Victor Wembanyama will be riding the momentum of one of the best games of his budding career when the San Antonio Spurs travel to the Bay Area on Friday night to face the Golden State Warriors in an NBA play-in tournament game.
The contest represents a must-win for the Warriors (1-1) in terms of their potential tournament advancement, as they need victories over the Spurs and next week at Sacramento to remain alive in their quest for a West Group C championship or the West’s lone wild-card entry into the event quarterfinals.
The Spurs (0-3) already have been eliminated from moving on.
Wembanyama snatched a career-high 15 rebounds to go with 22 points and three blocks in the Spurs’ 109-102 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. The defeat was San Antonio’s 10th in a row and dropped it to the bottom of the Western standings.
It was Wembanyama’s sixth game with 20 or more points and the sixth time he’s had three or more blocks.
The league’s youngest team is looking to develop leaders, Wembanyama said after the loss, and he’s content for now to have a supporting role as transitioning point guard Jeremy Sochan attempts to convince coach Gregg Popovich that he is capable of handling that responsibility.
“We have leaders on the team; Jeremy’s one of them and it’s good he’s learning a new role,” Wembanyama said. “But at the same time, we’re here to help him and he’s also here reassuring us.”
The Warriors lost their floor leader, newcomer Chris Paul, late in the first half of Wednesday’s 123-115 road loss to the Phoenix Suns when he was assessed consecutive technical fouls, prompting an automatic ejection.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr objected to the ejection, leading to another technical.
“I didn’t think Chris deserved to be ejected,” Kerr said. “The first tech, absolutely. But I thought the second one was unnecessary. Everybody gets frustrated out there.”
The incident occurred during a 23-5 Suns flurry to close the first half after the Warriors had led 42-40 just past the period’s midpoint.
The loss was Golden State’s seventh in its last eight games.
Both teams have some reason for optimism heading into Friday’s game.
The Warriors have beaten the Spurs in their last four meetings, including by 37, 31 and 15 points in a series sweep last season.
The game will be the team’s fifth straight without Draymond Green, who will be serving the final game of a suspension. He is eligible to return for the club’s final in-season tournament game Tuesday at Sacramento.
Meanwhile, the Spurs have won only three games this season, but all three have come against teams currently ahead of the Warriors in the standings. Most impressively, San Antonio earned a two-game sweep at Phoenix, which has gone 2-0 against Golden State already this season.
–Field Level Media