Wemby Watch: Victor Gets Lost in the Shuffle, Sengun Romps

Story of the Game

I have a section at the end of every article where I place an imaginary bet on the game. To date, I’ve always taken the Spurs and the under, but before this game I mulled over actually taking the Rockets.

Why?

If the Spurs keep winning, they lose their 3 seed status in this years NBA tankathon. I wrote about this in my Pacers Win Wemby Watch.

This is not to say Pop was pulling strings in this game. I don’t know that. But following the arc of the Spurs and the Hornets (15–46) and Blazers (17–42) for these last 20 games might make for some entertainment of its own.

During the game, I was trying to decide between percentages of who was to blame for Victor’s second half collapse. I truly don’t know if he registered a field goal attempt.

I ended up with Pop at 40%, Spurs teammates at 20%, and Victor at 40%.

As for Pop, how do you watch idly by as your star repeatedly is ignored on offense? Also, how do you not make any adjustments — how do you not get the ball to Victor in positions where he can succeed?

As for Victor’s teammates, how dumb and/or selfish do you have to be to not look for the generational talent on your team?

But. But. The Spurs did eventually get the ball to Victor and when he got it, he choked the ball away. Victor finished with 6 turnovers but it felt like 10. His performance, at times, was embarrassing.

What’s puzzling is he started off the game like he was picking up where he left off on his world beater tour.

Victor Stats

10 points, 3 assists, 11 rebounds, 7 blocks in 31 minutes

4–10 fgs, 2–5 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

Despite the Spurs inability to leverage Victor, they hung around and threatened Houston for quite some time.

The problem was Alpie Sengun turned from proficient scorer to unstoppable. Down the stretch, he simply backed Victor down and used the rim for protection against Victor. Victor still managed some blocks but Sengun’s bullying/bodying technique worked like a charm.

This was one of those times you wonder, how come Pop isn’t making an adjustment? How many times do we need to see Sengun score in the same way to realize something needs to be changed?

Which brings me to one of my notes: how come we never get to see Dominick Barlow anymore?

The guy was playing rock solid basketball and provides some size and strength the Spurs desperately need at times.

What’s ironic is Pop is worried about every potential medical ailment that Victor could possibly have and then he marches Wemby out there to go against a bruiser like Jock Landale. The very first play Landale intentionally rammed into Victor’s back going for a rebound.

The overly cautious Pop seems to be uneven in when he applies his concern. Rather than watch Victor go against guys with +40 pounds on him, I’d rather just put Barlow next to him and have Barlow deal with the big centers.

Victor may have center height but he’s not a center in the traditional sense so you can’t have him banging down low against guys who are 260, 270 pounds. That will wear him out and get him injured, not playing 4 more minutes a game.

More game notes:

• Julian Champagnie played horrendous.
• Malaki Branham played a mostly solid game, again.
• Someone needs to help Victor with spacing on post defense. His positioning was leaving him in the worst of all worlds.
• Zach Collins had 3 turnovers in 18 minutes including an unbelievably horrible pass that got stolen.
• The Rockets played the exact right defense needed to beat the Spurs. For as bad as the Spurs looked, the Rockets were the overwhelming reason why. They swarmed the Spurs, packed the paint, and never let the Spurs get comfortable.
• Pop should take notes from Ime Udoka on playing his stars minutes.
• We once again saw Victor playing a significant chunk of minutes with fringe rotation players like Blake Wesley and Cedi Osman. Why does Victor’s surrounding talent get deluded so often? Why is Pop constantly trying to play smoke and mirrors with rotations — just play your best players.
• Victor handily palmed the ball a few times and had a nice hold on the ball last game which goes against my Victor grip strength theory. But, I did notice there being a lot of space between his hand and the ball at one point which tilts things back. We don’t see Victor leverage his ability to palm the basketball often so I still think I’m on to something.
• This was a winnable game for the Spurs.

Pre-game Setup

The Houston-San Antonio matchup is game #62 for the Spurs.

Betting: Spurs +6.5, Over/Under 228

(Guess-Prediction: I’ll take the Spurs and the over.)

Betting Record going into the game 44–47–1.

The Spurs traveled to Houston for this contest.