Wemby sits out vs. Thunder
OKLAHOMA CITY — Victor Wembanyama’s next meeting with Chet Holmgren will have to wait until next season at the earliest.
The Spurs ruled Wembanyama out several hours before Wednesday night’s game against Holmgren and the Thunder due to what they termed right ankle injury management.
The move wasn’t a surprise after Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he was thinking about sidelining Wembanyama after he played 31 minutes in Tuesday night’s 102-87 win at Memphis.
It was Wembanyama’s seventh consecutive outing in which he logged 30 or more minutes, including a season-high 43 in Sunday’s loss to Philadelphia in double overtime.
“We’re going to talk it out,” Popovich said after Wembanyama finished Tuesday’s game with 18 points, seven rebounds, seven blocks and six assists.
The word out of the Spurs camp was Wembanyama wanted to play against Oklahoma City, but Popovich decided to err on the side of caution.
Popovich’s decision wiped out what would have been the final meeting this season between Wembanyama and Holmgren, the leading candidates for rookie of the year. Wembanyama finished 1-2 against Holmgren with the lone win coming on Feb. 29 in San Antonio, when the 20year-old Frenchman recorded 28 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, five blocks and two steals in 32 minutes.
Wembanyama has generally been playing backto-backs over the past few months and had missed just three games since the All-star break.
The No. 1 overall pick spent much of December and January under a minutes restriction stemming from an ankle sprain that also left him prohibited from back-to-backs for a period.
With the season winding down, Popovich indicated the Spurs might revisit that plan for the team’s final back-to-back of the season.
“It’s a question because we held him out of a lot of the back-to-backs when he had that foot thing,” Popovich said. “Now down the stretch, I’m not sure it makes sense to push it.”
After Oklahoma City, the Spurs have just two games left: home outings on Friday night against Denver and on Sunday afternoon against Detroit.
It’s uncertain whether Wembanyama will play in either game.
If Tuesday’s game was Wembanyama’s final outing of the season, he will finish the year averaging 21.3 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.2 steals and a league-high 3.6 blocks per game in 29.6 minutes over 70 games.
He also has a leaguehigh 252 blocks to become just the sixth rookie in league history to record 250-plus blocks in a season, joining Manute Bol, David Robinson, Shaquille O’neal, Mark Eaton and Alonzo Mourning. He’s also the first player overall to reach 250 since Hassan Whiteside had 269 in 2015-16.