Victor Wembanyama turned Game 4 on Sunday night with one shot from 43 feet. He called for the ball late in the second quarter, hoisted it as the first-half clock expired and buried a buzzer beater that helped the San Antonio Spurs beat the Oklahoma City Thunder by 21 points and tie the Western Conference finals.
That is why searches around Wemby age are surging now: the 7-foot-4 center did not just produce a highlight, he put the Spurs back on level ground after they had trailed 2-1 in the series. Wembanyama scored 33 of San Antonio’s 103 points in 31 minutes, carrying the offense on a night when the game changed every time he touched the ball. In Game 1, he had already shown how far he could stretch a defense, finishing with a 41-24 double-double and forcing a second overtime with a 32-foot three.
The swing from one game to the next has been the story of the series. Wembanyama had only four rebounds in Game 3 and a milder night in Game 2, yet the Spurs were still able to keep pace because of his ceiling and the way he can break a game open in a few seconds. That burst matters even more against the defending champions, who are also described through four games as the best-record-in-the-league Thunder.
But the larger truth is harder for San Antonio to ignore. Through four games, Oklahoma City has looked like the better and deeper team, and its bench has outperformed the Spurs’ bench by about five times that margin. Isaiah Hartenstein has also made life rough inside for Wembanyama, physically limiting his ability to get into the paint and rebound. Even so, the Spurs are still here because Wembanyama keeps finding moments that change the math of the series.
The next test is whether San Antonio can keep getting enough around him to make another upset run plausible. For one night, though, the answer was already in the air before it dropped through: from 43 feet, at the buzzer, with the series suddenly tied.
