Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs lost their seventeenth consecutive meeting in Houston (93-82) Monday evening, November 11, in the NBA, a sad record for the franchise. The team thus managed to do worse than the sixteen consecutive losses suffered last season, when they finished last in the Western Conference (twenty-two victories and sixty defeats). In the meantime, they drafted French prodigy Victor Wembanyama as their first choice in June.
Wembanyama scored fifteen points, grabbed eighteen rebounds and managed five blocks against Houston, without avoiding defeat for his team, while also being quite clumsy (one out of six three-pointers, five turnovers). “Our defense has been solid, we have to keep that up. We have no choice but to continue moving forward. No one on the team doubts that in the long term, we will be winners. I hate losing but I stay focused on the long term,” breathed the Frenchman.
The giant (2.24 meters) will be able to console himself with a shattering “poster dunk” during the third quarter, with one hand, in the duel with the opposing pivot Alperen Sengun. A small ray of sunshine in a new evening of misery for the Spurs, catastrophic in shooting (35.6%, including five out of forty-one for 12.2% from distance).
“They were very good in defense, they fought, but you have to be able to make the shots,” said coach Gregg Popovich. The San Antonio players, last in the West (three wins and nineteen losses), have not won since November 2 in Phoenix.
On Wednesday and Friday, they will twice host LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers, who just won the NBA Cup last week.