Wembanyama expresses feelings following Spurs’ 25-point rally against Clippers
SAN ANTONIO — Following a 116-112 victory over the LA Clippers on Friday, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson spoke with reporters while celebrations echoed from the team’s locker room just behind him.
In the second game of a back-to-back, San Antonio managed to rally from a 25-point deficit, marking the club’s second-largest comeback since the play-by-play era began in 1997-98. This victory improved their record since February 1 to an impressive 14-1, the best in the league. This is the team’s strongest performance over a 15-game stretch since the 2015-16 season, when the Spurs achieved a franchise-record 67 wins, as noted by ESPN research.
“I’ve got zero left right now,” stated Victor Wembanyama, who mentioned to ESPN during his postgame on-court interview that he was “about to pass out.”
“That was one of the best wins,” he continued. “That was one of the best games, best moments of my career, my basketball life.”
Wembanyama led the team with 27 points, including the decisive score where he caught a long pass in transition from De’Aaron Fox and executed a dunk with 16 seconds remaining, igniting excitement in the Frost Bank Center.
“That was probably the last [fast] break I had in my body,” Wembanyama remarked, also contributing 10 rebounds and four blocks in 22 minutes.
Fox, on the other hand, was instrumental in scoring or assisting on 25 of San Antonio’s 35 points in the fourth quarter, finishing the game with 19 points and 9 assists.
“This one felt good,” Fox expressed. “This one felt better than yesterday.”
In their previous game against the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons on Thursday, Wembanyama and Fox scored 38 and 29 points, respectively, making them the first San Antonio teammates since 2018 to each score over 20 points in the same half of a game, according to ESPN Research. Their combined performance propelled the Spurs to a convincing win, improving their record to 6-1 against the top teams in each conference.
After Friday’s game, a visibly tired Wembanyama, with the hood of a grey sweatshirt pulled over his head, referred to the end of the team’s latest back-to-back as “the best 30 hours of basketball” of his life.
“The best three hours of my life for sure,” he said. “[My] favorite part is we faced some very different challenges over these last two games, and we’ve been able to respond to each one of them.”
Clippers center Brook Lopez, a former college teammate of Johnson at Stanford, made things more challenging for San Antonio. He scored a game-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the first half, contributing to the Spurs’ largest halftime deficit of the season at 20 points.
By the 9:23 mark of the third quarter, the Clippers had increased their lead to 75-50.
“It was a hard-fought game last night [against Detroit], second night of a back-to-back, guys are banged up,” Johnson noted. “The competitive response and the character the guys displayed in banding together and pushing through the mental, physical, and emotional fatigue was commendable.”
Former Spur Kawhi Leonard, who faced boos every time he touched the ball, scored a game-high 30 points along with nine rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
Spurs rookie Carter Bryant received accolades after the game from Leonard, Johnson, and Wembanyama, who described the forward’s performance as “the loudest five points.” Bryant, 20, defended Leonard in the closing moments. His father, D’Cean Bryant, coached Leonard in high school as an assistant at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California.
“I used to be on the other end of the court when my dad was working Kawhi out, just mirroring what he was doing,” Bryant recalled. “I was eight, nine, 10 years old watching Kawhi go to San Diego State. He came up to me after the game. He was like, ‘Man, your little self used to be running around on the court. I’m proud of you. Just keep going. Keep trusting the process.’
San Antonio outscored the Clippers 66-37 over the final 21:20 of the second half. The fourth quarter featured seven lead changes. With 52.3 seconds remaining, Derrick Jones Jr. completed a three-point play to give the Clippers a 112-111 lead, before Fox and Wembanyama connected for the go-ahead dunk.
Wembanyama recorded his 16th game with four 3-point field goals and four blocks, setting a new record in NBA history, according to ESPN research. The Spurs plan to take Saturday off before continuing their homestand on Sunday with a matchup against a tough Houston Rockets team.
While wrapping up his postgame media session, Wembanyama inquired about the time as he began calculating how much sleep he could get before the next game.
“I’ll get two good nights of sleep,” Wembanyama said. “The good thing is I didn’t experience any significant soreness in my body. So, I don’t have anything specific that needs attention. It’s just the overall system, which is the best. It means I’m healthy. Two good nights of sleep, recovery, massage, whatever, cold contrast, hot and cold, all these things. I recover very quickly. So, I’m not concerned about two days from now.”
