Wembanyama hits six 3-pointers, seven blocks in Spurs loss

SAN ANTONIO – Spurs star Victor Wembanyama couldn’t believe it.

“Really? I’ve never made six 3s in a game?” he asked.

Wembanyama shook off his 3-point shooting slump in a big way Saturday, making a career-high six 3-pointers in addition to producing his second game of the season with seven blocks in San Antonio’s 111-110 loss to the Utah Jazz.

Wembanyama was 6-of-9 from deep and 8-of-15 from the field.

“He made shots that he’s missed earlier (this season),” Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson said. “So there’s no reaction either way. He’s a phenomenal shooter. We want him to make all those shots.”

Wembanyama, 21, was forced to drop a game-high 24 points to go with 16 rebounds. The performance marked Wembanyama’s third career game with at least five 3-pointers and five blocks, tying Kristaps Porzingis for the second most in NBA history behind Raef LaFrentz, who had four.

Wembanyama also became the second player in league history with six 3s and seven blocks in a game, joining Brook Lopez who did so in 2017. Wembanyama now has two of the three instances in NBA history where a player scored at least 20 points with 15 rebounds, 5 blocks and 5 3-pointers, with Paul Millsap providing the second in 2016.

“I don’t think there’s really a corner to be turned,” Wembanyama said. “That’s not how progression goes. I’m not going to shoot 66% in my career. But I don’t want to shoot 25% either. That’s how progression goes. You don’t want to react one way or the other.”

In just his second season, Wembanyama has produced 13 career games with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks, which already ranks as the third most in Spurs franchise history behind David Robinson (117) and Tim Duncan (74). It’s also the most in a player’s first two seasons since 1999, when Duncan produced 14 such performances.

Wembanyama entered Saturday having shot just 13-of-41 from 3-point range over his previous five games. But after a 2-for-9 performance from beyond the arc during a loss Tuesday to the Clippers, Wembanyama insisted his mindset won’t change.

“It’s just to keep playing my game, and my game is also shooting 3s,” he said.

Wembanyama showed as much early, firing a 25-footer off a Harrison Barnes assist for San Antonio’s first points. The Frenchman hit 2-of-3 from 3-point range in the first quarter, including a 26-foot step-back jumper with 32.7 seconds left, en route to draining four 3s in the first half, matching his career high in a half.

The Spurs attempted a franchise-record 28 3-pointers in the first half.

Defensively, Wembanyama recorded multiple blocks in a quarter for the 75th and 76th times, recording two in the first quarter and four more in the fourth. His 76 multiple-block quarters ranks No. 1 in the NBA since last season. Since 1997-98, Robinson and Duncan are the only Spurs with more multiple-block quarters (208 and 595, respectively) than Wembanyama.

Wembanyama also became the second Spurs player to average at least 3.5 blocks through the first 10 games of a season, joining Robinson, who accomplished the feat five times in his Hall of Fame career.

Wembanyama posted his first block just 39 seconds in, knocking away a Walker Kessler 17-footer. He logged another block with 7:20 left in the opening quarter, this time on Collin Sexton as he attempted a mid-range jumper.

“My rhythm is definitely there,” Wembanyama said. “But there’s so much more to come. It’s just a matter of how well we can combine it all. Once we combine it all, it’s great. But it’s about how often we can do it and so can we keep piling up wins.”

Saturday’s game marked fourth-year forward Devin Vassell’s season debut. Vassell finished with 21 points off the bench on 8-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range, with three rebounds and four assists. Vassell had sat out the team’s first nine games recovering from right foot surgery in June.

The team’s second leading scorer last season, Vassell, had not played a regular season game since March 29.

“It felt great to be back out there, but I just need to get familiar with playing with everybody,” Vassell said. “These are people I didn’t play with in training camp. I didn’t practice or nothing. We’re still in so many games. But honestly, I’m just glad I’m back playing and we’re starting to turn in the right direction, i can tell you i wish we had gotten this one.