Latest / The Sports Hangover Daily / Wemby Drops 40 in 26 Minutes—The West Runs Through SA | Apr 11, 2026
Transcript
- Victor Wembanyama dropped FORTY points in twenty-six minutes last night. Twenty-six minutes. Most guys need that long just to figure out if the arena Wi-Fi works. Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar. Let's start in San Antonio because what Wemby did last night against Dallas was genuinely stupid. Forty points, thirteen rebounds, five assists, two blocks — in twenty-six minutes and thirteen seconds. That's the fastest forty-ten-five game in NBA history. He didn't even play the fourth quarter. The Spurs won one thirty-nine to one twenty. It wasn't competitive. And look, Cooper Flagg had thirty-three for Dallas, which is awesome for a rookie — but when you share a court with Wembanyama right now, you're just background noise. The Spurs are sixty-two and nineteen. They've won the Southwest Division for the first time since 2017. They've taken fourteen of their last fifteen. De'Aaron Fox added eighteen and ten assists like it was nothing. And Wemby leads the league with a hundred and ninety-seven blocks. He's the favorite for Defensive Player of the Year. I mean — the dude is seven foot four, he moves like a guard, and he's putting up video game numbers in less than a half of actual playing time. He's twenty-two years old. San Antonio is the two seed in the West behind OKC, and honestly? I'm not sure Oklahoma City wants any part of them in a seven-game series. This Spurs team is terrifying. And we're all just sitting here watching a generational talent do generational things on a nightly basis like it's normal. It's not normal. Appreciate this. Alright, around the league. Big night across the NBA with the regular season wrapping up this weekend and playoffs tipping off April eighteenth. In Atlanta, CJ McCollum poured in twenty-nine and the Hawks blew out Cleveland one twenty-four to one oh two in the third quarter. Atlanta clinches a playoff spot and the Southeast Division title. They'll be the five seed, which means Hawks-Cavs in the first round. That's a fun matchup. Cleveland's been inconsistent down the stretch and Atlanta's playing with a lot of confidence right now. In New York, Jalen Brunson dropped twenty-nine and the Knicks handled Toronto one twelve to ninety-five to lock up the three seed in the East. They'll draw the Raptors in Round One, which — sure, fine. But every Knicks fan is already looking ahead to a potential second-round date with Boston or whoever survives that bracket. The Celtics also clinched the two seed last night, tying an NBA record with TWENTY-NINE threes against the Pelicans. Twenty-nine. That's obscene. Over in Philly, Tyrese Maxey went for thirty-two as the Sixers beat Indiana one oh five to ninety-four to snap a three-game skid. They're clinging to the eight seed. And in one of the weirdest box scores of the year, Utah demolished Memphis one forty-seven to one oh one, and the Jazz had TWO triple-doubles in the same game — Bez Mbeng and John Konchar. First time that's ever happened in Jazz history. That's a fun piece of trivia for a team going nowhere. Oh, and LeBron became the fourth player in NBA history to reach twelve thousand career assists. Lakers beat the Suns. The man is forty-one and still casually adding to a résumé that already doesn't make sense. Quick NHL note — no games last night, but Thursday Cole Caufield scored his fiftieth goal of the season for Montreal, a two to one win over Tampa. He's the first Canadien to hit fifty since Stephane Richer in nineteen ninety. The Avalanche also clinched the Presidents' Trophy behind Nathan MacKinnon's fifty-second goal of the year. And Utah — the hockey Utah, not the basketball Utah — clinched their first ever playoff berth in just their second season. Good for them. And in the NFL, which remains chaotic even in April — the Eagles traded for Packers receiver Dontayvion Wicks for a fifth and a future sixth, plus a one-year twelve-and-a-half-million-dollar extension. The Falcons exercised Bijan Robinson's fifth-year option. And the Vrabel-Russini saga keeps rolling. Dianna Russini has been sidelined from reporting at The Athletic while they review her coverage of the Patriots following those photos from a resort in Sedona. The New York Times is now reinvestigating her reporting. Vrabel called the photos "completely innocent." Russini says six people were hanging out. I don't know what happened and neither do you, but this story isn't going away anytime soon, and it's gonna cast a shadow over draft week whether anyone likes it or not. Here's your Hangover Take. I want to talk about the Western Conference playoff bracket for a second, because I think everyone's sleepwalking into a problem. Oklahoma City is the one seed. San Antonio is the two. And right now the conventional wisdom is that OKC is the team to beat. I'm not so sure. The Thunder are great, don't get me wrong. But San Antonio has the best player on the planet — I'm saying it — AND the deepest roster they've had since the Duncan era. Fox is the perfect running mate. Keldon Johnson gives them toughness. And Wemby is a defensive cheat code who also happens to score forty in his sleep. If I'm OKC, I'm rooting hard for somebody to knock San Antonio out before the conference finals, because a seven-game series against this version of the Spurs is a nightmare. The West runs through San Antonio. The rest of the league just doesn't know it yet. That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.