Victor Wembanyama: 'Conditioning Is Not an Excuse' for Struggles in Spurs vs. Mavs

Playing in his first real game since France's loss to the United States in the gold medal game at the Olympics, Victor Wembanyama was not at the peak of his power for the San Antonio Spurs in a 120-109 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.

Wembanyama told reporters after the game his conditioning was "a little hard" to overcome initially, but that is "not an excuse" for how he played.

"None of us really have played four games since [the] middle of the summer for me," he said. "It's a struggle. Every player in the NBA goes through it. Conditioning is not an excuse [for missed shots]. I'll have different weapons we need to know when to use. So, for the missed shots, it's more getting used to taking shots, getting used to again taking shots in a game."

The reigning Rookie of the Year scored 17 points on 5-of-18 shooting, grabbed nine rebounds and committed four turnovers in 28 minutes. He did play twice in the preseason, but this was his first competitive game action since Aug. 10.

Wembanyama's 27.8 field-goal percentage against the Mavs marks the worst shooting game of his young NBA career. His previous low-water mark was a 23.1 percent success rate on March 19, which also came against Dallas.

Dallas' gameplan on defense was clearly designed to put all of the attention on Wembanyama when he got the ball, especially inside the three-point line. There multiple bodies around him throughout the game, preventing him from getting to the rim.

The Spurs aren't a great offensive team anyway, but scoring efficiency figures to be especially tough early in the season while they play without Devin Vassell. He is recovering from offseason surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot and will be re-evaluated on Nov. 1.

Vassell finished second on the team in scoring with 19.5 points per game and shot 37.2 percent from three-point range last season. The Spurs went 12-of-36 behind the arc on Thursday night.

Wembanyama is going to have much better games this season. The Spurs were just given a tough matchup against the reigning Western Conference champs to open the 2024-25 campaign.