What a Week for Wemby as he Makes His Case For MVP

SAN ANTONIO - After what he called the best 30 hours of his basketball career, Victor Wembanyama put on a show in another big win to earn Western Conference Player of the Week honors.

He was also named Western Conference Player of the Month in February, and he's been pretty decisively the best player in the NBA for the last month and a half. He's led the Spurs to 15 wins in the last 16 games, his impact going well beyond the 24 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and a steal he's averaging this season.

Will it be enough for him to be named the NBA Most Valuable Player in just his third season?

The Spurs are outscoring opponents by a whopping 25.7 points per 100 possessions with Wembanyama on the court since the start of February. In the four wins over the last week, Wemby showed the many different ways he can contribute to a victory.

In the final game of the Rodeo Road Trip, the 76ers spent so much energy trying to limit Wembanyama's scoring that everyone else ate, producing a 40-point win. San Antonio outscored Philadelphia by 41 points in the 24 minutes he played. Though he logged just 10 points 8 rebounds and 4 assists, he bent Philly's defense out of shape and he shut things down on the other end with 3 steals, 6 blocks, and an utterly menacing performance.

Wembanyama spoke this week about how he can shape the game on offense without being directly involved if that's what the game calls for.

"I could go four minutes straight without touching the ball and find enough to find ways to impact the game and make our teammates better by setting screens, rolling hard, calling for the ball in the right places, and expecting them to switch or to double team," Wembanyama said.

Against the defense-minded Pistons, he eclipsed his scoring total from the entire previous game in the first quarter and finished the comfortable victory with 38 points, 16 rebounds and 5 blocks in 39 minutes. He punished Detroit's physical play perfectly in the statement win, but the battle left him drained for the next night's contest against the Clippers.

Los Angeles built the lead to 25 points in the third quarter as Wembanyama and the rest of the Spurs looked tired and banged up. Wembanyama later said he almost passed out from exhaustion in the first quarter. Coach Mitch Johnson decided to play Victor in short stints so he could play as hard as he always does.

"We pushed him to his limits last night and what that was, and as we've been all year, mindful of that, and the plan was executed," Johnson said. "And I think we also realized after his first stretch to start the game that was probably the max of a stint that he was looking at tonight. We were looking at short bursts, because we wanted him to be in a stance and play defense and run the floor and screen and offensive rebound, all those things, so we'd rather sacrifice the stint than the effort, but the minutes, that was the plan that was executed."

Wemby played 22 minutes and finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks in the miraculous comeback. After the game he was moved to tears by the resilient performance that he shared with his teammates.

"The best thing that I see is that nobody gives up on anything or anybody," Wembanyama said. "Everybody gets everybody's back. That's why I have blind trust in these guys. I love them so much."

Asked if he would need to take a night off sometime between now and the end of the season to rest up, Wembanyama shot down the idea.

"I get two good nights sleep," he said. "The good thing is I didn't get any bad hits, you know, I didn't get any super sore point in my body. So I don't have anything specific that needs to recover. It's just the whole system which is the best. It means I'm healthy."

Those two nights of sleep indeed left Wembanyama refreshed, and he dropped a highlight-filled 29 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocks on the Rockets in San Antonio's best offensive game of the season. He was asked about Jaylen Brown's comment that he was the best human two-way player in the world, but Wembanyama is an alien.

"I agree, I see it as a mark of respect," said Wembanyama, who will face off against his human peer on Tuesday night as San Antonio's nationally-televised gauntlet of a homestand continues. "That doesn't mean much to me. The awards which represent this would mean more to me."

Speaking of awards, Wembanyama should be an easy lock for Defensive Player of the Year so long as he meets the 65-game minimum. He missed 12 games earlier this season due to a strained quad, and then another two when he hyperextended his knee.

He's played 50 games this season, plus the NBA Cup Final which doesn't count for his season stats but does count toward the 65-game minimum. He'll need to play 14 of the final 18 games for San Antonio to qualify for DPOY, All-NBA honors, and the MVP award that he's knocking on the door of.

So how close is Wembanyama to earning the title of the league's most valuable player in just his third season? The last two winners of the award are still seen as the most likely winners this year, but both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic are both in some jeopardy of meeting the minimum. SGA has missed a dozen games this year, and Jokic 16.

Assuming all three guys make the cut, there's still an argument to be made that Wembanyama is the MVP. He's the biggest reason why this Spurs team has outperformed expectations to such a shocking degree this season, and he's fantastic on both ends of the floor while SGA and Joker are more about the offensive end.

Another way to bolster his case would be leading San Antonio to the best record in the NBA. It would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the year as the Thunder started the season 24-1, but Wemby and the Spurs knocked them off that pedestal and they've come down to earth.

San Antonio is now just 2.5 games back of OKC, and if they can capture the top seed from the defending champions whom they've beaten four times this year, it will be hard to give the MVP to anyone other than Victor Wembanyama.