OKC is starting to wear down Victor Wembanyama, and the Spurs are letting it happen

Victor Wembanyama may still be the best basketball player in the world even though he still doesn’t know how to move, shoot or score. It’s a scary thought for the future, when he definitely develops these traits, but the 2026 Western Conference Finals is not in the future. And right now, the Spurs need more from their best player if they’re going to come back from the 2-1 series hole they found themselves in after dropping Game 3 at home on Friday.

On the surface, that would sound crazy for someone averaging 29 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three blocks on a 54/43/88 split in this series. But the numbers don’t tell the whole truth. The full truth is that Wemby’s Game 1 out-of-this-world numbers suggest, and his 26 points in Game 3 weren’t nearly as impactful as a raw number like that would often indicate.

His overall impact remains high. In a 15-point loss to the Thunder in Game 3 (123-108), the Spurs actually won Wemby’s minutes by four points. That means they lost 19 minutes sitting on the bench. Actually, three games in this series, Spurs +21 and Wembanyama on the field. They are 38 when he is gone. We will come back to this, but for now, know that this is not an attack on the importance of Black. If anything, this is a reiteration of how important you are.

In this series, the Thunder have all the advantages over the Spurs. Deep down. They are very physical. They won the 3-point battle. A battle for profit. And the bench war in full blast. The Spurs have one advantage: Black. And it could be big, as we saw in Game 1. Big enough to come back and win Game 4 and maybe the series.

But that profit must be maximized. They won’t just win Wemby minutes by a point or two if Oklahoma City’s bench — which, not counting a few garbage-time buckets, outscored San Antonio’s reserves 71-18 on Friday — continues to shoot and play like this.

Under those circumstances, Wembanyama needs to do so rule his minutes. And to do that, he has to get back to working in the paint, where he carried OKC in Game 1 and where, obviously, his biggest offensive advantage lies. That’s easier said than done, and it’s not just about him.

Mitch Johnson doesn’t ask for much offense to help Wemby get the ball near the basket. In Game 3, there were no rim rolls, duck-ins, quick lay-offs that could lead to deep layups or pick-and-rolls that put him at odds with smaller defenders who can’t get down to the post.

Thunder big man Isaiah Hartenstein also has a lot to do with this, and Mark Daigneualt’s decision to insert Hartenstein’s card in Game 2, meanwhile, completely changed this series. Hartenstein i a lot he’s stronger than Wemby, and he just won’t let him get as close to the basket as he wants.

But it begs the question: How bad is Wemby really? search reign in the paint? Because a lot of this is on him, too. Either he’s not strong enough to hit the ground running often, or he’s not committed enough. Either way, it’s a problem, especially because when he does it, it clearly works.

On Friday, he shot five of eight in the paint. But he started to force his way down there too late. This choice and intensity didn’t happen until the end of the third quarter.

After a few minutes, he repeated.

Check out how hard he is fighting for the deep position in the clip below. If Wembanyama doesn’t get the ball the first time, he starts to fight again, and wins the zone, and San Antonio swings it back into his path, and finishes with one more rim. But this didn’t happen until late in the fourth quarter.

In Game 1, these were the types of shots he wanted from the start. He used all kinds of techniques to strengthen himself with paint. Lobs. Symptoms. Posted. But that’s when he was heavily guarded by younger players. Now that Hartenstein — in full bully mode — has been activated, Wembanyama has slowly shrunk to the perimeter. He can play there. He is shooting 42% from 3 this series. But a shot like the one below is fool’s gold. The Thunder will happily live with this type of shooting, and the Spurs will die.

The key here is all the drilling. It seems cool that a 7-foot-4 guy can rock like this, but just because a player can do something doesn’t mean they should. Wembanyama needs to reduce his balls. As a general rule, Wemby should aim to be no more than two dribbles away from a deep scoring position. Ideally, one dribble.

For someone his height, that can be very good around the 3-point line if he makes quick decisions to attack downhill before the big guys (Hartenstein) get to him.

Or by fighting for just a few feet of deep fairway, so that now he’s one quick shot and swinging from a 10-footer, he can shoot freely from anyone.

That’s a very different shot than catching a pop or a straight wing up behind the 3-point line and trying to manage your way into a quality that looks like you’re Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant (total death in the jungle of OKC’s arms) or just get out of hand and act like nothing is not only a giant of the floor that often appears, in case the first act seems too far away on Friday.

It is important to emphasize again, Hartenstein was a beast, and Wembanyama will not be able to get any position he wants anytime soon. But he must seek it from the beginning. From there, he is something and ability. Just look at this powerful duck-in and deep seal in Game 3. He’s not popular, but that’s where he should be working.

It is worth noting that this aggressive stoppage happened in the first half, when Wemby was dominant. He was clearly gassed for a long time in the second half. Hartenstein bores him, and again, this is something Wemby has to fix. He has to be conditioned to play with deep strength in the more physical postseason games. He should be strong. He has to develop shots and spots that he can return to regularly on his own terms.

But right now, everything is impossible. Sometimes he attacks from within, sometimes he falls in love with 3. In Game 1, Wembanyama took two 3-pointers. In the last two games, he has taken 12. This happened in the Wolves series, where 15 of Wemby’s 32 shots in the first two games were from beyond the arc.

He was held to 11 points in a Game 1 loss vs. Minnesota while over 50% of his shots are from 3. In Game 3, he flipped the script and took 13 of his 18 shots from inside the arc. He scored 39 points, and the Spurs won. This is not brain surgery. Whether it’s Johnson unlocking this shift in style or Wembanyama taking matters into his own hands, or preferably a combination of the two, the tallest guy needs the ball in areas where that can be maximized. If the Spurs can do that consistently, they can still win this series. If they can’t, they can’t.