The basketball world has been marveling at what Victor Wembanyama has done in his rookie season and the Los Angeles Lakers got their first look at the phenom when they played the San Antonio Spurs on the second night of a back to back on Wednesday night.
The Lakers took control of the game early and never relinquished the lead from there, but Wembanyama ignited a furious fourth quarter comeback that nearly gave the Spurs the win. However, Anthony Davis was able to knock down some crucial free throws to give Los Angeles a narrow 122-119 victory.
Davis has been playing some of the best basketball of his career recently and despite turning his ankle in the first quarter, he still managed to dominate with a 37-point performance. However, Wembanyama kept pace with Davis as he scored 30 points of his own, including some a pair of 3-pointers deep into the fourth quarter that put a scare in the Lakers’ heart.
After their first matchup, Davis had nothing but praise for Wembanyama, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“He’s obviously extremely talented,” Davis said. “Three-level scorer, as we saw tonight. It’s fun playing against him obviously. He’s been talked about a lot from his time overseas to Summer League to now. Obviously the team is struggling but he’s playing extremely well. He’s able to keep his team in games. Actually the last six games now including tonight, they’re playing really good basketball. They play hard, play fast, and it’s all led by him. He showed why he’s the No. 1 pick and a Rookie of the Year candidate.”
Although San Antonio has lost 18 games in a row now, Wembanyama continues to show the league and the world that he’s the next generational superstar. The rookie has been a two-way menace since Day 1 and continues to improve from game to game.
Davis is one of the few people that can relate to Wembanyama and the pressure that comes with being a consensus No. 1 overall pick, and he quickly found out just how talented the Spurs pillar is. The two will see each again on Friday and it’ll likely result in more highlight-reel plays.
Anthony Davis gives Victor Wembanyama advice about outside pressure
Wembanyama has managed to exceed the lofty expectations placed on him before he even made his NBA debut, though he’ll still go through his fair share of ups and downs. Davis offered some advice to the young big man, telling him not to listen to outside and to use each game and season to get better.
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