Despite joining the elite company of Hakeem Olajuwon with a block-based triple-double, Wembanyama is blaming his own energy for the loss to Wolves; Yankee Scores reports.
San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama has rued his mismanagement of energy, which he believes ruined a historic defensive performance.
Wolves Edge Spurs
Spurs lost 104 – 102 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. The Minnesota Timberwolves dominated in the final moments of the match to win the game against the Spurs in Game 1 of the second round playoffs.
The game was Anthony Edwards’ return to the court following a bone bruise injury in his knee that occurred nine days ago.
Wemby Sets Block Record
Wembanyama racked up an NBA-playoffs-record 12 blocks Monday night and had 11 points with 15 rebounds.
He is now the third player in postseason history to log a triple-double with blocks, after Andrew Bynum and Hakeem Olajuwon.
However, Wembanyama believes he could have used his energy more effectively.
Energy Mismanagement
“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 [to] where the team is going to look for me. 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.”
Offensive Slump
Wembanyama had his lowest field goal percentage (29%) so far in the playoffs. He missed all eight of his attempts from 3-point range, which registered as the most misses from deep without a make by a player in Spurs playoff history.
“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.”
“Yeah, he had a lot of blocks,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “He had a couple of uncalled goaltends, too. So, those are valuable points we’d like to have back. I thought there was smarter offense to be had in the second half, and I think we did a better job of finding that.”
