Victor Wembanyama almost single-handedly dismantled the Lakers tonight as the Spurs blew them out 136-108 at the Crypto.com Arena. He set the Spurs’ franchise record for scoring in a single quarter with a 25-point outburst in less than eight minutes of the first quarter action tonight.
The Lakers were without any of their regular starters, and the Spurs star took advantage of that. He ended the first half with 37 points before calling it a night midway through the third quarter.
Wembanyama finished the game with 40 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block while shooting 13-20 from the floor (65.0 FG%) and 4-6 from beyond the arc (66.7 3P%) in just 26 minutes.
Following the game, Wembanyama spoke to the media and addressed his outburst against the short-handed Lakers. He was confident that if the Spurs coaching staff allowed him to stay on the court longer, he would have surpassed his career-high and dropped 60 points on them.
“Of course! I know it. But we’ve got to be fresh for tomorrow, make another statement tomorrow. It’s a team game at the end of the day. The real stat that matters is the W or the L,” said Wembanyama when the reporter asked him if he thought he could’ve gotten 60 points tonight.
Wembanyama’s career high in scoring came against the Wizards when he dropped 50 points on November 13, 2024. Considering that the Lakers were severely shorthanded, such an achievement may not have felt the same as doing it against a fully healthy team.
The 22-year-old French star had begun the press conference by addressing his first-quarter outburst and what motivated him to heat up on the court tonight.
“It feels right. What got me going is honestly proving myself a point and proving my team a point. Uh, you know, because I’m not, as I said before, I’m not worried about us. I’m not worried about me against good teams.”
“But yeah, I mean, history has shown that I need to be worried about us against teams like this. So, yeah. I mean, we don’t just talk about what we need to do; we need to actually act,” said Wembanyama in his initial remarks about his outburst.
A reporter then asked if he was itching to go back on the court since he seemed to be on fire tonight. Considering that he was on a minutes restriction until recently, he spoke about how he has started understanding the rationale behind the team’s choices.
“I don’t mind both ways. You know, of course, I’m ready to go back on the court. I mean, I was also pushing to go back, but they made the right choice by keeping me on the bench. We’ve got to think long-term.”
“But yeah, I mean, these kinds of games, you’ve got to have the greed. I mean, every game you have to have this greed, you know, to want more every time because, you know, at all times it doesn’t matter who’s on the court, there’s somebody who’s going to want to stop you from doing what you do out there. So, you’ve got to be greedy,” Wembanyama added.
The Spurs improved to 37-16 after this win and are now set to face the shorthanded Warriors tomorrow night, who have surprisingly won two of their last four games without Stephen Curry.
Wembanyama is happy that he got benched early so that he’s well rested for tomorrow. But if tomorrow looks anything like what today did, it may soon be over for every team in the league.
