BERLIN \u2013 German basketball legend Dirk Nowitzki has told AFP that Victor Wembanyama, who won on his National Basketball Association (NBA) play-off debut on April 19, was \u201cchanging the game as we speak\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an interview on April 20, ahead of his induction into the FIBA Hall of Fame, Nowitzki said he was stunned by the impact the 22-year-old French player was having on the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, he\u2019s changing the game as we speak. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it,\u201d the 2007 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis defence is so good that he changes the game just by being on the court and taking away some of the lay-ups and twos that other teams would usually take.\u201d<\/p>\n
On April 20, the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 Wembanyama was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first unanimous winner in the award\u2019s 43-year history and its youngest champion.<\/p>\n
He earned a perfect 100 votes in the media ballot. The Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s Chet Holmgren came in second in the voting, with the Detroit Piston\u2019s Ausar Thompson ranked third.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super, super happy to win this award and actually super proud to be the first-ever unanimous,\u201d Wembanyama told NBC Sports Network following the award.<\/p>\n
Mixing prodigious defense with a potent offence, the 2.24m Frenchman led the league in blocks per game (3.08) for a third straight season.<\/p>\n
Playing in just his third NBA season, the forward\/centre is also in the running for MVP honours.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama scored 35 points, the most on a play-off debut in franchise history, to go with five rebounds and two blocks as his Spurs beat the Portland Trail Blazers in their opening match of the play-offs. <\/p>\n
Nowitzki, the 2011 NBA champion with the Dallas Mavericks, said Wembanyama had the other-worldly ability to help the young Spurs overcome their lack of experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re definitely ready. They\u2019re definitely there. Of course, the one question about the Spurs is, are they experienced enough?<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think Wemby is kind of that X-factor that takes that away. He levels that whole experience thing out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nowitzki, 47, said be believes the Spurs could get past defending champions Oklahoma City and reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.<\/p>\n
Should the Spurs defeat Portland and either the Denver Nuggets or the Minnesota Timberwolves in the next round, they are on track to meet the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll definitely think that they can. They\u2019re a tough match-up for OKC. We\u2019ve seen that. They beat them like three times around Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have all the guards and can attack them. So I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a year or two too early. We shall see.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a fun play-off run. So they\u2019re definitely knocking on the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
A skilful European big man who could shoot, Nowitzki was a pioneer for players like Wembanyama, but said he had plenty to learn from the young Frenchman.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou watch a game, you keep watching Wemby, and I\u2019m like \u2018man, that\u2019s a cool move\u2019… Let\u2019s go in the gym tomorrow and work on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning the fundamentals of the game is a journey that keeps on going.\u201d <\/p>\n
In play-off action on April 20, Anthony Edwards scored 30 points as Minnesota staged a double-digit fightback for a series-levelling 119-114 upset of Denver.<\/p>\n
A titanic duel in Denver saw the Wolves overturn an early 19-point deficit before a clinical fourth-quarter display sealed a crucial victory in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.<\/p>\n
Edwards was backed by 24 points from Julius Randle while Donte DiVincenzo added 16.<\/p>\n
Jamal Murray led the Denver scoring with 30 points while Nikola Jokic added 24 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did what we expected to do,\u201d Randle said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re coming on the road to start a series you want to steal one. So we did that, and now we go home and we\u2019ve got two days to get our bodies right.\u201d<\/p>\n
In New York, C.J. McCollum scored 32 points and led a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback as the Atlanta Hawks overturned a 12-point deficit to score a 1-1 series-levelling 107-106 win over the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n
In Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden combined for 58 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Toronto Raptors 115-105 to take a commanding 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference series. AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN \u2013 German basketball legend Dirk Nowitzki has told AFP that Victor Wembanyama, who won on his National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-715096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallasmavericks","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116442360238510685","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715096","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=715096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}