Victor Wembanyama scores career-high 50 points in Spurs’ win

SAN ANTONIO – Spurs star Victor Wembanyama scored a career-high 50 points — including a career-best eight 3-pointers — in a 139-130 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.

“My first thought at the end is that I want the rest of our performances, the rest of our matches, to overshadow this one,” Wembanyama said. “I want to do it where in the future, (this is) just another one.”

It clearly isn’t.

Wembanyama was preceded by the last three 50-point games produced by the Spurs in overtime. In 1994, David Robinson recorded the franchise’s most recent 50-point performance in regulation.

At 20 years and 314 days, Wembanyama is the fourth youngest player to score 50 points. At 7-foot-4, he’s also the tallest to do so.

Wembanyama’s previous career high was 40 points in a 130-126 overtime win against the New York Knicks last March.

He made his presence felt almost from the start Wednesday, assisting or scoring on four consecutive field goals in the first 67 seconds as San Antonio took a 13-3 lead.

“The big guy, man, when he comes out with that mindset, it’s a tough opportunity to handle,” Spurs forward Julian Champagnie said. “Big credit to him, big shoutout to him. He’s working on his game. I don’t know what it was that he took personally, but he took something personal, went out there and jumped.”

Wembanyama did most of the damage in the third quarter, shooting a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor and 4-of-4 from long range for 19 points to go with four rebounds, an assist and a block.

He tallied nearly half of his points on the night from beyond the arc, hitting 8-of-16.

“If you looked at them, they were good rhythm shots,” Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson said. “The gravity that he picks up, or pulls, is unique. So when he makes shots away from the basket, it’s definitely just going to pull that gravity.”

Wembanyama was 18-of-29 from the field and added 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in 32 minutes en route to becoming the first player in league history with 20 3-pointers and 13 blocks over three games.

For his career, Wembanyama has now recorded a 50-point game, a 5×5 game and a 10-block game. Only three other players — Anthony Davis, Hakeem Olajuwon and Robinson — can claim those accomplishments since blocks became an official stat in 1973-74.

It took Wembanyama 83 career games to record his first 50-point game, the fourth-fewest games needed since the 1976-77 NBA/ABA merger.

After finishing a quick lift in the weight room, Wembanyama moved on to treatment and admitted he planned to “reflect” during the session on his latest milestone. Wembanyama also confessed to watching the scoreboard at times as he neared 50 points.

“I love to celebrate the small wins and the big wins over a period of time,” he said. “But tomorrow we’re already locked into the Lakers. I’m going to give myself some time to reflect. It’s definitely a big milestone. It’s kind of a private club. It’s definitely something I’m proud of.”

ESPN Research contributed to this report.