DALLAS — Just six minutes into Victor Wembanyama’s first regular-season game in over eight months, the San Antonio Spurs big man needed a mental reset.
He stood off to the side with a hand on his hip while the rest of his teammates congregated on the bench during a timeout, aggressively patting sweat away with towels that had reached their saturation point. A few moments later, assistant coach Sean Sweeney joined Wembanyama with a clipboard in hand, going over a separate set of instructions. The Frenchman merely nodded multiple times in agreement with Sweeney before rejoining the pack.
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It wasn’t necessarily the early fatigue that necessitated Wembanyama’s posture and positioning away from the group. A summer full of conditioning had already begun to pay dividends. And it wasn’t even the physicality from Mavericks bigs Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II that demanded a recalibration. A strict strength regimen, a continuance of Webanyama’s goals of becoming bigger and more imposing, was manifesting itself in real time.
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Wembanyama needed to refocus because he knew what was to come, what was at stake. He knew his teammates would be looking to him for guidance and inspiration. This wasn’t just another season opener for him and the Spurs. Wednesday night was a chance to seize control of the losing narrative that had plagued his franchise since well before he stepped foot in the NBA. Wednesday night was the opportune time to showcase the evolution of his mind, body and skill.
Victor Wembanyama celebrates getting a call during the first half against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center on Oct. 22, 2025, in Dallas. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
(Stacy Revere via Getty Images)
Over the next 24 minutes, Wembanyama would put on a historic display of two-way expertise, snatching the game away with his slender arms. And after an utterly dominant evening — 40 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks on 15-for-21 shooting with zero turnovers — one thing was made clear: Wembanyama’s time is now, whether the NBA is ready for him or not.
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“I think we all knew [Wembanyama] was going to be assertive,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said following San Antonio’s emphatic 125-92 win. “He’s been waiting for this probably longer and more thoroughly than anybody else. And you saw him take the moment and play spectacularly.”
The beauty of Wembanyama’s magnificence is that his game in Year 3 is equal parts marvelous and terrifying. In front of a roaring crowd at American Airlines Center, Wembanyama turned foes into fans.
The plays came in quick succession, each sequence somehow more spectacular than the previous one. A triple threat into a seamless stepback jumper. A crossover into a fadeaway look. A faceup dribble into a pull-up 3 plus the foul. A backdoor no-look reverse finish. Dunk after dunk after dunk on Anthony Davis, a former Defensive Player of the Year and one of the most respected rim protectors around. It didn’t matter the pressure that Dallas sent — single coverage, doubling, blitzing — Wembanyama outsmarted, outworked and outperformed them all. It was a 30-minute nightmare.
“Every day, we try to lay a brick to build a mansion, and it felt like the job was done for the day,” Wembanyama said. “It felt like this is what we’ve been working for, what we’ve struggled for so long. I felt like I was in my place.”
The central theme of Wembanyama’s offensive onslaught lies in Johnson’s updated halfcourt scheme, allowing the Frenchman to lean heavily into isolation play. At some point in nearly every Spurs possession, an action will be run to create a mismatch for Wembanyama. The true irony here is that every opposing player in the NBA is a mismatch, but the key here is unlocking Wembanyama’s aggression and confidence.
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Last season, San Antonio ran just 7.7 isolation plays per game, which ranked in the bottom half of the NBA — and only scored 0.9 points per possession (51st percentile). Wembanyama’s most common actions came on spot-up or transition opportunities, and he graded out as a below-average isolation scorer and pick-and-roll ballhandler.
During the preseason, the Spurs put more responsibility on Wembanyama’s massive shoulders, allowing him to explore the depths of his offensive creativity. Isolation plays jumped from his seventh-most common play type to second. Against the Mavericks, Wembanyama scored a whopping 2.2 points per possession in isolation, his most-used play. The Spurs are now comfortable letting Wemby cook, either by running inverted pick-and-rolls for him, clearing out a side of the floor or simply finding him when he’s ready to receive the basketball.
But as lethal as Wembanyama can be offensively — he’s tweaked his shot selection to become even more dangerous around the nail and in the restricted area — his impact on San Antonio’s defensive viability remains his biggest contribution. Wembanyama appeared in just 46 games last year, disqualifying him from any award, but there is no doubt he is the most menacing shot blocker and rim protector on the planet. The Spurs, without Wembanyama last year, were the 27th-ranked defense, according to Cleaning the Glass.
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The amount of ground Wembanyama can cover defensively gives Johnson and the coaching staff more wiggle room to experiment with double-big lineups. Reserve center Luke Kornet played just 16 minutes against Dallas and shared the floor with Wembanyama sparingly, but the glimpses of how menacing that tandem can be were on full display. Wembanyama clearing out an entire side defensively channels drivers toward Kornet, who recorded two blocks in his short stint.
“A lot of length and making it hard at the rim,” Kornet told Yahoo Sports. “I think we can do a good job with putting force on the rim, offensive rebounding and playing that way, but hopefully starting on the defensive end, making it difficult for teams.”
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Wembanyama has shied away from being labeled as the next face of the NBA, channeling more energy into his teammates and self-improvement. He speaks softly and exudes wisdom beyond his years, preferring to let his game yell from the rafters. But with more nights like this, it might be decades before he relinquishes his grasp on basketball. It’s already a tight enough grip as is, and he’s barely eclipsed 100 career games.
“We needed to make a statement in our locker room,” Wembanyama said. “I needed to make a statement to my teammates. It’s also just the beginning, there’s so much more I want to add to my game. It’s time to move on to the next step and make a stand because we’re all tired of losing. That’s the truth.”