Victor Wembanyama's 41-Point Performance In Double OT Win Over OKC

The path to the Oklahoma City Thunder pulling off an NBA championship repeat may be a little rockier than they expected.

OKC is going up against the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, and suffered their first loss of the playoffs at the hands of Victor Wembanyama.

Game 1 started off evenly matched, with the first quarter ending in a 27-27 tie, and the first half almost ended with a 10-point Spurs lead, were it not for a clutch three by Chet Holmgren. 

That seven-point lead carried them into the fourth quarter, but thanks to a set of free throws and a finger roll courtesy of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the game headed into overtime tied at 101.

In overtime, Wemby began to take over even more, and with the Spurs down three, knocked down a logo three with 27 seconds left, tying the game and heading to a second round of overtime.

With a minute left, a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dunk put the Thunder up 108-105, but Wemby followed it up with a dunk of his own.

Jalen Williams tried to regain momentum with a three, but Wemby responded with a pair of blocks, an alley-oop dunk from Castle. It propelled them to a 122-115 win led by Wemby with 41 points and 24 rebounds. 

While giving an interview with NBC, Wemby pulled Castle into frame, who called the seven-footer, “The best player in the f-cking world.” 

“The message would be that we as a team are ready to go into any environment, any place against anybody,” Wembanyama said after the game. “Even though we’ve still got a lot to learn, our effort should be over everybody else’s. Tonight, we were relentless.”

The game comes just a day after Wemby lost the MVP award to Gilgeous, and when asked if it felt personal, he said, “Yeah, for sure.” 

The Thunder have some playoff experience, having won last year and sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns. With this being this very young Spurs team’s first time in the playoffs, a double-overtime game is giving them the experience they need.

“A game like tonight is the best way to get experience,” Wembanyama said. “We played five quarters. So, we’re learning, and by the time we get the experience, we’ll compensate with our effort. We want to win everything, and we have the chance [because we] have people above us in the organization that know how to do that. So far, it looks like they’ve put the right people together to give us a chance. Right now, we’ve got a chance.”

See social media’s reaction to the game below.