Mixed start to the season for Victor Wembanyama on the night from Wednesday to Thursday, beaten with his team by the Dallas Mavericks
Victor Wembanyama made his NBA debut last night. Attraction of the season, the French rookie scored 15 points in this meeting despite the Spurs’ defeat against Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks in the opening match. The former Mets player, well muzzled during part of the game, scored his first points after 5 minutes in the first quarter.
He ultimately scored 15 points in total, including 9 in the last 7 minutes of the match. His stat sheet was completed with 5 rebounds and 1 block. Note that after three quarters, Victor Wembanyama had only played 16 minutes for six points scored, five turnovers and five fouls conceded while Luka Doncic started his season with a triple-double (33 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists).
Asked after the match, Wemby admitted a little tension for this meeting. “I felt a lot of emotions of course but it would have been perfect with a victory. I just felt lucky to be there.” Asked about the refereeing, Victor Wembanayama explained that he made sure to “keep his head high” before returning to the difficult decisions in French. “Perhaps I wanted to do too well, I didn’t put my energy into the right things. I don’t need to take so many risks in defense. I’m learning, it’s not surprising for a first match. For me, these are simple things that will be easily adjustable.” For his coach, the new number 1 of Spurs showed great maturity despite the numerous mistakes. “One of the hardest things for a player is to find yourself blocked by mistakes,” he explained at a press conference. “You never have rhythm. You come in, you go out. But we saw his maturity despite his young age when he came in for the last 7 minutes. We played for him. He did some good things, great execution ” explained legend Greg Popovich.