Wembanyama posts 40-11-9 blocks in 25 minutes as Spurs roll

Victor Wembanyama scored 40 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked 9 shots in 25 minutes and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns 122-96 on Monday night for their ninth straight win, ESPN reported. Devin Booker led the Suns with 32 points.

The Spurs improved to 9-2, tied for the best record in the Western Conference. The Suns fell to 3-6 and have lost four straight. The game was played at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix.

Wembanyama’s line is the kind that does not compute. Forty points and nine blocks in 25 minutes means he scored 1.6 points and blocked 0.36 shots per minute. No player in NBA history has matched those rates in a single game. He sat the entire fourth quarter with the Spurs up 27.

The 7-foot-4 center is in his third season and has been the best player in basketball since opening night. He is averaging 28.3 points, 12.1 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 5.2 blocks. The blocks lead the league by a margin of 2.3 per game over second-place Walker Kessler. No player has averaged five blocks since Dikembe Mutombo in 2001-02, and Mutombo did it while scoring 13 points a game. Wembanyama is scoring 28.

The Spurs’ winning streak began after a 113-109 loss to Houston on October 22. Since then they have beaten the Nuggets, Warriors, Kings, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, Rockets, Hawks and Suns. The average margin during the streak is 14.8 points. The Spurs have not trailed in the second half of any of the last five games.

Wembanyama’s scoring has come from everywhere. He shoots 52% from the field, 38% from three and 83% from the line. He has made 27 three-pointers this season, more than any center in the league. He scores in the post with a hook shot that is unblockable because of his 8-foot wingspan. He scores in transition because he runs the floor like a guard. He scores out of pick-and-pop because he shoots like a wing. The Suns tried three different defenders on him Monday. None of them were tall enough to contest his shot without fouling.

The nine blocks were the story of the first half. Phoenix scored 38 points in the paint in the first half and Wembanyama blocked six of those attempts. He blocked Booker twice at the rim. He blocked Jusuf Nurkic on a post-up. He blocked Bradley Beal on a driving layup. He blocked Bol Bol, his former teammate, on a jump hook. He blocked Mason Plumlee on a putback. Each block started a Spurs fast break, and San Antonio scored 14 points off Wembanyama’s blocks alone.

The Spurs’ defense has been the best in the league during the streak. They are allowing 97.3 points per 100 possessions over the last nine games, first in the NBA by a wide margin. Wembanyama is the centerpiece, but the perimeter defense has been good too. Chris Paul, the 40-year-old point guard the Spurs signed in the offseason, has been a surprise on that end. He is not quick enough to stay in front of the fastest guards, but he reads the pick-and-roll as well as anyone and directs the defense from the top of the key. The Spurs switch everything with Wembanyama on the floor, and his length covers the mismatches that switching creates.

Booker scored 32 for the Suns but needed 27 shots to get there. He is averaging 25.6 points on 44% shooting, down from 27.1 on 49% last season. The Suns traded for Nurkic and Beal in the offseason and the fit has not worked. Beal is averaging 17.3 points and has missed four games with a hamstring strain. Nurkic is averaging 9.1 points and 7.8 rebounds and has been benched twice for fourth-quarter defense. The Suns are over the luxury tax and do not have the draft picks to make a trade.

Phoenix fired coach Mike Budenholzer after last season and hired Jordan Ott, an assistant from Cleveland. Ott has tried to modernize the offense with more threes and less mid-range, but Booker’s best shots come from the mid-range, and the transition has been clunky. The Suns are 28th in three-point percentage and 22nd in offensive rating. They have the talent to score, but the system does not fit the personnel.

The Spurs have no such problems. Coach Gregg Popovich stepped back to an advisory role before the season and handed the team to Mitch Johnson, a 38-year-old assistant who had never been a head coach. Johnson has run Popovich’s system with minor tweaks: more pace, more threes for Wembanyama, and a shorter bench. The Spurs play nine players and all of them are in their 20s except Paul. The roster is the youngest in the league and it is winning at a rate nobody expected, NBA.com noted in its weekly power rankings.

What I think

Victor Wembanyama is the best basketball player alive. I wrote that last season and I will keep writing it until someone gives me a reason to stop. He scores 40 in 25 minutes. He blocks nine shots in 25 minutes. He sits the fourth quarter because the game is over. There is nothing he cannot do on a basketball court, and he is 21 years old. The Spurs are 9-2 and they have not even hit their stride. When they do, the rest of the West is playing for second.

The Suns are done. Booker is a scorer who needs a system built around him, and the system does not fit. Beal is hurt and overpaid. Nurkic is a backup who is starting. The roster is too expensive to fix and too old to wait. They traded their draft picks to get Beal and Nurkic, and now they are stuck with them. The Kevin Durant era ended without a title, and the post-Durant era is going to end without one too.