SAN ANTONIO – Victor Wembanyama left Monday night’s game early with a bruised left rib, according to the Spurs.
The injury appeared to happen at the 10:47 mark in the second quarter after a foul by Paul George that left Wembanyama grabbing at his left side. He left the game for a few minutes before coming back in to close the second half, and looked to be moving pretty well.
Wembanyama logged 17 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks in the first half as the Spurs built a seven-point halftime lead. He played over 15 minutes in the game, meaning that this game will count toward the 65-game minimum for regular-season awards. Typically players need to log at least 20 minutes for a game to count, but the rules allow for two ‘near miss’ games with between 15 and 20 minutes played. This is his second of the season.
The Spurs have three regular season games remaining, and Wembanyama will need to play in at least one of them to qualify for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and All-NBA. The NBA Cup Final does not count toward regular season statistics, but does count toward the 65-game minimum.
Obviously the main concern for Wembanyama and the Spurs is ensuring that he’s fully healthy with the playoffs around the corner. The Spurs are all but locked in to the 2 seed in the Western Conference, and have title aspirations in Wemby’s first playoff run.
“I’m not sure,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said after the game. “I know he came back and he just didn’t finish. And so at halftime, I was told he wasn’t coming back, and I honestly got, I haven’t heard anything else up to this point… I think it would be a positive that he felt like he could come back, and he played the last four or five minutes of the half. So that’s a positive from my perspective, but I have nothing.”
The Spurs won the game 115-102 for win number 60 on the season. Asked after the game about Wembanyama’s status moving forward, Johnson wasn’t sure.
“I have no other answer,” Johnson said. “I haven’t even talked to anybody, so I’m sure we’ll do our due diligence to make sure he’s okay. But I have no idea.”
Stephon Castle tallied another triple-double and led San Antonio to their 60th win. He said in his postgame press availability that he saw Wembanyama after the game, and his big man seemed to be doing alright.
This is a developing story and will be updated with the latest information.
