Wembanyama Listed as Doubtful, Spurs Reportedly Optimistic He'll Return Soon

SAN ANTONIO - Victor Wembanyama seems to have avoided a serious injury after leaving Monday night's win over the 76ers at halftime with a bruised rib.

According to ESPN's Shams Charania, the 22-year-old superstar's x-rays came back clean and there's optimism he'll play at least one of the Spurs' three remaining regular-season games. He's listed as doubtful for Wednesday night's contest against the Portland Trail Blazers.

It's good news for Wembanyama, who sits one game shy of the NBA's 65-game minimum for awards eligibility and will surely be First Team All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year as long as he plays 20 minutes one more time. More importantly, the 7-foot-5 phenom is about to embark on his first playoff run and the Spurs look like they'll be title contenders as long as the big fella is healthy. It seems Wemby and San Antonio can breathe a sigh of relief, though it may be slightly uncomfortable for him at the moment.

"I'm told the Spurs are not anticipating this to be a major injury," Charania said on Tuesday during an episode of NBA Today. "He underwent x-rays last night on that rib and x-rays for Victor Wembanyama returned negative I'm told. He will be undergoing more testing later today, but there is hope and optimism that those tests will confirm what they felt last night, the anticipation is nothing major."

Wembanyama got banged up early in the second quarter against Philadelphia when Paul George tried to bust up a transition break and ended up hitting more Wemby than ball. He stayed down for a moment, cluthing at his left shoulder and side. He went back to the locker room for a bit, and then came back to play 4:49 at the end of the second quarter.

After returning from that initial contact with George he went 3-4 from the floor, with an easy reverse dunk and a play where he took Embiid from the arc to the rim. On that play he dribbled comfortably with his left and finished through contact, but the foul sent him right into teammate Keldon Johnson with some force. It looked like Wembanyama's left side slammed into Johnson's elbow, and Wembanyama winced before he went to the line.

A few possessions later Wembanyama spaced to the corner, rose toward the break and then cut back to the corner for a handoff and a smooth stepback 3 that he canned. After the game Spurs coach Mitch Johnson didn't have any intel to share, but he did say he thought it was a good sign that he returned to the floor.

"I think it would be a positive that he felt like he could come back, and he played the last four or five minutes of the half," Johnson said. "So that's a positive from my perspective, but I have nothing."

Stephon Castle led the Spurs to the win with the fifth triple-double of his career, and said that he saw Wembanyama after the game and he looked to be doing alright. Castle got a little banged up himself in that one, grabbing at his right leg and heading to the locker room briefly in the first quarter. He threw a lob to Wembanyama and caught a stray leg from Andre Drummond in the process.

"Everything was good with me," Castle said after the game. "I just wanted to go to the back to make sure everything was good. I mean, I felt good as soon as I got soon as I got up, I felt like I could have kept playing. But, yeah, I want to go in the back and make sure."

Castle is also listed as doubtful for the game against the Blazers, with the team citing right knee soreness.

If Wemby doesn't go on Wednesday he'll have two more chances to suit up and guarantee his award eligibility. San Antonio will host the Dallas Mavericks on Friday and the Nuggets to close the season on Sunday. The Spurs are pretty much guaranteed to be the second seed, and might prefer to rest Wemby against a Nuggets team with a special, bruising center who they may face in the postseason.