“This win really shows our character”

Always the sixth man, Victor Vembanyama he still can’t play as much as he’d like, but this time, in Boston, he was on the field in enough time to make a difference. Two of the last three baskets are for him, and in the middle distance “Wemby” a punish the Celtics with hard-to-defend shots taken near the free-throw line. Can we talk about a “signature shot”?

“I prefer not to talk too much about it… If I have a signature shot, I don’t want it to become too famous… otherwise teams will adjust. Can they really adjust to this shot after that? I don’t know… Maybe…” he smiles. “These types of games are very intense, almost chaotic, and sometimes it takes a while to really get into it. But at that point in the game, there was no question: We had to take what the defense gave us and execute.”

More seriously, he was “clutch” and that works well for him. “My mindset was just to finish the match. Too often, although it’s easier said than done, you try so hard and you end up screwing up one way or another.” he reminds. “In such a close match, it’s a mental battle and you had to stay focused until the end.”

Facing the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Spurs showed solidarity in defense, but also discipline in attack. They did not panic in the “time of money”. This may be a benchmark win for the future.

Spurs can aim for more

“This win really shows our character. For a good part of the game it looked like they were playing better basketball than us, that they were winning the battle of intensity. But we hung in there, we fought, we never let the gap get too big. We were always there. That says a lot about our mentality.”

It’s clear that the Spurs can score more through defense, and “Wemby” reminds us that he doesn’t need to counter everything that moves for his team to limit the Celtics to 95 points.

“The reward isn’t always visible right away. It’s often things that don’t show up in traditional statistics. But it has a huge impact. At the end of the match, we see the result: they scored 95 points” he concludes. “None of us had eight blocks or eight steals, but all those little things count. That’s what makes us the second team in the standings today and can take us even higher.”