SAN ANTONIO — Victor Wembanyama produced a stat line Wednesday night that the NBA had not seen in more than half a century, carrying the San Antonio Spurs to a 112-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks with career highs of 52 points, 24 rebounds and eight blocks.
Wembanyama shot 16 of 28 from the field and 19 of 23 from the free-throw line in 34 minutes, missing seven of eight three-point attempts but going 14 of 18 on shots inside the paint. Nine of his 24 rebounds came on the offensive end. The Spurs improved to 6-2 on the young season, their sixth straight win.
A night that hadn't happened in 52 years
The scale of the performance only became clear in the historical footnotes. According to the NBA's own tracking, Wembanyama is the first player since Bob McAdoo in 1974 to record at least 50 points, 20 rebounds and five blocks in a single game — a 52-year gap. His eight blocks are also the most by any player in a 50-point game since blocks became an official statistic in the 1973-74 season.
He did most of the damage before halftime. Wembanyama had 29 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks by the break, making him the first player since the NBA's play-by-play record-keeping began in the 1996-97 season to reach at least 25 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in a half.
Playing through a virus, and an ankle tweak
The performance came under less-than-ideal circumstances. Wembanyama was playing through a virus and tweaked his ankle in the fourth quarter, playing on through discomfort as San Antonio held off a late Dallas push. The 52 points broke his own previous career high of 50, set against the Washington Wizards in November 2024.
"My shots weren't falling tonight, so it pushed me into a more tiring style of play," Wembanyama said after the game, according to the Associated Press. "I can still do more."
The win extends a strong early-season stretch for a Spurs team built around Wembanyama's two-way dominance, and comes against a Mavericks team still finding its footing early in the year. For Dallas, the one-point loss stings regardless of the opponent's historic night — San Antonio needed every one of Wembanyama's 52 points to escape with the result.
San Antonio will have an extra day before its next game, time the training staff is expected to use to evaluate the ankle that bothered him late in Wednesday's win. Barring a setback, Wembanyama's early-season numbers — now the best in the league in points, rebounds and blocks produced in a single game this year, per the NBA — have put him squarely back in the conversation for this season's MVP award, a discussion that had quieted somewhat after an injury-shortened prior campaign.
