{"id":702468,"date":"2026-04-07T03:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T03:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/702468\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T03:00:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T03:00:37","slug":"victor-wembanyama-injury-update-spurs-mvp-candidate-leaves-mondays-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/702468\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama injury update: Spurs’ MVP candidate leaves Monday’s game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another potentially massive injury is now looming over the NBA Playoffs \u2014 this one to San Antonio Spurs<\/a> phenom Victor Wembanyama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 22 year old Most Valuable Player candidate left San Antonio\u2019s game Monday, April 6 against the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> with a left rib contusion. Suddenly, his candidacy for individual awards is in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

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Wembanyama appeared to suffer the injury after drawing contact multiple times in the first half. Late in the second quarter, with 2:56 left to play in the half, Wembanyama made a layup and bumped into Spurs forward Keldon Johnson<\/a> as he landed. Wembanyama immediately grimaced and labored through the free throw. Earlier in the game, he also collided with Sixers<\/a> forward Paul George<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama was not out on the floor at the start of the second half, and backup center Luke Kornet<\/a> started in his place. The Spurs announced shortly afterward that he would miss the remainder of the game with the rib injury.<\/p>\n

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NBA POWER RANKINGS: Where do Lakers go with Luka Don\u010di\u0107 injury?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be a positive that he felt he could play the last four-to-five minutes of the half,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson told reporters after the game. \u201cThat\u2019s a positive from my perspective, but I have nothing (on his future status).\u201d<\/p>\n

In 15:40 minutes of action Monday night, Wembanyama scored 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, adding 5 rebounds, 3 blocks and 1 assist.<\/p>\n

Because the NBA Cup Championship counts toward the 65-game rule for individual award eligibility, and because the league grants two exceptions for games in which a player recorded between 15 and 20 minutes, counting those as full games, Wembanyama\u2019s time on the floor Monday night will count as his 64th game this season.<\/p>\n

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That means he will need to play in at least one of San Antonio\u2019s remaining three games, and he\u2019ll need to record at least 20 minutes on the floor to be eligible for individual awards.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama\u2019s first partial game exception came in a 119-94 victory over the Washington Wizards<\/a> December 18, in which he played 17:18.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama entered the night as the heavy favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year and was also a candidate for MVP. He was averaging 24.9 points, 11. 6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 3.1 blocks per game this season, while shooting 50.9% from the field, entering Monday night’s game.<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

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1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

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2 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Washington Wizards’ Cam Whitmore dunks the ball against the Charlotte Hornets at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n

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3 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Brooklyn Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. dunks in front of the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama at Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n

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4 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 25: The Denver Nuggets’ Christian Braun dunks the ball against the Phoenix Suns’ Grayson Allen at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

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5 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. dunks against the Miami Heat at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

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6 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo dunks over the Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

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7 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The New York Knicks’ OG Anunoby goes up for a reverse dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

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8 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The Utah Jazz’s Lauri Markkanen dunks against the Los Angeles Clippers at Delta Center.<\/p>\n

The biggest stories, every morning. Stay up-to-date on all the key sports developments by\u00a0subscribing to USA TODAY Sports’ newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Victor Wembanyama injures rib during Spurs-76ers, out for rest of game<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another potentially massive injury is now looming over the NBA Playoffs \u2014 this one to San Antonio Spurs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,2850,300,368,4996,6,526,207,75005,969,474,4075,4074,534,2594,693,468],"class_list":{"0":"post-702468","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-keldon-johnson","10":"tag-lakers","11":"tag-luka-doncic","12":"tag-luke-kornet","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-paul-george","15":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","16":"tag-rib-injury","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","19":"tag-sanantonio","20":"tag-sanantoniospurs","21":"tag-spurs","22":"tag-the-spurs","23":"tag-victor-wembanyama","24":"tag-washington-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116361196892934712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702468","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=702468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}