Eighteen is enough! The Spurs’ terrible historic series of consecutive defeats ended on Friday, December 15, thanks to the victory (129-115) of Frenchman Victor Wembanyama and his teammates against the prestigious Los Angeles Lakers team and its star, LeBron James, back after missing the previous match due to injury.
The two phenomena, which are twenty years apart, confronted each other for the first time. The San Antonio team was able to take advantage of the absence, on the other hand, of Anthony Davis, injured in the hip and adductors after the match on Wednesday between the two teams, during which he had crushed the Texan franchise from the top of his 37 points.
The Spurs had not won a game since November 2, against Phoenix at the time, and along the way had erased their previous streak of 16 consecutive defeats suffered last season.
If Devin Vassell carried out the Texan attack, the defense was played by Victor Wembanyama. The Frenchman compiled 15 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks. With 13 points, he signed his seventh consecutive “double double” (two stat lines that exceed the number ten).
” Alien “
Orphan of his friend Anthony Davis, but also of D’Angelo Russell and Cam Reddish, James stood out from the second ball touched by Wembanyama. An interception on a dribble from the Spurs player, and the number one in the 2003 draft finished with a furious dunk on the counter-attack. A sham, the Californians, recent winners of the NBA Cup, quickly found themselves trailing 24-49 at the start of the second quarter.
Before the break, a second duel between James and Wembanyama, again in favor of the first. To avoid the counter from the French giant, the Lakers player propelled his three-point shot very high into the room to bring his team back to 7 points (62-69).
“I just tried to get him to drop his hands a little bit because I know his wingspan,” LeBron James said of that award-winning shot. “I just tried to create a little more space, shoot a little higher and I managed to score. »
To give San Antonio some air, Devin Vassell had to show his muscles with 36 points scored, his record. Wembanyama was discreet in attack, sometimes a spectator of this highly anticipated evening in the NBA.
“LeBron is an idol, someone I saw constantly on TV as a child, that makes this meeting even more special,” Wembanyama, 19, who was not yet born when James was already tormenting NBA defenses. The American had contributed to the madness which surrounded the Frenchman’s arrival in the United States by calling him “extraterrestrial” at the end of 2022. “It’s the talent of a generation, that’s for sure,” he said. he adds.
The French player, drafted in first position last June, regularly displays certain qualities (19 points and 11 rebounds on average). The interior, however, has not yet found the key to relaunching the very young Spurs franchise. Even if San Antonio (4 wins for 20 losses) has finally tasted success again.
