Needing to make a statement on Tuesday night in Game 5, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs delivered. Wembanyama had 27 points, 17 rebounds, five assists, and three blocks, and the Spurs picked up a 126-97 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves to put themselves on the verge of the Western Conference Finals.
San Antonio has a chance to close it out tonight when the teams meet at 9:40 p.m. ET in Minnesota. If they win tonight, the Spurs will get two days of rest before facing the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals; if they lose, they’ll get one day of rest before a home Game 7.
San Antonio is a 5.5-point favorite for tonight’s clash at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the total set to 218.5. Below, I’ve detailed my favorite prop bet centered around Wembanyama.
Best Victor Wembanyama Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook
Victor Wembanyama Most Points (+134)
Whether or not the Frenchman will finish with an impressive scoring output is more often than not a matter of will, not skill. In the two games in this series in which he’s led all players in points, he’s looked downright unstoppable, and in one of the games in which he did not, he took himself out of it by getting ejected early in the second quarter. Wembanyama came out firing in the first quarter following his ejection, dropping 18 points in the opening frame of Game 5, and with the opportunity to shut the door on the Timberwolves tonight, it seems likely that he’d be similarly motivated tonight.
When Wembanyama chooses to be aggressive on offense, there are few players on either of these teams who can out-score him. Anthony Edwards managed to in Game 4, Stephon Castle did in Game 2, and several players on both teams did in Game 1, but in the long run, Edwards’ difficult matchup against the combination of Devin Vassell and Castle, as well as his bilateral knee issues, cap his scoring slightly below that of a motivated Wembanyama. Castle has been effective offensively as a second option against some of Minnesota’s weaker defenders, but he tends to have a slightly diminished minutes load as a result of Dylan Harper’s emergence as an elite backup point guard. No scorer in this game is as potent at his best as Wembanyama, who’s adept both at scoring on four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and manufacturing switches onto weaker defenders.
