The Spurs do have confidence he will play at least one of the team’s final three regular season games, NBA insider Shams Charania says.
SAN ANTONIO — The Spurs may be without their French superstar Wednesday in a game against the Trail Blazers as the regular season winds to a close.
In San Antonio’s 60th win of the season Monday, Victor Wembanyama suffered a left rib contusion, resulting in him leaving the game right before halftime.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Wemby is now listed as “doubtful” to play against the Blazers. However, he also reported the Spurs are confident he will play at least one of the team’s final three regular-season games.
Against the 76ers, Wemby played only 16 minutes but scored 17 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked three shots. It’s safe to say he was well on his way to another big performance as he remains in the MVP race.
But the big thing coming out of this game is the health of Wemby. CBS Sports currently has Wemby at 64 games, counting the NBA Cup, with three games to go, meaning he needs to play in one of those games to be eligible for awards as players must play 65 games to be considered.
While the injury isn’t expected to be serious, his status is still up in the air if he’s good enough to play.
If he doesn’t play the league-mandated 65 games, that changes a lot. He’s expected to finish at least top three in MVP voting, which would mean he would make his first All-NBA team in his career. He’s also the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year for the first time; if he’s ineligible, a completely different player would win that award.
Wemby isn’t the first player to possibly face problems with this new rule.
Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, one of the best guards in the league who led the Pistons to the No. 1 seed in the East, only played 61 games, meaning he doesn’t qualify for any award despite being the best player on the best team in that conference.
Luka Doncic of the Lakers was one game away from satisfying the 65-game rule before going down with a regular season-ending hamstring injury. Doncic is leading the league in scoring at 33.5 points a game while also leading the Lakers to a top-five seed in the loaded West. Despite this, he was one game off from possibly winning the MVP award.
Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards is another example, playing only 60 games and averaging almost 30 points on a top-seeded Timberwolves team.
So Wemby isn’t the only player possibly being affected by this rule. But it could impact him even more than others given that he’s essentially a lock to win Defensive Player of the Year honors. He’s averaging 3.1 blocks per game this season, far more than Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, who is second with 1.6.
While Cunningham, Doncic and Edwards are all MVP candidates, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic are ultimately the favorites to bring home that award.
With Wemby or not, the Spurs have to move on to play the 40-39 Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
Stephon Castle is also listed as doubtful with a knee injury he also sustained in the 76ers game.