The San Antonio Spurs have been making their case for the best team in the NBA following three straight wins against the Oklahoma City Thunder, including their Christmas Day matchup. The main reason why the Spurs can make that claim is the continued ascension of Victor Wembanyama as a franchise superstar. During the Spurs game against the Utah Jazz on Saturday, Wembanyama threw down an insane dunk with nobody able to stop him.
Victor Wembanyama’s dunk came late in the fourth quarter as the Spurs were trying to rally back against the Jazz. But it would ultimately fall short as the Jazz managed to hold on and grab the 127-114 win on the road. With the loss, the Spurs fell to 23-8 and had their five-game win streak snapped. In the loss, Wembanyama finished with 32 points, seven rebounds, three assists and five blocked shots in a little over 27 minutes. He shot 12-of-21 (57.1 percent) from the field and a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line.
With the loss, the Spurs are now three games behind the Thunder for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference standings. But they are only a single game ahead of the No. 3 Denver Nuggets.
The Spurs have been a surprise team of sorts this season with a rapid climb amongst the West’s elite teams. And some of that rise this season came when Wembanyama was sidelined due to a calf injury. But in order to truly compete against the best in the league, the Spurs will need their franchise star at his best.
Coming into Saturday’s game, Wembanyama had appeared in 18 games at a little over 30 minutes per game. He came off the bench for 12 games upon his return from injury, but he was back with the starters against the Jazz.
He’s averaging 23.4 points, 11.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 3.0 blocked shots with splits of 51.4 percent shooting from the field, 37 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 82.6 percent shooting from the free-throw line.