{"id":700618,"date":"2026-04-06T02:04:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T02:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T02:04:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T02:04:31","slug":"nikola-jokic-explains-what-makes-victor-wembanyama-unique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700618\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikola Jokic Explains What Makes Victor Wembanyama Unique"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">The Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs met for a top-four Western Conference clash on Saturday, and the high-stakes matchup lived up to expectations. Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama, two of the NBA&#8217;s top-three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nuggets\/onsi\/news\/nuggets-hc-preaches-last-minute-mvp-campaign-nikola-jokic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MVP candidates<\/a>, were each incredible, but Denver&#8217;s three-time MVP led his team to a win in overtime.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">After the game, Jokic had high praise for Wembanyama, calling him the &#8220;most unique player&#8221; in the NBA. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">&#8220;Victor Wembanyama is definitely probably the most unique player that played the game and it&#8217;s definitely \u2026 you need to do a lot of things to kind of put him off balance, don&#8217;t let him jump. Bump him, bump him, like use the all kind of moves that you probably never used it before and then that&#8217;s good,&#8221; Jokic said (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoopshype.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/rumors\/2026\/04\/05\/nikola-jokic-on-victor-wembanyama-most-unique-player-ever\/89474579007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HoopsHype<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Jokic and Wembanyama clash<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">Jokic is certainly not far off, as Wembanyama is undoubtedly one of the most &#8220;unique&#8221; players the league has ever seen. At 7-foot-4, Wembanyama is not only the best defensive player in the league, but he can also score at all three levels with guard-like skills on offense.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6z\">In Saturday&#8217;s meeting, Wembanyama finished with 34 points, 18 rebounds, seven assists, and five blocks, while shooting 8-17 from the field, 2-6 from three-point range, and 16-17 from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WEMBY VS. JOKIC TODAY:<\/p>\n<p>34 POINTS                40 POINTS<br \/>18 REBOUNDS         13 ASSISTS<br \/>7 ASSISTS                  8 REBOUNDS<br \/>5 BLOCKS                  3 BLOCKS<br \/>16\/17 FT                       0 TURNOVERS<\/p>\n<p>INSANE MVP CANDIDATE BATTLE. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/n3x8jARJZ1\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/n3x8jARJZ1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LegionHoops\/status\/2040550945772519928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">Jokic and Wembanyama have now met seven times since the star Frenchman was drafted first overall in 2023, and it seems to always be a fun matchup. Since they first matched up, Jokic knew Wembanyama was going to be very special, and after Saturday&#8217;s meeting, he reminded everyone. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">&#8220;I think the first time I play against him, I told you guys that he&#8217;s going to change the league and he&#8217;s going to change basketball. And I still think that and I think he has he has opportunity and a chance to be the most unique basketball player to ever played a game,&#8221; Jokic said. &#8220;So is it fun? Yes. But it&#8217;s fun against everybody. Every different team gives you different challenges. So, just because I think the league is so talented.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">In the win, Jokic finished with 40 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds, and three blocks, ultimately helping Denver pull out the win.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">It is incredible that fans get to witness two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nuggets\/onsi\/news\/david-adelman-reacts-jokic-wembanyama-duel-nuggets-epic-win-spurs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">generationally-talented centers battle<\/a> as they did on Saturday afternoon in Denver, especially when they both drop near triple-doubles in an overtime thriller.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nuggets\/onsi\/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sign up for our free Denver Nuggets On SI newsletter, and get breaking Nuggets news delivered to your inbox daily!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs met for a top-four Western Conference clash on Saturday, and the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,6,969,474,4075,4074,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-700618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-san-antonio","11":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","12":"tag-sanantonio","13":"tag-sanantoniospurs","14":"tag-spurs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116355312378320246","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700618","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=700618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}