It’s been 10 days since NBA fans last saw Victor Wembanyama on a court in the United States, since the San Antonio Spurs went back to his home country of France to play two games against the Indiana Pacers — in which Wemby averaged 25 points, 11.5 rebounds, and three blocks across the pair of contests.
The Spurs will host one of the West’s surprise packages, the sixth-seeded LA Clippers, who should have two bona fide Most Improved Player candidates, shooting guard Norman Powell and center Ivica Zubac. The ninth-year Croatian big had his best game of the season in the Clippers’ most recent outing, a 25-point, 16-rebound masterpiece in a narrow defeat to the Phoenix Suns on Monday.
San Antonio has been sliding as of late, losing seven of its last 10 games and falling 2.5 games behind the Sacramento Kings for the final Play-In Tournament spot in the Western Conference, but it could be getting Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox in a trade prior to the February 6 deadline, so who knows how the rest of the season is going to play out?
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Spurs (+150 Moneyline) are slight underdogs and the point total is set to 220.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bets centered around the man known to Reddit as Hector Banana-Bread.
Best Victor Wembanyama Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Victor Wembanyama U36.5 Points + Rebounds (-120)
Perhaps this is overly reactionary, but LA has the league’s second-best defensive rating — including its best over the last 10 games — and Zubac is fourth in the NBA in defensive win shares. Plus, Wembanyama has kind of struggled in his last nine games, averaging 19.9 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 4.2 blocks per game on 44-32-63 shooting splits, which are still All-Star numbers but far from the standards that he would hold himself to. The fact that his line is set to 36.5 P/R against a team that has allowed the third-fewest points and third-fewest rebounds per game is a testament to Wembanyama’s brilliance, but he’s hit that number only once in his last seven games.
Victor Wembanyama O4.5 Blocks + Steals (-125)
As evidenced by his last nine games, Wembanyama’s offense is still a work in progress, but his defense is inevitable. However, even his defensive stats have gone through a bit of a rough patch, as two of his four one-block performances and two of his 12 zero-steal performances have come in the last three games. Part of it is his deterrence — with Wemby on the floor, opponents tend not to challenge the paint — but some of it has to be luck.
Meanwhile, the Clippers have struggled mightily to protect the ball, allowing opponents to rack up 9.5 steals per game, and all five teams that have coughed up the ball more are sitting at .500 or worse, so Wembanyama should have plenty of opportunities to get back on track in that department. LA also has the eighth-highest two-point attempt rate in the league, which means that they might challenge the likely Defensive Player of the Year more than most teams. The Clippers have only allowed the 12th-fewest blocks per game, but Wembanyama has posted big block totals against plenty of teams that don’t typically allow a lot of rejections.
