{"id":1926077,"date":"2026-05-09T04:36:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T01:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1926077"},"modified":"2026-05-09T04:36:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T01:36:00","slug":"victor-wembanyama-was-a-cheat-code-as-spurs-take-2-1-lead-over-timberwolves-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1926077","title":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama was a cheat code as Spurs take 2-1 lead over Timberwolves: Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The San Antonio Spurs overcame a hostile Minnesota Timberwolves crowd, a full dose of Anthony Edwards, and foul trouble to star Victor Wembanyama on Friday night, battling to a 115-108 victory and a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series.<\/p>\n

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson rolled the dice in the fourth quarter, leaving Wembanyama in the game despite his star carrying five fouls with six minutes to go. It didn\u2019t matter, as Wembanyama dominated down the stretch. He finished with 39 points, 15 rebounds, five blocks and, crucially, just the five fouls.<\/p>\n

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Wembanyama\u2019s box-score-filling performance overcame the heroics of Edwards. The Wolves\u2019 star, who has been limited by knee pain throughout the playoffs, started for the first time this series. He played 40 minutes, scoring 32 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and dishing out six assists.<\/p>\n

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Wembanyama received plenty of support, as four other Spurs players scored in double figures, led by De\u2019Aaron Fox\u2019s 17. Naz Reid scored 18, and Jaden McDaniels chipped in 17 to back Edwards\u2019 effort.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves made this a game despite a brutal start, missing their first 12 field goal attempts. Rudy Gobert\u2019s put-back with 5:08 left in the first quarter stopped the skid and pulled Minnesota within 14-3.<\/p>\n

Game 4 is Sunday in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Here are the key takeaways.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama broke the game<\/h2>\n

Wembanyama finally had his takeover game, and it was a masterful threading of physicality and skill that became one of the greatest performances of his career. He became the fifth player ever with his stat line of 39 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in a playoff game, joining Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain (unofficially), per Stathead. He managed to survive all of crunch time with five fouls and didn\u2019t let the Wolves take too much advantage of that. Meanwhile, he dragged Gobert out of the paint and completely cooked, especially down the stretch. Whether it was driving in isolation situations, setting up flare actions to spot up for 3, or just getting buckets from the post, Wembanyama did it all.<\/p>\n

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This was the kind of performance you need to have to be considered one of the best players in the game. He was not just a great cog in a good system, but someone who broke the game single-handedly. That\u2019s what he did all night. This was the defining performance of his career, both in his dominance and ability to stay on the floor. \u2014 Jared Weiss, Spurs writer<\/em><\/p>\n

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This series is everything the playoffs should be about<\/h2>\n

Wembanyama and Edwards went toe-to-toe in an epic joust of superstars. McDaniels and Stephon Castle got into it. Referee Tony Brothers went after Timberwolves coach Chris Finch.<\/p>\n

You read that right. Finch complained about a foul not being called as the Spurs trapped Edwards near half court. After Finch called a timeout, Brothers didn\u2019t call a technical foul. Instead, he yelled at Finch. And moments later, after Finch left his huddle to head toward Brothers, the referee<\/em> had to be held back.<\/p>\n

The intensity of these Western Conference semifinals picked up dramatically. And after the Spurs\u2019 Game 3 win, it only figures to turn up another notch. The Wolves will be desperate to even the series and will have two players coming off duds. McDaniels and Julius Randle combined to shoot 8-of-34 from the field.<\/p>\n

The defense on both sides is physical and aggressive. The Spurs have suffocated Minnesota\u2019s offense, holding the hosts to 38.4 percent from the field. The Wolves have not solved Wembanyama, who is significantly diminishing their inside presence. Minnesota, the same squad that torched Denver for more than 60 points in a game in the first round, had just 38 points in the paint. The Spurs are up on them, swiping at the ball, trapping Edwards and funneling all action to Wembanyama. And he\u2019s trying to block everything.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves were, for the most part, formidable on defense. The Spurs shot 38.8 percent from the field \u2014 if you take away Wembanyama. Minnesota couldn\u2019t figure him out on the offensive end either. \u2014 Marcus Thompson II, NBA senior writer<\/em><\/p>\n

Edwards emptied the tank<\/h2>\n

Edwards doesn\u2019t have the explosion he normally does. He can\u2019t turn the corner and elevate. His aching knees won\u2019t allow it. But he just doesn\u2019t seem to care.<\/p>\n

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Edwards returned to the starting lineup, blew by whatever preset minutes limit there was for him and threw everything he had at the Spurs. He made 12 of 26 shots and had six assists in 41 minutes, an inspiring effort even though he was nowhere close to 100 percent.<\/p>\n

Edwards was limited to 24 minutes in the first two games after surprising everyone and returning for the start of this series. In Game 3, he didn\u2019t seem to have quite enough gas in the fourth quarter. He scored only 2 points in the final frame before a late 3 with the score already decided, and the Wolves just couldn\u2019t quite generate enough offense to match the Spurs.<\/p>\n

Of the 14 rebounds Edwards grabbed, almost every one of them seemed to be in traffic. His two 3s at the end of the first quarter helped the Wolves erase an early 15-point deficit, and the gravity he commanded opened things up for his teammates.<\/p>\n

But McDaniels was 5-of-22 and Randle was 3-of-12 from the floor, unable to give their banged-up leader enough support down the stretch.<\/p>\n

The Wolves have always played their best with their backs against the wall. Now they\u2019re down 2-1 and facing what is essentially a must-win game Sunday. \u2014 Jon Krawczynski, Timberwolves writer<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The San Antonio Spurs overcame a hostile Minnesota Timberwolves crowd, a full dose of Anthony Edwards, and foul trouble to star Victor Wembanyama on Friday night, battling to a 115-108 victory and a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series. Spurs coach Mitch Johnson rolled the dice in the fourth quarter, leaving Wembanyama in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1926077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}