That the seven-foot, four-inch tall Victor Wembanyama would be a menace on the basketball court even in his rookie year for the San Antonio Spurs was predictable. But in the Warriors’ 118-112 victory over the Spurs in the NBA In Season tournament, he gave a glimpse of how formidable he can be.
With the teams contending for each ball in the second quarter, Curry barged into the Spurs’ paint before releasing an easy layup. But just then, Wembanyama came out of nowhere to swat away the shot.
The ball hit the backboard and fell into the hands of Spurs’ Jeremy Sochan who raced down the floor before feeding the ball to Doug McDermott, who nailed his three-pointer from outside the arc.
✅ Victor block
✅ Doug threeeeee pic.twitter.com/v0UsMRnBUG— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) November 25, 2023
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The game has started on a comical note with Wembanyama taking the court with his name misspelt on the jersey as Wembanyana.
Wembanyama ended the night with a statline of 22 points, three assists and eight rebounds. Currey, on the other hand, top scored for the Warriors with 35 points.
The duo had hilariously come face to face at tip off in a preseason game between the Warriors and Spurs, which was won 122-117 by San Antonio. Predictably, the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama won the jump ball over the 6-foot-2 Curry at the half-court.
“When you get Gregg Popovich (Spurs coach) and Steve Kerr (Warriors coach) in a room, some funny stuff’s going to happen,” Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area later about the idea to send him against Wemby for the jump ball. “They have obviously a lot of history. It came from Coach [Kerr]. I don’t know if he told Coach Popovich or not, but the look on everybody’s face when I got in there — I tried to keep it deadpan. I was laughing on the inside because I knew I had no chance.”
