Summary
- Career highs across the board: 52 points, 24 rebounds and 8 blocks for Victor Wembanyama in a 112-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night.
- He is just the second player since blocks became an official stat in 1973-74 to post at least 50 points, 20 rebounds and 5 blocks in one game — Bob McAdoo did it in 1974.
- The first half alone was historic: 29 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks — a 25/10/5 half no player had recorded in the play-by-play era. He closed it with the winning free throw with 24.2 seconds left.
Some stat lines you read twice. Victor Wembanyama’s Wednesday night line — 52 points, 24 rebounds, eight blocks — is one of them, and the context makes it louder: he did it while battling a virus, rolled his ankle in the fourth quarter, and still sank the winning free throw with 24.2 seconds left to beat Dallas 112-111, San Antonio’s sixth straight win.
The first half was the tell. Wembanyama hit the break with 29 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks, becoming the first player in the play-by-play era (since 1996-97) to post at least 25, 10 and 5 in a single half. By the end he had joined Bob McAdoo (1974) as the only players with a 50-point, 20-rebound, 5-block game since blocks were first recorded, matched Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor as the only men with 50 and 20 in a one-point win, and logged the most rebounds (24) in a 50-point game since Chris Webber in 2001.
Dallas got 29 from Kyrie Irving and had a last shot to steal it — Irving’s contested turnaround missed with 2.5 seconds left. The Spurs are 6-2, the Mavericks 4-4, and the league has a new problem it cannot scheme around: a 7-foot-4 center who is now, officially, a multiple-50-point scorer at 22 years old.
Source: Associated Press, Reuters, NBC Sports and USA Today game reports, cross-checked November 5. Photo: Associated Press.
