Wemby Watch: Victor’s 40–20 Tops Jalen Brunson’s 61 Point Buffet

Story of the Game

This is the season that might have been. The Spurs just beat yet another strong playoff team despite the fact they are still, record-wise, one of the three worst teams in the NBA.

This Spurs vs. Knicks duel to the finish was exactly the kind of fun, competitive game I envisioned when the season started. The only twist was I thought the Spurs would be jockeying to make the playoffs, not playing Plinko in the Tankathon standings.

For those keeping score at home, the Spurs are now tied with the Hornets for the third lowest win total (18) and only one game back of the Blazers.

The Spurs may very well end up at the 5th worst record after having a stranglehold of the 3rd worst record for a large chunk of the season.

It appears as if Gregg Popovich has given up on tanking. He actually had a spirited outburst at a referee — we haven’t seen this kind of fire from Pop in a long time.

Victor Stats

40 points, 7 assists, 20 rebounds, 1 blocks in 38 minutes

13–22 fgs, 4–9 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

Clearly Jalen Brunson is now a bonafide star, but it’s hard for me to tell exactly what it is that makes him so indefensible.

Sure, he’s an excellent shooter, crafty, gets to his spots, etc., but 61 points?

I’m thinking there was probably a defensive adjustment available to Pop earlier in the game before Brunson erupted. But the Spurs kept playing him one-on-one and he kept scoring.

Also, I thought the Mavericks made the right move in not matching the money the Knicks paid. It’s not like I had an in-depth scouting report before he left, but I had the impression he was a good role player, not one of the league’s top 20 players..

But here we are, Brunson is now a star and the shining light in Gotham City.

A few more thoughts:

• Is Jeremy Sochan hurt? No updates were made during the game.
• Victor’s in-game dribbling is too sloppy, he gets out of control and puts himself in bad positions.
• Victor got revenge on the Knicks from earlier in the season — Mitchell Robinson and Hartenstein were a lot more quiet this time around.
• That’s 3 in a row, no playoff bound team wants to see the Spurs right now but it just so happens the Spurs get the Warriors next game.

Pre-game Setup

The New York-San Antonio matchup is game #74 for the Spurs.

Betting: Spurs +9, Over/Under 212.5

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

Betting Record going into the game 48–55–1.

The Knicks traveled to San Antonio for this contest.