Victor Wembanyana played in his 65th game of the season as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks, and the team offered an update on their superstar after the game.
If the San Antonio Spurs' most recent 139-120 win over the Dallas Mavericks was Victor Wembanyama's last game of the season, it's hard to imagine a better curtain call.
In his 65th game this year, Wembanyama scored 40 points to go with 12 rebounds. Now eligible for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and All-NBA nods, it's hard to imagine him suiting up for the finale on Sunday against the Denver Nuggets.
After all, his case is cemented, and the Spurs can't move up or down in the standings. All signs point to Wemby sitting, although he isn't quite ready to rule himself out just yet.
Wemby, Spurs Speak on Rib Injury
In order to qualify for the NBA awards, Wembanyama needed to play 20 minutes on Friday. He finished with 26, and repeatedly waved off Mitch Johnson, who was trying to sub him out.
Apparently, the rib didn't nag him down the stretch, and he thought he was good to keep playing.
"I tried to protect it as much as possible while being respectful of the game," he said. "But it was okay. It didn't bother me that much. Just a few times where it was like a specific movement, a specific hit where, yeah, it was painful."
Johnson assumed Wembanyama would be "sore," but didn't seem worried about anything more than that. As the second seed, the Spurs will have to wait for the play-in games to finish before they get their first-round matchup, but that means extra rest for the roster.
Wembanyama thinks he will get Sunday against Denver off, too.
"I don't think it's safe to assume that," he said, before switching up. "But I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case."
Heading into the game against Dallas, both Wembanyama and Stephon Castle were listed on the injury report. Castle ended up not playing, and his status (along with everyone else's) remains up in the air.
"I think we'll see how everybody wakes up tomorrow, have initial conversations, see how everybody wakes up on Sunday, and so I wouldn't rule out Steph, and I wouldn't rule out everybody that played tonight, but, again, we're locked into where we're at, so we're just kind of focusing on us, and that may mean reps for this guy," Johnson explained. "That may mean reps for that guy, but we'll have those conversations in the next 48 hours."