2023-12-24 07:47:30
Victor Wembanyama (center with black t-shirt) on the bench during the Spurs match against the Mavericks, in Dallas, December 23, 2023. SAM HODDE / AFP
Bad luck stuck to Victor Wembanyama’s sneakers. The French player from the San Antonio Spurs was injured on Saturday, December 23, during the warm-up for the NBA match against the Dallas Mavericks. After scoring a basket, the 2.24 meter giant tripped over the foot of a Mavs ball boy who was standing on the baseline, spraining his ankle.
Frustrated, Wembanyama returned to the locker room. His ankle was bandaged and he returned to the floor with the intention of playing, but the club announced that he would not play the match.
Dead last in the Western Conference, the Spurs do not want to take any risks with their young star. “If it was a playoff game, I probably would have played him, Coach Gregg Popovich said. He’s not happy, but I’d rather err on the side of caution, since it’s the same ankle he was just given a playing time limit for.”
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The rookie, chosen in first position by the Texan franchise during the last draft, had already missed the match against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday due to pain in the same ankle, before playing 22 minutes against Chicago on Thursday, giving a poor performance. (7 points, 5 rebounds).
The Doncic festivals
Before this Texan derby against Dallas, Gregg Popovich announced that the Frenchman would not play the entire match. “Wemby” has missed three games this season, having withdrawn on December 1, during a match against the Pelicans, due to pain in his right hip.
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Without Wembanyama, the Spurs conceded to Dallas a 24th defeat in 28 matches (the 22nd in the last 23 matches) with a clear score of 144 to 119.
Dallas star Luka Doncic had another great time, posting a triple double with 39 points, 10 assists and 12 rebounds in just three quarters. This is the 36th time in his career that the Slovenian prodigy has recorded a triple double (three statistical lines that reach at least the number ten), only one time less than LeBron James who is in third position in the history of the league.
For his part, Victor Wembanyama has little time to rest his ankle. The Spurs face the Utah Jazz on December 26. Until then, the Frenchman had very good individual statistics for a beginner (18.5 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3 blocks on average per game), but he had a series of defeats with Spurs, often clumsy and regularly swept away by their opponents.
The Texans can nevertheless console themselves by saying that there is worse: the Detroit Pistons tied, on Saturday, the record for the longest losing streak in a single NBA season, losing for the 26th time in in a row, against the Brooklyn Nets, whom they will meet again on Tuesday, with the hope, in front of their own audience, of avoiding becoming the only holders of this sad record.
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