Kevin Durant Exposes Victor Wembanyama’s Current Weakness

In a Texas-sized rivalry game on Tuesday night, the Houston Rockets overcame an early deficit to get a big 111-106 win over the San Antonio Spurs. Alperen Sengun (20-13-9) nearly posted a triple-double, and Reed Sheppard chipped in with 21 off the bench in 29 minutes. The big story, though, was the way the Rockets shut down Victor Wembanyama.

The French star came into the game after scoring a combined 72 points in his last two outings, wins against the Jazz and the Timberwolves. In those games, he was hot from all over the floor, but especially from 3-point range, recording 11-21 from outside in those games.

That’s the most 3s Wemby has attempted in a two-game stretch all season, and the Rockets decided to use that against him. They tried to force him outside and then got a hand in his face whenever they could. The result was a 0-7 mark from long range and a 14-point game.

That was Wemby’s lowest scoring game since before Christmas. Overall, he went just 5-21 from the field. And after the game, Kevin Durant spoke on his team’s defensive approach for the big man.

“He’s still working on his jump shot,” KD said. “You can tell he’s trying to figure [out] his jump shot out. He made a few tough fadeaways over us. He hit a couple early on, but for the most part, we made him shoot over us.”

Durant and Co. knew where Wemby is at his most effective. “He’s more dangerous when he gets layups and dunks and plays around the rim,” KD continued. 

“That’s more of his game, I think, than floating around the perimeter, shooting 3s and jump shots. When it goes, it looks amazing, but when you get a hand up on him, it’s some bad misses, and we were able to get out and run,” added Durant, who was quiet by his standards in the game, scoring 18 points, but efficient with 7-12 shooting.

The Rockets finished the game with a 16-7 edge in fast break points and a six-point advantage in points in the paint. That helped them overcome a poor performance from the free-throw line and a 27-point explosion from Spurs forward Julian Champagnie to get their third win in a row.

Wemby is a more-than-capable 3-point shooter. Even after his performance last night, he’s still shooting a career high 38% from outside this year. But with his ridiculous length and finishing ability around the rim, opposing teams would always rather pick the lesser of two evils and let him bomb it from deep.

You don’t often hear players speak openly about the specific tactics they want to use against a rival. But everyone in the league, Wemby and the Spurs included, knows that this is what teams want to do against them.

Will it work in the playoffs, or will it be a futile attempt to stop what seems to be an inevitable Wemby takeover? A seven-game series between these two teams this spring will provide us with the answer.