Spurs beat the Miami Heat 136-111<\/a> for their 22nd win in their last 24 games.<\/p>\n\u201cI have thought about it,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cI think right now there is a debate. There should be, even though I think I should lead the race. I\u2019m trying to make sure that at the end of the season, there\u2019s no debate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama is averaging 24.3 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.0 blocked shots per game. Only six players have finished a season with such numbers \u2014 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it five times, Hakeem Olajuwon did it twice, while Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson all did it once. The sixth player on that list? That would be Wembanyama, who did all that last season as well, albeit in only 46 games.<\/p>\n
The reigning MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, is the overwhelming favorite to win the trophy again according to BetMGM Sportsbook. Next on the BetMGM list: the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Luka Doncic.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama is next, with the third-best odds as of Monday, one spot ahead of Denver\u2019s Nikola Jokic. Everyone else would be considered a significant long shot for the award at this point, though the NBA\u2019s 65-game rule for major award eligibility \u2014 like MVP \u2014 could become a factor. Jokic can miss only one more game, for example, before he falls off the ballot and Wembanyama can miss no more than three more contests.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama, who won rookie of the year two years ago and was generally considered a lock for defensive player of the year last season until he had to be shut down while dealing with deep vein thrombosis, has a three-part campaign pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first one would be that defense is 50% of the game and that it is undervalued so far in the MVP race. I believe I\u2019m the most impactful player defensively in the league,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cSecond argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season, and we dominated them three times with their real team. … The third argument would be that offense impact is not just points.\u201d<\/p>\n
It should not surprise anyone that the Spurs also believe Wembanyama is more than just an MVP contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s close,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cAll those guys you named are deserving; a couple of them already have that award. And I\u2019m very biased. I get to see one of those guys every single night. I get to see him on the practice court. I get to see what he does in the morning. I get to see what does right now after the game. So, I understand my opinion and outlook and perspective is very different than almost everyone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he affects as much of the game in every single way \u2014 on the court, on both ends, with and without the ball, what the other team tries to do, plan for, scheme, adjust to, on both sides of the basketball, in my very ignorant opinion, as much as any other player I\u2019ve ever seen. Take that for whatever it\u2019s worth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spurs are 54-18. They\u2019re going to be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. They\u2019ll have home court in Round 1 of the playoffs, Round 2 if they get there and almost certainly would have it in the NBA Finals if they get that far. There are a lot of reasons for that, but the biggest reason \u2014 literally, given that Wembanyama is 7-foot-4 \u2014 is a 22-year-old face of the franchise who has wowed the Spurs every day with his maturity and work ethic.<\/p>\n
The MVPs are almost certainly coming at some point. Wembanyama doesn\u2019t want to keep waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it is still reasonable that there is a debate,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cBut as I said, my goal is to make sure there\u2019s no debate anymore at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama is making it clear: He wants to win the NBA\u2019s MVP award this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[7,3382,8878,144,615,368,295,189,3881,3361,6,446,253,4698,474,209,1302,66,2098,582,693],"class_list":["post-677398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-heat","tag-basketball","tag-david-robinson","tag-hakeem-olajuwon","tag-heat","tag-kareem-abdul-jabbar","tag-luka-doncic","tag-miami","tag-miami-heat","tag-miamiheat","tag-mitch-johnson","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-patrick-ewing","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-shaquille-oneal","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116287045865253440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}