Victor Wembanyama Confident Amid San Antonio Spurs' Skid: 'We're Bringing Energy'
San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama has already proven time and again early in his career that he's on a different level mentally than most 19-year-olds. Constantly having to block out both positive and negative noise, Wemby tends to be unfazed by anything, at least on the surface.
So as the Spurs endure some early-season adversity, his confidence is hardly wavering, though he's still not shying away from the improvements the team needs to make moving forward. This starts with Friday's meeting at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves in what will be San Antonio's first game of the In-Season Tournament.
"I think all of us on the court have good intentions and we learn a lot from the coaching staff defensively, so we're just trying to apply what they say," Wembanyama said. "I think what's good is we're bringing energy all the time, so this is a good start. We have great potential defensively. I know in the past games, especially in Phoenix, we've seen great defensive sequences. We're just all getting it together."
Victor Wembanyama
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Wembanyama had one of the worst games of his young NBA career in Wednesday's 126-105 loss to the New York Knicks. The rookie finished with 14 points on 4 of 14 shooting to go along with nine rebounds and two assists, as he didn't make his first shot from the field until late in the third quarter.
Wemby started to catch a slight rhythm late in the game as the Spurs cut the lead to 14 after trailing by as many as 30, but it was too little too late. Despite his struggles over the past two games, Wembanyama still currently leads the Spurs in points (18.8), rebounds (8.5), blocks (2.4) and steals (1.1) per game this season.
Getting back on track won't be easy on Friday against a T-Wolves team that boasts the talented Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns. Tip-off from the Frost Bank Center is set for 7 p.m. CT.
