Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Victor Wembanyama blazed with 41 points, his record this season, and a historically fast double-double during the San Antonio Spurs‘ success against the Chicago Bulls 129-114 on Monday in the NBA.
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The Spurs, unstoppable at the end of the season, broke away during the second quarter.
Wembanyama didn’t wait that long to shine: he accumulated 10 points and 10 rebounds, a “double-double”, in eight minutes and 31 seconds of play, an NBA record.
The 22-year-old Frenchman, a declared and increasingly credible candidate for the MVP award, ended the night with a new demonstration of strength, accumulating 41 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks.
This season, he scored a maximum of 40 points twice, against Dallas on October 22 and then the Los Angeles Lakers on February 10. His record remains 50 points from last season.
“It was not perfect collectively and individually,” he lamented. “I would have liked to do better, but it’s still satisfactory.”
Wembanyama faced the captain of the French team Guerschon Yabusele, author of 15 points and 5 rebounds. Yabusele, often in defense against his compatriot, was able to see his progress and his new power, he who saw “Wemby” go over him for a one-handed dunk.
Taking advantage of the Bulls’ permissive defense, the Spurs continued to feed their 2.24 m “alien” with alley-oops, who scored one last unreal basket, going up for a dunk after a double giant step started behind the free throw line.
Stephon Castle added 21 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists for the Spurs.
The Texans, second in the West (57v-18d) continue to put pressure in the standings on the Oklahoma City Thunder (60v-16d), who scared themselves at home with a 114-110 success after overtime against the Detroit Pistons, although very diminished (absences of Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Duncan Robinson, Tobias Harris).
The clash between the two conference leaders was closer than expected, forcing 2025 MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to pull out all the stops with 47 points. The Canadian, favorite to be elected MVP again ahead of Wembanyama, thought he had scored the winning basket before overtime, but the referees whistled an offensive foul.
Elsewhere in the NBA, the Atlanta Hawks pulled off a nice coup by winning 112-102 against the Boston Celtics, despite 29 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists from Jaylen Brown.
LeBron James scored his third triple-double of the season with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists against Washington, beaten 120-101 by the Lakers.
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