👀:
Ayo: “You’re still talking sh*t… still?”
Wemby: “Get your hands off me”
Anthony Edwards also intervened, but Wemby wasn’t going for it:
Ant: “That’s a tech!”
Wemby: “Get your hands off me” pic.twitter.com/sdcZ4nd2Nz
— LegendZ (@legendz_prod) May 14, 2026
In Game 6, he ended up with 19 points, six rebounds, two assists, and three blocks. He shot 6-11 from the field (54.5 FG%) and drew significant defensive attention to allow his teammates to excel off of it. Just like tonight, where Stephon Castle led all scorers with 32 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists (11-16 FG, 68.8 FG%).
Even on the defensive end, his size, wingspan, and reflexes have caused several problems for elite offensive talents across the league. Anthony Edwards gave Wembanyama his flowers for his contributions on the defensive end, which gave nightmares to the Timberwolves’ offense throughout this series.
“Yeah, just defensively, man, he’s incredible. Yeah. He changes every shot at the rim. He goes to the rim every time after every block, whether it’s goaltending or not, he’s gonna go up and challenge it. And yeah, I mean it’s tough. It’s kind of tough to go to the rim against a guy who’s like 7’6, and he’s pretty good,” conceded Edwards at the postgame press conference.
Victor Wembanyama ended this series averaging 19.8 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 4.2 blocks while shooting 51.2% from the field and a +13.5 net (+/-) rating across the six games. No other rim protector in the league is currently averaging as many blocks as him in the 2026 playoffs.
We haven’t seen such elite rim protection since players like Dikembe Mutombo and Hakeem Olajuwon retired. And Olajuwon has trained Wembanyama with the same skillset that he used to reach that level of elite defensive status.
But now having overcome the physicality of the Timberwolves, the Spurs will arguably face their biggest hurdle to a championship in the Western Conference Finals, which is the Thunder, the defending champions.
They are the best defensive team in the NBA and arguably also the ‘dirtiest’ when it comes to physicality. But the Spurs won 4-1 against the Thunder in the regular season, so they know that they have it in them to beat this team.
In his first-ever run to the Conference Finals, Wembanyama could announce the beginning of his era in the league if he manages to lead his team to the NBA Finals. So it will be interesting to see if Wembanyama will be able to keep his composure through the attacks on him from the Thunder’s relentless and physical defense in the next round.
