Wemby Has 5×5 Game in Spurs Win Over Jazz – They have a special one down by the River Walk in San Antonio. If anyone knows how to bounce back from a stinker it is the French sensation, Victor Wembanyama.
Just one day after arguably his worst game of as a pro, in which he posted a career-low six points on 1-of-5 from the field, plus eight rebounds, two assists and four turnovers in a loss to his rival and nemesis Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the San Antonio Spurs star recorded his second ever 5×5 game.
A 5×5 game, which is very rare feat in the NBA, requires a player to record at least five of a stat in five separate categories, such as points, rebounds, assists, etc.
Facing the woeful Utah Jazz, Wembanyama took them to the woodshed with 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals and five blocks in a 106-88 win. Ironically, those were his first steals of the season, in his fifth game.
A 5×5 game is much rarer than its distant relative, the triple-double, to the point that Wembanyama is only the third player in NBA history to post multiple such games. Hakeem Olajuwon, formerly of the Houston Rockets, is the all-time leader with six in 1,238 games and is followed by former Utah Jazz player Andrei Kirilenko with three in 797 games. Only a dozen other players have one on the books at all.
Wembanyama was not phased nor satisfied by the impressive showing.
Embed from Getty Images“It tells me I need to get my standards up when I don’t get 5x5s because I am able to help my team in all those areas. It should be a consistent thing,” he said, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “As I have said before, it is something we must have, something I must have more often to help my team.”
Wembanyama just played his 76th career game. He posted his first 5×5 game in February, becoming the second rookie to do so.
The 5×5 feels like a stat made for Wembanyama to shatter, much like Russell Westbrook did with the triple-double. No player in the nearly 80 years history of NBA has the Frenchman’s repertoire of length, agility and ball skills, and that means he is a threat to hit five blocks and five steals, the most challenging parts of the achievement, if he is flying around enough on defense.
And…
Magic Star Banchero Sidelined with Torn Oblique – The Orlando Magic were hit with a devasting blow. Paolo Banchero basked in the allure of the first 50-point game of his career on Monday against the Indiana Pacers. Three days later, it is unclear when the Magic star will be back on the court with his teammates.
Banchero has been diagnosed with a torn right oblique and is out indefinitely, the Magic announced Thursday. He sustained the injury in the fourth quarter of a 102-99 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night and will be re-evaluated in four-to-six weeks.
The injury puts a sudden stop to what was shaping up to be a coming out party for the former No. 1 overall pick out of Duke. After a Rookie of the Year award in 2022-23 and an All-Star appearance last season, Banchero was a monster averaging career highs across the board in his first five games, including points (29 per game), rebounds (8.8), assists (5.6), field-goal percentage (49.5%) and 3-point percentage (34.4%), plus a career low in turnovers (2.2).
Much of that seismic leap forward was attributable to Monday, when he dropped 50 points on the Indiana Pacers, with 37 of them in the first half, in a 119-115 victory.
In the best-case scenario, at the low end of the timetable, a four-week recovery period would still cause Banchero to miss 15 games for the 3-2 Magic. He has been a workhorse, playing at least 72 games in each of his first two years, but likely will not meet that mark this season.
As stated previously, Banchero scored a career-high 50 points in Monday’s win over the Indiana Pacers, when he became the second-youngest player to record at least 50 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a game in NBA history behind LeBron James, who accomplished the feat in 2005 as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Toronto Raptors.
Banchero was not done yet, following that up with a 31-point outburst in Wednesday’s loss to the Bulls, making him just the third player to average 40 points over a two-game span in franchise history, joining former Magic stars Tracy McGrady and Shaquille O’Neal.
