Victor Wembanyama Says Game 'Feels Fast Right Now' Amid Struggles in Loss vs. Lakers
After a scorching start to the season, Victor Wembanyama has fallen back to earth with another rough outing in the San Antonio Spurs' 118-116 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night.
Wembanyama told reporters after the Spurs' second straight loss that the game "feels fast right now" in part because teams have adjusted their defensive approach to plan for him.
"Personally, I haven't seen this kind of defense from teams," Wembanyama said. "So we need to adapt as a collective. In the Phoenix game, it was the case as well. We got stalled out sometimes. We're learning."
Wembanyama specifically pointed to the amount of double-teams the Lakers were throwing at him as causing him trouble.
"Mostly, it was the doubling," he said. "They were ready. They probably walked in shootaround through all our situations because it seemed like they were very ready. It felt like they let me catch the ball, but they were ready to double to rotate after that."
The Lakers held Wembanyama to 19 points on 5-of-14 shooting, eight rebounds and five turnovers in 33 minutes. He fouled out with just under two minutes remaining when the Spurs were trailing 113-112.
San Antonio had a chance to tie the game with one second remaining after Julian Champagnie drew a shooting foul on Jake LaRavia. Champagnie missed both of his free-throw attempts to preserve the win for Los Angeles.
This marked the second time in seven games to start the season that Wembanyama has fouled out, surpassing his total from the previous two seasons combined.
One thing The Athletic's Jared Weiss pointed out is that Wembanyama was "fixated on playmaking, spending most of his minutes playing every role besides center" during the preseason, but he has largely abandoned that since the start of the regular season by playing primarily in the post.
The 21-year-old superstar has hit an early wall, scoring a total of 28 points on 32.1 percent shooting (9-of-28) with more than twice as many turnovers (11) as assists (five) in the last two games.
During the Spurs' 5-0 start to the season, Wembanyama was averaging 30.2 points on 56.3 percent shooting, 14.6 rebounds, 4.8 blocks and 3.4 assists per game.
There's no reason to think Wembanyama won't figure things out because he's already so advanced for a player who only has 124 career games under his belt, but this is a situation where he and the Spurs coaching staff have to adjust to the adjustments made by opposing teams.
San Antonio gave itself an early cushion to work things out by winning its first five games, but that window is starting close coming off two straight losses.
Things won't get easier for Wembanyama and the Spurs on Friday when they host the Houston Rockets in an NBA Cup game.
