It just got a WHOLE LOT louder...

52 points, 24 rebounds, 8 blocks, no one has done what we just saw in 50 years. And yet, the Spurs still needed a free throw with 24 seconds left just to win by one. Because every time Victor Wembanyama sat down, the game completely fell apart. We're going to dive into the real story of the win, what happened in the minutes he sat, who played them, who didn't play at all, and why there's a lot to fix. And you've got to manage it without hurting anybody else on the team. But look, I've got to be clear. This is not going to be a negative video. There are questions, but we have to give Wemby his flowers. He went 16 for 28 from the field, 19 for 23 at the line, 52 points, a career high, add in 24 boards and 8 blocks. The NBA says that's the first player with 50 points, 20 rebounds, and 5 blocks in a game since Bob McAdoo in 1974. Let's... At an extra level to this, StatMuse says the only other player ever with that line is Wilt Chamberlain, Bob McAdoo, and now Victor Wembanyama. It's also the first time a Spur has ever had 50 points and 20 rebounds in a game. Not Tim Duncan, not David Robinson, no one except for Wemby. And ESPN Insight says a 50-point, 20-rebound game in a one-point win has only been done by Wilt and Elgin Baylor. Wemby is joining historic ranks. His first half was enough to be a lot of players career best game 29 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in 17 minutes at half. This is also not looking like just a one game fluke. He's averaging 34.4 points over his last five against just 20 a game in the games before that. The league named him Western Conference Player of the Week on November 2nd, and this game came after that. He leads the NBA in blocks with 36, which is four and a half per game, and his defensive rating of 96.0 is the best in the entire NBA. I mean, just think about what that means. You don't even need to think. You can just watch. The Spurs literally have a cheat code on the floor, and the other team has to rebuild its whole offense every time he's out there, and yet despite that, the Mavericks kept still trying to go at his chest. It's crazy. But the big question is, what happens when someone switches the cheat code off? If you want to keep watching him rewrite the record books and learn all these stats, make sure you subscribe to Spurs Digest. We're at 16,170. We'd love to hit 16,200. So with this legendary performance, this unbelievable player, why did it all come down to one Kyrie Irving miss jumper in the last three seconds? If Wemby keeps going playing like this, MVP is, I don't want to say a lock, but it's very likely. And trading $25 on Kalshi nets you a nice amount. This video is brought to you by Kalshi, where you're trading against real users, not the house like traditional sports books. You're buying yes or no contracts on real life events like the weather, sunny here today, like politics, or like your San Antonio Spurs How about the one seed? How about 60 plus wins? All available. So if you're interested in trying out Kalshi, use the link in the pinned comment or description down below. Use code DIGESTNBA when you trade your first $25 and get 55 put in your account instantly. Thank you to Kalshi for sponsoring this video. Let's take a trip to the third quarter. The Spurs led by 19 early in the third, but then Dallas ended up coming all the way back and taking a 103 to 100 lead with five and a half minutes left in the fourth, thanks to a lot of Najee Marshall threes. And even after that, Najee Marshall tied it at 111 with 141 to go. And it took Wemby's free throw, with some misses, by the way, at the free throw line, with 24.2 seconds left to win the game. Dallas, they had Kyrie with 29, Najee Marshall with 22, P.J. Washington chipped in with 21, and Cooper Flagg had a great second half after a rough first half, finishing with 19. So they just weren't going away. They were trying to get into the Spurs, get to the rim, get their buckets. And basically, the only reason that this was not a loss was Wemby, and even he was one for four at the foul line in the last two-ish minutes, and he also had two putbacks in the last two and a half minutes. Yeah, there was a lot that he managed to do, but there were also some things that went wrong. Let's take a look at the plus minus. Wemby was a plus 23 in 34 minutes, and the Spurs won by one. Do the math. They were outscored by 22 in the 14 minutes that he sat on the bench. On the season, the Spurs are plus 21.9 points per 100 possessions with Wemby on the floor and minus 15.6 with him off. That is a 37.5 point per 100 possession swing. That's insane. Defense is the biggest part of this though. Opponents score just 99.6 points per 100 with Wemby on the floor and 123.4 per 100 possessions with him off. Luke Cornett played 14 minutes in