By Alex Molina / info@eurohoops.net
After a narrow 104–102 defeat against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama reflected on how mismanaging his energy took away from what could have been a complete performance.
The young star delivered a historic defensive effort, finishing with 12 blocks -an NBA playoff record- along with 11 points and 15 rebounds. That stat line placed him alongside Andrew Bynum and Hakeem Olajuwon as the only players to ever record a postseason triple-double that includes blocks, but the young French star highlighted the poor energy balance in his play.
“I feel like I had to use my energy,” he said. “Obviously, I used a lot of it on one side of the court. On the other side, offensively, I used too much energy on things that didn’t really help our team. So, that’s on me. There was some good and some bad. It’s a lot on me because my game wasn’t feeling good tonight. If I had been better, if the offensive leaders on our team would have been better, it would have been different. So, basically, if everything was different, it would have been different.”
Wemby converted just 29% of his shots -the lowest of his playoff run- and missed all eight attempts from beyond the arc, the most missed threes without a make in Spurs postseason history.
Despite starting the series with a defeat, the Spurs star hasn’t lost hope since some adjustments can be made. “We are still very confident. Honestly, I need to look at the film again to see a little bit more, the dynamics,”he said. “Right now, it’s a little bit blurry for me. I think I played the last 16 minutes of the game, maybe, and it just went by like this. That’s not good. It means I didn’t have the grasp on the game that I wish I did.”