Wemby Watch: Victor Hits 5x5, Spurs Fade vs. Lakers

Story of the Game

The Spurs were semi-competitive for the majority of the game and even valiantly fought back to a three point deficit in the second half, but ultimately they faded down the stretch.

Victor did get a 5x5 and, again, he had a number of highlight plays, but I noticed an all too familiar theme: Victor has real trouble scoring in the half court; his only consistent outlet is the three pointer.

Also, if you see 6–8 for 14 points in 17 minutes, it looks like Zach Collins had a good game. Granted, he did have some nice buckets, but I still don’t think he’s playable.

This wasn’t a horrible loss relative to the Spurs losses to date, but it was a weak effort in the 4th quarter and for other spurts of the game.

Victor Stats

27 points, 8 assists, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks in 30 minutes

7–16 fgs, 3–8 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

I wrote about this months ago and this game exemplified it: the Spurs need to become a transition team so Victor can break loose.

When Victor gets high percentage looks around the rim, it’s fairly often because the defense isn’t set. This was the case in the Lakers game.

When the defense was set, Victor’s best weapon was a three pointer. I’ve belabored this point all season: Victor resorting to threes is generally a bad thing.

He did cash in a couple of nice threes early on in the game, but then the misses set in. 3/8 is a respectable final number, but Victor’s not going to be a historically great player by shooting a bunch of threes. In this game, half his shots were threes.

Another familiar Victor flaw that emerged is him not battling for rebounds or, really, boxing out at all. His height has given him the ability to get away with rebounding despite not having position, but his cheating comes back to hurt him in the NBA.

He can still get away with it at times but others he cedes free points to opponents.

Last thing on Victor — he showed a really bad tendency to reach for steals while playing Anthony Davis one-on-one. There’s no need for this, just play him straight up and let your height be your advantage.

However, I have noticed that he was collecting nice steals in the Kings game and tonight. But, his steals aren’t coming in one-on-one situations. He just needs to distinguish when to play solid and when to gamble.

Other thoughts:

• Devin Vassell reverted to the mean with a 3/15 shooting night. Consistency is what he needs to become a star. The talent is there.
• Zach Collins is really bad. Whoever signed him to that extension should be reprimanded. Also, why don’t the Spurs recall Dominick Barlow? They desperately need another big man.
• Jeremy’s three looked flat.

Pre-game setup

The Los Angeles-San Antonio matchup is game #57 for the Spurs.

Betting: Lakers -10, Over/Under 239.5

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

Betting Record going into the game 38–43–1.

The Spurs traveled to Los Angeles for this contest.