this game. He scored two points, grabbed one rebound, and was a minus 22. And on the season, Cornette's numbers are basically a mirror image of that. The Spurs are minus 18.9 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor and plus 21.1 with him off. That is a 40 point per 100 possession swing. Now, I don't want to turn this into a Luke Cornett slander video again. What I will say, though, is a lot of fans are clamoring for even just the slightest change. I mean, a part of this is that Cornett doesn't get to play with Wemby. He's not on the floor when the most impactful player in the world is on the floor in Wemby. So, you know, it's not all on him, but still a 40-point swing is hard to ignore. I mean, it's not like the rest of the rotation was bad. Harper had 21. He was a plus eight. Fox was a plus 12, even though he had some questionable moments. Castle added 17 and 10. The guards and wings were fine. But a lot of the holes were at center and even a little bit at the forward position. And one thing that stands out pretty clearly, Terrace Reed Jr. played zero minutes. Zero. Not three, not a little five minute look, zero in a game that came down to one point against a Mavericks team that he played very well against in limited minutes before. Right now with the way the plus minus looks, it's kind of like Owning a Ferrari in Wemby and then leaving the keys in the drawer for a quarter every game. One Spurs account joke, this is how Wemby must feel every time he has to check in for Cornette. But again, before anybody grabs a pitchfork, let's be fair to Mitch Johnson. He's not a total villain. I don't think we can say that. And I hear all of the complaints, but I also want to be fair about how tough this job is. Johnson has a franchise big man, two young guards, and a lot of lineup combinations to try and figure out in a hurry. It's a lot of problem solving, puzzle solving. Like when Fox is on the floor, Wemby's plus minus is 33.5 across 227 minutes together. But then you also have When Harper and Wemby share the floor, Wemby's three-point percentage dips from 28.6% without him to 16.7% with him. It is a bit of a puzzle. Each individual piece changes the others. But again, despite that, a lot of the conversation does come back to the big men. Wemby also went one for eight from three and still scored 52 because he liked to live at the rim and the free throw line, which tells you where the Spurs like to live in an ideal world. Wemby especially is the driving force by getting into the paint. Because the Spurs just couldn't hit threes in this game either. And that is also why that the center playing behind Wemby matters so, so, so much. Let's go back a little bit. Just a little while ago, we heard quotes from Mitch Johnson saying, if the same four guys are out there with both, then it's not just a Luke thing. And I know a lot of the hate has been spewed towards Cornette. The numbers... Also, though, kind of back up Mitch Johnson. When Keldon Johnson is on the floor with Cornette, Luke Cornette's plus minus is a minus 16.9, but without him, it's only a minus 1.1. You know, that's not saying Keldon Johnson is the problem either, but it is that maybe just the bench needs an extra bit of a punch or a little bit of a tweak. Because it's not like Cornette is completely useless, right? 4.8 rebounds over his last five games against just 2.7 before that. He's been climbing a bit. And look, after the game, Mitch Johnson said, we want Victor to impose his will on the paint every time. And that is where the rotation question kind of sits. If the plan is to go at the rim every time, what's the plan in the 14 minutes that Wemby is not on the floor? And who is a great fit to continue what Mitch Johnson said he wants Wemby to do? And I think a lot of that is Terrace Reed. And he has gotten some chances, and he's done something with them when he's gotten on the floor. On October 24th in Dallas, Mitch Johnson opened the fourth quarter with Reed. His first stint was four minutes. The Spurs went on an 11-4 run with him grabbing a bunch of rebounds. And in the preseason, he grabbed 17 rebounds in a game. And Johnson said, quote, if you go get 17 of them, that means you're working. So there are a myriad of options here. The clearest one is that Reid could get more minutes. Play those first minutes off the bench. You know, you stagger Wemby's rest, maybe. You could also try and change the lineups around Cornette a little bit. You know, we focus so much on the starting five, but the Spurs bench still leaves a lot to be desired. I think when Tobias Harris comes back, it's going to mitigate some of those problems, but it's still something you need to navigate in the now. And if we want to go further on bench tweaks, we heard Charles Barkley after the game say, Hey, you know, I would