{"id":781,"date":"2026-05-19T06:34:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781"},"modified":"2026-05-19T06:34:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:34:02","slug":"wembys-night-41-points-24-rebounds-and-a-1-0-lead-in-the-western-conference-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781","title":{"rendered":"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 The longest night of Victor Wembanyama\u2019s NBA career was over. His postgame media responsibilities were done, and he had just seen his father and a few other people in a quiet hallway near the San Antonio Spurs locker room.<\/p>\n

Read more Pedro Pascal surprises \u2018Star Wars\u2019 fans at Disneyland<\/a><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t walk back to the room. He got a ride \u2014 in a wheeled office chair, pushed by a Spurs staffer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSave some steps,\u201d Wembanyama said.<\/p>\n

Hey, after the night he had, energy was probably in short supply anyway.<\/p>\n

A 41-point, 24-rebound playoff game. Only a few people in the history of basketball had done that \u2014 Wilt Chamberlain eight times, Hakeem Olajuwon twice, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once, Charles Barkley once.<\/p>\n

Add Wembanyama to that list now, after his latest masterpiece \u2014 in a career-high 49 minutes \u2014 carried the Spurs to a 122-115 double-overtime win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best player in the (expletive) world,\u201d Spurs guard Stephon Castle announced for all the world to hear in a postgame interview on NBC.<\/p>\n

Officially, no, that\u2019s not the case. The best player in the NBA world right now is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the player who got his second consecutive Most Valuable Player award in a pregame ceremony with Wembanyama looking on. It was an award Wembanyama wanted \u2014 and still wants. Seeing Gilgeous-Alexander raise that trophy, oh, it had an effect on the 7-foot-4 French star.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s competitive. If you\u2019re a competitor and you see another competitor get rewarded with what you want. \u2026 If that\u2019s motivation, we all get motivated by different things,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cAs a competitive person, that would be my approach and perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did it matter?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve still got a lot to learn,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cAnd I want to get that trophy many times in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Athletics pitcher J.T. Ginn loses no-hitter in 9th inning, then loses 2-1 to the Angels<\/a><\/p>\n

Are you the best player?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world is 8 billion people,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cThat\u2019s 8 billion opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wembanyama\u2019s final line: 14 for 25 from the field, 12 for 13 from the foul line, and his lone 3-pointer came late in the first overtime, tying the game from well beyond the arc. Without that shot, there\u2019s probably no second overtime. There\u2019s probably a 1-0 series lead for Oklahoma City going into Game 2 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

He blocked three shots and changed countless others. He dunked on the Thunder and flexed, more than once. The Spurs outrebounded the Thunder 61-40. Wembanyama even smiled and posed for the cameras at times. This was his first conference finals game, on the road no less, and he was as comfortable as could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a great player with high impact obviously, and when you play against those players it\u2019s kind of an acquired thing,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. \u201cYou\u2019re learning as you go. We\u2019ve gone through that with other great players.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a game that the Spurs were supposed to lose: underdogs, on the road, without injured point guard De\u2019Aaron Fox, against the defending champions, a team unbeaten in the first two rounds of the playoffs. A 10-point lead in the fourth quarter was given away, and the Thunder aren\u2019t in the habit of losing leads in the final moments.<\/p>\n

And none of that mattered, largely because of Wembanyama. The road to the NBA title now goes through San Antonio; if the Spurs win all their home games the rest of the way, they\u2019ll be NBA champions.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a long way off. But the Spurs aren\u2019t a rising team anymore. They\u2019re here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message would be that we as a team are ready to go into any environment, in any place, against anybody,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cAnd even though we\u2019ve still got a lot to learn, our effort should be over anybody else\u2019s. And tonight, we were relentless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Driver dead in fiery single-car crash on US-64 near Zebulon: NCSHP<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 The longest night of Victor Wembanyama\u2019s NBA career was over. His…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals - Raleigh Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals - Raleigh Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 The longest night of Victor Wembanyama\u2019s NBA career was over. His...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Raleigh Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-19T06:34:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/eda87157c0d9ccdbb002a999547a6a60\"},\"headline\":\"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-19T06:34:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781\"},\"wordCount\":704,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/13d22975fef5c979917cbcceb1ea9c63.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781\",\"name\":\"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals - Raleigh Moving News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/13d22975fef5c979917cbcceb1ea9c63.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-19T06:34:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/eda87157c0d9ccdbb002a999547a6a60\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/13d22975fef5c979917cbcceb1ea9c63.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/13d22975fef5c979917cbcceb1ea9c63.webp\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":853},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?p=781#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Raleigh Moving News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/eda87157c0d9ccdbb002a999547a6a60\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/raleighmovingnews.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals - Raleigh Moving News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals - Raleigh Moving News","og_description":"OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 The longest night of Victor Wembanyama\u2019s NBA career was over. His...","og_url":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781","og_site_name":"Raleigh Moving News","article_published_time":"2026-05-19T06:34:02+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/eda87157c0d9ccdbb002a999547a6a60"},"headline":"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals","datePublished":"2026-05-19T06:34:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781"},"wordCount":704,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/13d22975fef5c979917cbcceb1ea9c63.webp","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781","url":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781","name":"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals - Raleigh Moving News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/13d22975fef5c979917cbcceb1ea9c63.webp","datePublished":"2026-05-19T06:34:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/eda87157c0d9ccdbb002a999547a6a60"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/13d22975fef5c979917cbcceb1ea9c63.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/13d22975fef5c979917cbcceb1ea9c63.webp","width":1280,"height":853},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=781#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wemby\u2019s night: 41 points, 24 rebounds, and a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/","name":"Raleigh Moving News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/eda87157c0d9ccdbb002a999547a6a60","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com"],"url":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}