The Los Angeles Clippers started the new week with a showdown in Inglewood against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. It was a wild game in which the Clippers came back from a huge deficit to score a 113-104 victory – their first ever at Intuit Dome.
Ivica Zubac gets real about Victor Wembanyama’s defense after Los Angeles Clippers vs. San Antonio Spurs
Clippers center Ivica Zubac had a big role in his team’s improbable win, as he finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds, though, he shot just 6-for-17 from the field. That inefficiency in his attempts from the floor was partly because of Wembanyama’s presence. Zubac admitted after the game how tough it is to actually get around Wemby’s defense.
Via Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times:
“I learned today that’s the only way you can, when he’s in the paint, that’s the only thing you can do against him. You got to hit body and try to go dunk everything,” Zubac said of Wembanyama. “He’s just so tall and he’s got the longest wingspan I’ve ever seen. He’s going to block everything if you try to go float [over] him, or hook him. So, you just got to try to go through his chest.”
Wembanyama had an astounding total of nine blocks in the Clippers game, while also scoring 24 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. But for what it’s worth, he shot just 9-for-22 from the floor and finished with a minus-21 – the worst in the game from either side.
The ceiling remains so high for Wembanyama, who was last season’s Rookie of the Year and runner-up to the Defensive Player of the Year Award, and he should only continue to be a force to reckon with defensively – and offensively.
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