It was Chet v Wemby III in San Antonio, with the star rookies delivering terrific performances in the Spurs’ upset 132-118 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The two centres will forever be linked to one another because of their rare skillset, size and that they went in consecutive draft classes – Wembanyama at #1 in the 2023 draft and Holmgren #2 overall in 2022.
Holmgren was on fire early for the Thunder, nailing his first four field goal attempts before Wemby started to heat up himself.
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With the game in the balance with four minutes left, Wembanyama connected on two three-pointers to give the Spurs a nine point cushion.
San Antonio wouldn’t relinquish that lead and ran out convincing victors, with a Wemby block on Chet sealing the win.
The 224cm phenom from France has arguably been one of the best players in basketball over the past month, and he again handed an insane stat line, recording 28 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, five blocks, five three pointers and two steals.
Holmgren meanwhile was one of the Thunder’s best on court with 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists, however wasn’t able to come close to Wembanyama’s output in the all important fourth quarter, which proved to be the difference.
While the two were neck-and-neck for the first half of the season, Wembanyama has streaked right away to be the short-priced favourite for rookie of the year honours.
CHUCK GOES OFF ON WARRIORS, LAKERS
Always good for a quote, NBA legend-turned broadcaster Charles Barkley has declared that “no one” is scared of the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers this season.
Speaking on TNT ahead of the station’s broadcast of the Warriors and Knicks, Barkley said both Golden State and the Lakers aren’t deserving of the hype they receive.
“I’m sick of these fools on other networks talking about the Lakers and Warriors,” Barkley said.
“We don’t brag about any other play-in team, do we?
“I understand Steph is great, LeBron is great but ain’t nobody worried about the Warriors and Lakers in the West.”
The Warriors remain 10th in the Western conference after defeating the Knicks 110-99 while the 9th seeded Lakers play the Wizards later today.
NO BEN AGAIN AS NETS SCORE CRUCIAL VICTORY
The Nets are making their last stand.
Perhaps they should start treating every game as such.
Brooklyn ripped the red–hot Hawks from the opening tip and never relented, cruising to a 124-97 rout Thursday night at Barclays Center before the teams clash again on Saturday.
It was everything coach Kevin Ollie has pleaded with his team to demonstrate, and it was unrecognisable to what the Nets have produced in recent weeks.
Their ambition to sneak into the final play-in spot, which would have been hard to take seriously with a loss, remained on life support as a result.
The Nets entered Thursday four games behind the Hawks for the No. 10 seed in the East, but now will enter Saturday’s rematch three games back of that last play-in spot with a chance to cut it to two games.
Cameron Johnson, returning to the starting line-up for the second consecutive game due to Cam Thomas and Ben Simmons’ injuries, paced the Nets all night, erupting for a season-high 29 points on a blistering 10-for-15 shooting from the field and 7 of 11 from 3-point range.
– This was republished from the New York Post with permission
NBA SCORES
Warriors 110 @ Knicks 99
Hawks 97 @ Nets 124
Thunder 118 @ Spurs 132
Jazz 107 @ Magic 115
Bucks 111 @ Hornets 99
Wizards 131 @ Lakers 134 (OT)
Rockets 105 @ Suns 110
Heat 97 @ Nuggets 103
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