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Victor Wembanyama made a historic defensive stand on Monday night to kick off the Western Conference semifinals.
But remarkably, it wasn’t enough to lead the San Antonio Spurs to an early win.
The Minnesota Timberwolves surged ahead in the final minutes on Monday night at the Frost Bank Center to grab a 104-102 win over the Spurs in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series. It marked star Anthony Edwards’ first game back after he went down with a bone bruise nine days ago.
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Wembanyama broke the NBA’s postseason single-game blocks record in the contest, and was an incredible force inside. He had 12 blocks in the loss, which surpassed a mark that had only been reached three other times in league history.
Wembanyama matched the old record just three quarters into the game, too. He then came up with an 11th block to break the record minutes into the fourth quarter, stuffing Anthony Edwards at the rim.
Andrew Bynum, with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2012, was the last player to record double-digit blocks in a playoff game. Hakeem Olajuwon and Mark Eaton are the other two.
Though now, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year stands alone atop that list. And it was only the sixth playoff game of his career.
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But even with that, the Spurs now sit in a 1-0 hole.
Wembanyama matches blocks record through 3 quarters
Edwards played on a minutes restriction and came off the bench on Monday, but he looked like his old self.
After a quick foul right away, he immediately made an impact. Edwards helped spark a big 12-2 burst to keep the Timberwolves out in front just barely in the opening quarter, which included burying a huge 3-pointer and then immediately letting the Spurs bench know about it.
But the Spurs never went away, and the two teams went into halftime tied up looking very level. Wembanyama had seven blocks at the break, too. Two of those came on the Timberwolves’ first two offensive possessions of the game, and two more came when he blocked Julius Randle consecutively down low to force a shot clock violation midway through the second quarter.
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Though Wembanyama shined defensively,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/breaking-news/article/victor-wembanyama-sets-nba-postseason-record-with-12-blocks-but-cant-lead-spurs-past-timberwolves-in-game-1-035220489.html
Author : Ryan Young
Publish date : 2026-05-05 03:52:00
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