Victor Wembanyama follows up the worst night of his career with the second 5×5 game
Never say Victor Wembanyama doesn’t know how to come back.
A day after perhaps the worst game of his career – in which he recorded a career-high six points on 1-of-5 shooting plus eight rebounds, two assists and four turnovers in a loss to rival Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder — the San Antonio Spurs star recorded his second-ever 5×5 match.
Facing the Utah Jazz, Wembanyama had 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals and five blocks in a 106-88 win. Funnily enough, these were his first steals of the season, in his fifth game.
He also showed up to the historic night with a Halloween costume winner, if you’re familiar with the movie “Spirited Away.”
A 5×5 game is rarer than its cousin, the triple-double, to the point that Wembanyama is only the third player in NBA history to post multiple such games. Hakeem Olajuwon is the all-time leader with six in 1,238 games and is followed by Andrei Kirilenko with three in 797 games. Only twelve other players have recorded one at all.
Wembanyama just played his 76th match. He posted his first match in February, becoming the second rookie to do so.
The 5×5 feels like a statistic made for Wembanyama to break, just like Russell Westbrook did with the triple-double. No player in NBA history has the Frenchman’s combination of height, agility and ball skills, and that means he’s a threat to hit five blocks and five steals, the tough parts of the feat, if he’s active enough on the defensive.