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Victor Wembanyama follows the worst night of his career with the second 5×5 game


Victor Wembanyama follows the worst night of his career with the second 5×5 game

Never say that Victor Wembanyama doesn't know how to get back on his feet.

A day after arguably the worst game of his career – in which he scored a career-low six points on 1 of 5 shooting to go along with 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 game.

Against the Utah Jazz, Wembanyama recorded 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals and five blocks in a 106-88 win. Funnily enough, those were his first steals of the season, in his fifth game.

He also showed up for duty on the historic night wearing a Halloween costume winner, if you're familiar with the movie Spirited Away.

A 5×5 play is orders of magnitude rarer than its cousin, the triple-double, so much so that Wembanyama is only the third player in NBA history to record multiple such plays. Hakeem Olajuwon is the all-time leader with six in 1,238 games, followed by Andrei Kirilenko with three in 797 games. Only 12 other players have even recorded one.

Wembanyama has just played his 76th game. He released his first game in February, becoming the second rookie to do so.

The 5×5 feels like a stat that Wembanyama needs to break, much like Russell Westbrook did with the triple-double. No player in NBA history has the Frenchman's combination of length, agility and ball skills, and that means he's a threat when he racks up five blocks and five steals, the difficult parts of the performance when he's on defense is active enough.

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