Basketball fans and league officials who were wringing their hands about the NFL encroaching on Christmas woke up on Wednesday to quite the treat. Spurs-Knicks was an incredible opener to an altogether great showcase day of hoops, largely because Victor Wembanyama played one of his best games as an NBA player. In his second game in Madison Square Garden (his first was only his eighth game as a Spur), Wemby went for 42 points, 18 rebounds, six made three-pointers, and four assists. He also had four blocks, though there's no point in emphasizing those, as he's averaging four per game anyway and he had a 10-block game and a seven-block half in his two previous games.
My favorite thing about a Wembanyama highlight is picking out where he is when there's a cut in the video, as it's usually much further out or in a more compromising position than anyone ever is in a clip where they will soon be highlighted. There he is, two players away out near the perimeter as OG Anunoby winds up for a doomed layup attempt, only for him to scythe over and erase it; there he is, lurking near the logo as Tre Jones pulls a three, only to zip in and dunk back the rebound.
Pretty much everything about Wemby's offensive game through almost one-and-a-half NBA seasons is weird, which starts with and is explained by his odd role. Basically, he doesn't stand where anyone his height stands, and that scrambles defenses and makes talking about him in conventional basketball terms an exercise in imprecision. He's a big guy who doesn't spend much time in the post and probably weighs less than Kyle Lowry. He's the tallest player in the NBA and he takes 9.5 threes per game, yet shoots only a hair under the league average. The numbers say he's a good rebounder, but spend a game watching him actually trying to grab boards and you'll see a guy who is still getting by on height.
The closest analog is the Thunder, the team most well-positioned to serve as Wembanyama's foil, and their tweak on spread offense that overemphasizes driving at the hoop: what I termed five-toward earlier this season. Wembanyama applies those maxims more or less on his own. The non-Wembanyama Spurs play pretty conventional NBA offense, surrounding some form of pick-and-roll with some number of shooters, only with a huge athletic guy with a guard's handle running around doing stuff. If Wemby gets the ball with any kind of momentum within 14 feet of the basket, he's going to dunk, and he's only now starting to learn to use his gravity to do stuff besides stand there and fire from distance—which is how you get him shooting 16 threes on Christmas. Only six players have shot more in a regulation game this year. That's weird!
The Knicks won, 117-114, after they swarmed the offensive glass and helped set up a flurry of tough buckets from Mikal "Donald Duck" Bridges in the fourth quarter. Despite Josh Hart doing 2024 playoffs stuff, I still felt like I'd watched one of Wembanyama's best rebounding games as a pro. Other than Jeremy Sochan, he only shares the floor with bad rebounders (namely Harrison Barnes, who has not had that particular dog in him since 2015), and he was up against a bunch of dedicated, skilled rebounders. Even then, he was able to hold positions well, keep the ball out of swiping range once he corralled it, and punish overextensions with quick outlet passes. There was one moment in the fourth quarter where Karl-Anthony Towns (who Wemby squarely outplayed) had him mostly boxed out, only for Wemby to fight for an extra foot of space, which he used to leap into the board and get it out of harm's way in one smooth motion.
It was impressive, and the ominous thing is that it still felt like a guy experimenting. Everything Victor Wembanyama does feels that way, and slowly, from a bunch of odd angles, things are starting to cohere.
