By Oliver Carter
The San Antonio Spurs beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 126-97 in game five of their Western Conference second-round matchup.
The game took place in Frost Bank Center, San Antonio.
Story of the game
Following his ejection in game four for elbowing Naz Reid in the neck, Victor Wembanyama was not given a suspension and was cleared to play game five.
The Spurs went on to lose game four, missing the presence of Wembanyama both offensively and defensively.
The 7ft 4ins Frenchman clearly set out to apologise with his on-court performance as he exploded in the first quarter scoring 18 points, while also grabbing six rebounds as the Spurs jumped out to a first quarter lead as high as 13 points.
“The first six minutes of the game was Wemby’s public apology to the team,” said former NBA superstar and Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony.
Although the second quarter saw Wembanyama slow down, the rest of the Spurs didn’t.
At the end of the first quarter, the Spurs held a four-point lead, with the score at 30-34, that lead grew to 12 by the half.
Minnesota came out of the half and immediately got to work to cut into the Spurs’ lead, closing the gap to just three points midway through the third quarter.
However, following a Spurs timeout they began to grow their lead back up, responding to the Timberwolves’ attempted comeback by pushing the game out of reach.
San Antonio went on a run outscoring the Timberwolves 15-30 for the rest of the quarter, earning them an 18-point lead.
While the Timberwolves made a slight dent into the lead, they never closed the score within 10, the Spurs ended the game with one final scoring run, growing the lead all the way up to 30 points.
The game ended Timberwolves 97-126 San Antonio Spurs.
Standout performers
While Wembanyama slowed down massively following his first quarter outburst, he still ended leading the game in scoring with 27 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks.
Wembanyama and Keldon Johnson were the only two members of the Spurs with over 20 points as Johnson ended with 21 points, two steals and a block.
Anthony Edwards was the only Timberwolf with 20 points as he scored 20, with two assists, Ayo Dosunmu was the Timberwolves standout however.
Dosunmu ended with 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks impacting all areas of the game.
When asked postgame about Wembanyama’s first quarter performance, Anthony Edwards said: ”Some of the stuff Wemby was doing, you don’t really have an answer for.”
On par with the greats
Wembanyama is dominating in his first-ever playoffs, having already had multiple 35+ point games alongside setting a new playoff record for blocks in a single game with 12.
The newly-crowned Defensive Player of the Year and MVP finalist is outperforming the stats of five-time NBA champion and two-time MVP Tim Duncan.
Duncan, the San Antonio Spurs first overall pick in 1997 averaged 20.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game in 41.6 minutes per game across his first nine playoff games.
Wembanyama is averaging 20.4 points per game, 11.2 rebounds and 4.2 blocks in 28.9 minutes per game.
The Frenchman has just 0.3 points per game less in 12.7 fewer minutes every game.
Wembanyama is playing over a quarter of a game less than one of the greatest basketball players of all time and is outperforming his stats.
These stats also include game two of the Spurs’ first-round matchup against the Portland Trailblazers, a game in which Wembanyama only scored five points and four rebounds as he left the game after just 12 minutes as he sustained a concussion.
While Wembanyama came into the NBA as the most highly-anticipated prospect since Lebron James in 2003, he has been able to manage the expectations and outperform them to a certain extent.
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Geoffrey H. Latayan 
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