Victor Wembanyama scores 40 points vs. Lakers, and Spurs star easily could've had more

Victor Wembanyama dropped 40 points against the Lakers Tuesday night, reminding everyone that yes, he's the most dominate player in the league on both ends of the floor. This performance should come with a asterisk, as the Lakers were without Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Deandre Ayton. If those four guys played, the game would have certainly been far closer, but it likely wouldn't have stopped Wembanyama from having a big night. He put up those 40 points in just 26 minutes of action.

It was Wembanyama at his absolute best. Draining 3s (four to be exact), punishing guys in the paint with an array of turnaround jumpers, dunks and layups and taking defenders off the dribble with ease.

Four blocks and two steals are what the box score showed defensively, and his presence on the floor deterred the Lakers from challenging him at the rim. 

But it was Wembanyama's offense that set the tone for the Spurs from the opening tip. Twenty-five of his 40 points came in the first quarter. And by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Wembanyama was able to watch the remainder of the game from the sideline with a win easily in hand.

"What got me going was just honestly proving myself a point, proving my team a point," Wembanyama told reporters after the game. "I'm not worried about us, not worried about me against good teams, but history has showed that I need to be worried about us against teams like this. So yeah, I mean, we don't just talk about what we need to do. We need to actually act."

The Spurs sit second in the Western Conference, and have rattled off wins against some of the other best teams in the league. But -- as young teams tend to do -- they've also been caught playing down to their opponent. Losses against the sub-.500 Hornets and Pelicans, and two close wins against the Mavericks show that this team isn't always consistent. Wembanyama wanted to show that the Spurs shouldn't be playing with their food going against a Lakers team without their top players.

"I was also pushing to go back, but I mean, they did the right thing by keeping me on the bench," Wembanyama said of sitting in the fourth quarter. "We got to think long term. But yeah, these kind of games, you got to have the greed. I mean, every game you have to have this greed to want more every time, because you know at all times it doesn't matter who's on the court, it's somebody who's going to want to stop you from doing what you do out there. So you got to be greedy."

Wembanyama's efficient 40-point outing was the fifth time in the league's shot clock era that a player has amassed that many points in 26 minutes or less. He also joined Patrick Ewing as the only other player to put up a 40-point double-double in that few of minutes.

The win pulled the Spurs to within 3 ½ games of the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. A couple months ago it seemed impossible for anyone to catch the Thunder atop the West, but a recent 5-5 stretch in their last 10 games has opened the door for San Antonio. The Spurs have been the Thunder's biggest competition in the regular season, beating the defending champions four times already. If the Spurs somehow leap the Thunder in the standings by season's end, the conversation won't just be about how impressive they've been with a team this young, but also about can San Antonio be the team representing the Western Conference in the NBA Finals. With the way Wembanyama's been playing, it's not out of the realm of possibility.