NBA: easy against the Warriors, Victor Wembanyama's Spurs score an 11th victory

The Golden State Warriors, deprived of their conductor Stephen Curry, took the ardor of Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs head-on on Friday (85-123). The gap was abysmal between the two teams, from the start of the match: San Antonio led 18-0 in front of its home crowd, with three assists from Victor Wembanyama.

The Frenchman was below his shooting standards, with only 12 points, 18 less than his average this season. But Wemby was valuable in defense (12 rebounds) and altruistic, like these two small lobbed passes in the third quarter for his lieutenant Stephon Castle, phenomenal (32 points), when he could have ventured alone to the basket. “I am ready to give my all for the team if it allows us to win with (nearly) 40 points difference,” said the Frenchman after the match.

San Antonio had almost double the points of San Francisco at halftime (63-33), a gap which made it possible to limit the play of its leaders, like the 21 minutes of Wembanyama, who remained on the bench for the last quarter of the match. After two initial defeats, San Antonio continues its crazy series of victories, with an 11th success in a row. The Warriors, orphans of their boss Stephen Curry (27.8 points on average), suffered their 5th defeat of the season.

The Knicks suffer in the NBA Cup

In a meeting that counted for both the regular season and the NBA Cup, a tournament organized during the season, the New York Knicks lost big against the Indiana Pacers (104-106). The Jalen Brunson gang (33 points, 11 assists) came back to 87-87 in the final quarter but the Pacers, deprived of All-Star leader Tyrese Haliburton, finished better. “I am very proud of our team. We were clearly the losers before this match,” smiles Indiana coach Rick Carlisle.

Before becoming NBA champions in June, the New York Knicks won the NBA Cup at the end of last year, against the Spurs. They now have zero wins and two losses in the tournament. If they are not mathematically eliminated, no team has managed to reach the knockout stages with this record since the creation of the competition, during the 2023-2024 season. New York still has two group games to play, against Cleveland and Miami.

Adebayo-Antetokounmpo, giant duo

The arrival of double MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee to Miami in the offseason and his integration in Florida to win the title caused much ink to flow, after four initial defeats for the Heat. But since then, Miami has revived well and pocketed a third victory in a row on Friday, against the Cleveland Cavaliers (133-121). The 2.11 meter Greek planted 37 points, as did his 2.05 partner Bam Adebayo. The two giants stifled the racket, Antetokounmpo grabbing 9 rebounds and Adebayo 14. Accompanied by Davion Mitchell as creator (22 points, 17 assists), they brought their record to balance (6 wins, 6 losses).

Nightmare for Dieng

Young Frenchman Ousmane Dieng started the Milwaukee Bucks match against Orlando with good news: he is the starter. But after a catastrophic start, the Habs came out never to enter again and played only 5 minutes during the Bucks' 99-107 defeat against the Magic, the 12th of the season. Noa Essengue played 8 minutes and scored 5 points during the Chicago Bulls' victory against Atlanta (125-117), while Sidy Cissoko scored 3 small points (and 4 rebounds) in 26 minutes during Portland's victory against Sacramento (120-107).