Victor Wembanyama did not have his best game of the season against the Denver Nuggets. More unsuccessful than usual, the French center was left with a discreet 17 points and 9 rebounds, but he still left his name in the history books of the League.
On the one hand, he joined Tim Duncan as the only player to achieve more than 200 blocks in his first season in the NBA and, along with Raef LaFrentz, he is the only one with 200 blocks and 100 triples in a season (the league began recording blocks in 1973-1974).
But if these numbers don’t seem incredible, just put them in perspective. And with these figures, Wemby is the best defender in the NBA since 2011, reaching 76 steals and 200 blocks in the 67 games he has played in his first season. Last season’s best defender, Jaren Jackson Jr, had 65 steals and 189 blocks. And all this while Wembanyama was still a rookie.
Although individually they continue to break records, collectively the Spurs continue in free fall, accumulating five losses in the last six games, and yesterday they lost to the current champions, Denver Nuggets, led again by Serbian Nikola Jokic.
With 11 wins in their 12 games after the All-Star, the Denver Nuggets face the end of the regular season in magnificent form. Nikola Jokic (31 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists) and Jamal Murray (15 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists) shook hands once again so that the Nuggets took the victory in Austin, which hosted this match in a special way of the Spurs.
The Los Angeles Clippers, for their part, have come very close to these key weeks and this Friday they fell to direct rivals like the New Orleans Pelicans. Zion Williamson (34 points and 7 rebounds) commanded the fifth victory in the last six games for the increasingly serious Pelicans. Puerto Rican José Alvarado contributed 9 points for New Orleans, which is fifth in the West and is precisely looming over the Clippers’ fourth place.
Paul George (26 points and 6 assists) and Kawhi Leonard (23 points and 7 rebounds) could not avoid the third defeat in the last four games of the Los Angeles team.
