Wembanyama out Friday night with hip soreness, misses first game as Spur

For the first time in his young NBA career, Victor Wembanyama will miss a game.

Wembanyama was questionable due to hip soreness but played Thursday night in the Spurs’ loss to the Hawks, however with the Spurs facing a back-to-back Gregg Popovich is giving Wembanyama Friday night off to rest the hip while his team takes on the Pelicans. The reason given was hip soreness.

“We’re trying to protect him,” Popovich said, via the Associated Press.

Wembanyama said he felt as good as could be expected this many games into the season. The NBA plays more games per week and has much more travel than the French league he played in the past couple of seasons.

Wembanyama had played the first 18 Spurs games this season and averaged 19.3 points and 9.7 rebounds a game. However, his bigger impact is on the defensive end of the court where he is averaging 2.7 blocks and 1.3 steals a game, but those numbers do now show how disruptive he has been to opposing shooters.

This gives Wembanyama six days off because the Spurs don’t play again until next Wednesday (a break caused by the quarterfinals of the In Season Tournament).