Victor Wembanyama’s presence around the hoop will be watched closely in Game 2.
The NBA’s Victor Wembanyama era, playoffs edition, has scarcely begun. Yet we already have a tactic that could become a postseason staple.
The age-old gamesmanship of complaining about fouls called or uncalled got a half twist Monday and Tuesday in the aftermath of Minnesota’s 104-102 Game 1 victory over Wembanyama and his San Antonio teammates at Frost Bank Center.
Rather than poking the game officials over fouls in hopes of dialing up or down the level of physical play in Game 2 Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), Timberwolves coach Chris Finch focused his media comments on shots blocked or goaltended by the Spurs’ big Frenchman.
It might seem like a fine point – quibbling over how many of Wembanyama’s playoff-record 12 blocked shots might actually have ever-so-subtly begun their descent before he got them – but one-possession games such as Monday’s are won or lost in the margins.
Here are three things to watch for as San Antonio seeks to bounce back to avoid a 2-0 hole in the West Semifinals series:
1. Even 1 goaltending call will be big
Finch saw what everyone else saw in Game 1: Wembanyama closing off the paint and whatever other areas of the floor he defended with his Stretch Armstrong-like elongation. His dozen blocks qualified as an individual NBA playoff record mostly because the league didn’t track that stat until 26 years into its existence, after both Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell had retired.
Still, no one in the past 53 years has amassed as many rejections in a single playoff game. As always, the presence of a shot blocker plants seeds of doubt and can cause opponents to flinch, hesitate or veer in a different direction entirely.
Finch seized the opportunity to spare his guys’ psyches. From the podium after the game, the Wolves coach stage-wondered if a couple of those blocks might have been a tad late and thus, an automatic bucket. By Tuesday, his doubt had doubled.
“When we looked at ’em, at least four of them were goaltending,” Finch told reporters. “To me, it’s a little alarming that none of them were called. Here’s a generational shot blocker, who is [7-foot-6], who goes after everything, and there’s no heightened awareness that these blocks could be goaltends.
“So let’s just say there were four, that’s eight points. You know the value of eight points in an NBA game? It’s massive.”
Videotape jockeys chimed in on social media, some in support of Finch’s case, others upset that the Minnesota coach was disrespecting Wembanyama.
In this make-or-swat series for the Wolves, all Finch and his shooters need is for one block to get interpreted as a goaltend. Then maybe Wembanyama dials down his seek-and-reject intensity just a bit. It’s not the goaltending points Finch is counting on … it’s his team’s full complement of attempts that might get through to the net.
If Minnesota gets no relief that way, it will have to stick to creative shot-making, extra passes and raw challenges right into Wembanyama’s standing reach. All were on display when the Wolves cracked open the game in the fourth quarter.
“It’s inevitable. He’s 7-6,” Wolves forward Naz Reid said. “He’s going to get some of them. Just attacking with that resiliency, getting downhill at will and trying to make the best of those situations, whether it’s to score at the rim or kick it out.”
Wolves reserve Terrence Shannon Jr., a deep-bench find the past two games, said he wants to make Wembanyama try to block him “every single time” he drives, confident he can score around or through the long fellow.
Said Finch, who did not actually submit any complaint footage to the league for review: “We’re going to keep coming … All credit to the guys for not being discouraged.”
2. Fox vows to fix what ailed him
Wembanyama owned up to several things he could have done better, or at least differently, in Game 1. But veteran guard De’Aaron Fox was having none of it. In Fox’s view, he was the team’s weak link on Monday, scoring just 10 points on 5-for-14 shooting, with six turnovers and six assists. He was 1-for-7 for only two points through three quarters and finished with a team-worst minus-13.
Fox, 28, sees this as one of the reasons the Spurs acquired him in a big three-team trade 15 months ago and why he signed a fat extension to stay in San Antonio through 2029-30. By comparison to most of his teammates, Fox is a veteran. His 13 games of playoff experience, thanks to seven with the Sacramento Kings in 2023, isn’t much. But it’s double what most of the Spurs have.
“It was me,” Fox said after Game 1, taking the blame. “Unforced turnovers, missed shots – it wasn’t really anything that they did. They’re a good defensive team. But I think this game in particular, it was on me.”
Fox averaged 27.4 points in that seven-game loss to Golden State in the 2023 first round. The Spurs don’t need that level of scoring, just a steadier hand with the ball and something better than his 0-for-4 from the arc.
3. Monitor Wemby’s minutes
Wembanyama’s quality time has always been greater than his quantity. He averaged 29.2 minutes in 64 games in the regular season, the lowest per-game number of his three NBA seasons. His 1,866 total minutes were less than half of San Antonio’s 2025-26 court time.
The Spurs center was at 28.3 mpg in the four first-round games he played vs. Portland. That rate was thinned by his 11:41 appearance in Game 2 before banging his head on the floor and exiting early.
Wembanyama’s 39:52 in Game 1 was his third-longest work night of his career and tops for this season. He logged more than 38 minutes only four times and never twice in the same month. Now the Spurs could need him on the floor for nearly 40 each game vs. Minnesota, with the series playing out on an every-other-night basis.
Two things to keep in mind: Though he is a high-motor 22-year-old, Wembanyama is just 235 pounds. The Wolves, led by Julius Randle, already have dedicated themselves to making Wembanyama “feel them” through routine contact at both ends. Swatting shots, particularly as a help defender, can also tap into energy reserves.
The other thing is, the Spurs outscored Minnesota by five points while he was in the game. In the 8:08 he sat, they got outscored by seven. Fatigue could become a factor by the weekend.
* * *
Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