bench Fox. And I think it's interesting because Fox has had moments this year where he's sort of leading that bench unit while Harper's out there scoring a bunch of baskets work. And those three guys are trying to coexist. But, you know, the inside, the NBA guys are all saying, like, how does this make sense? They're asking Dylan Harper, like, oh, it just doesn't make sense to you either, does it? I think there are just so many questions with this three guard lineup that is naturally going to cause people to question who should be benched, who should start. But all the same. Eventually adding a bit more of a scoring punch to the bench whether at the start of the game or maybe more throughout the game is something that the Spurs should definitely eye. With that said though we can't forget De'Aaron Fox was a plus 12 in this game and his net rating with Wemby is plus 33.5. Another thing to maybe consider is going small ball with someone at the five like a Keldon Johnson or a Carter Bryant. Now Carter has struggled to stay on the floor this year A lot of time due to foul trouble, but... When other teams tend to go small against San Antonio, it feels like we aren't quite matching up the same way. They go small in the minutes that Wemby's not there. Is Cornette the best fit for that? Who knows, right? There are a lot of different avenues to explore. But here's what I'm asking for. I'm not asking for Terrence Reed to get the starting job, right? I'm not saying to completely bench Luke Cornett and not play him. I'm just asking for a stint. I feel like in a game like this where the other team is on a crazy run and all you see is Mitch Johnson saying, go, go, go, push, push, push, and not subbing in a guy who has proven himself to be a great rebounder, a great physical presence in Terrence Reed, I feel like it's doing a bit of a disservice to him. Look, if it works and Terrence Reed plays well in those few minutes, great. If it doesn't, then we get a real answer, you know, at least over a few games sample size as to whether it has been a good idea to keep him on the bench. Because right now we don't know because Reed has not really been given the chance to get real run in close games, except one game where he actually did well. But I trust that that's a call that Mitch Johnson can make. He did just win his 100th game, of course. According to some articles, Wemby actually gave Mitch the ball in the locker room after the game, after celebrating that 100th win, and Johnson was just as generous. He said, quote, I think he settled into the season like we all have, talking about Wemby. It's a coach who knows what he has and a coach that definitely has the love and admiration of a lot of players in that locker room. Also, we do have to remember that despite some games being closer than they should, the Spurs have won six in a row. And Johnson is a big part of why, at least in my opinion. I'm not saying he's without his flaws, because I have very clearly outlined them in this one, but this one stretch of minutes that we can question does not erase what he has accomplished with this team. We can't forget we just made the finals. 62-20 last year, coach of the All-Star game. This year we're 6-2. You don't win 100 games by accident. And again, not asking... For some kind of revolution to overthrow him or anything. I'm just asking to test a stint. He's good, but I still think there's a lot that Mitch Johnson can do even better. And I think he would also acknowledge that. The next chance to see what we have is Friday in Sacramento. Been a lot of games against struggling teams lately, but then we have Portland Saturday, back-to-back games. It's the perfect chance to give Reid a few minutes. The Spurs are on a roll, a test costs nothing, and in a back-to-back where you're going to have to use your players a lot more in the span of about 24 hours, it's the perfect chance to use a young guy. So next game, watch the first time Wemby sits. See who comes in. Is it Cornette? See what the margin does in the five minutes without Wemby on the floor. If the Spurs hold the lead, we learn something. If they don't, we learn something too. And Mitch Johnson has the answers then. The room still likes him. I think that's clear when Wemby handed him the ball. And a coach can be right about 100 things and still have one or two things to adjust. And I know there still are very clearly things to adjust, but I'm ready to be patient, man. I'm ready to just see how this team can evolve this year. And to me, that takes more than an eight-game sample size. But today is also all about positivity. Wemby, absolutely historic numbers. Mitch Johnson, his 100th win. The Spurs, six wins in a row. Let me know down below, when Wemby sits, who should play center? Is it Cornette or Reid? We'll catch you all in the next one.