Victor Wembanyama tied his career high with 40 points and added 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots on Monday as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns 122-96, extending the team's winning streak to nine games and turning what began as a rocky 0-2 start into one of the most disruptive opening stretches in the NBA this season.
Wembanyama shot 15 of 19 from the field and made 2 of 3 three-point attempts in just 25 minutes, numbers that reflect both his individual efficiency and the lopsided margin San Antonio built against Phoenix well before the fourth quarter. The win, reported by wire coverage of the game, pushed the Spurs' streak to nine straight after they dropped their first two contests of the 2026-27 season, a reversal that has turned San Antonio into one of the league's more closely watched teams through the season's opening weeks.
Building on a Career Night
The Suns loss capped a five-day stretch in which Wembanyama posted two of the best statistical games of his career. Days earlier, he scored a then-career-high 52 points, grabbed 24 rebounds and blocked eight shots as the Spurs edged the Dallas Mavericks 112-111, according to coverage of that game, which described the performance as a signature moment in his still-young career. Taken together, the two games form one of the most productive five-day runs by any player in the league this season, spanning more than 90 combined points, 35 rebounds and 17 blocked shots across the pair of contests.
San Antonio's turnaround has coincided with a broader shift in how the Spurs are built around their 7-foot-4 center, who entered his third NBA season already regarded as one of basketball's most versatile defenders. The nine-game streak has come against a mix of opponents, including the Monday blowout of Phoenix, and has lifted San Antonio into the thick of the Western Conference picture after a start that briefly raised questions about the team's depth around Wembanyama.
San Antonio's coaching staff limited Wembanyama to 25 minutes against Phoenix despite the dominant stat line, a sign the team is still managing his workload carefully in the early part of the season even as the games pile up on the win side of the ledger. That restraint has not blunted his production: across the two outings against Dallas and Phoenix, he shot a combined 27 of 36 from the field, an efficiency rate that has drawn comparisons to some of the most dominant individual stretches in recent NBA history, even before accounting for his defensive impact.
A Statement Through the Opening Weeks
Roundups of that night across the league placed Wembanyama's performance alongside outings from Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic, underscoring how the early part of this season has become a showcase for the NBA's current wave of international stars. Jokic managed 25 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists in a losing effort for Denver that same night, while Doncic's Lakers extended their own winning streak to six games, a reminder that San Antonio's run, while historic for the franchise, is unfolding alongside several other teams making early statements of their own.
The Spurs were next scheduled to play at Chicago, continuing a stretch of games that will test whether the streak can survive a tougher slate of opponents on the road. For a franchise that spent recent seasons rebuilding around Wembanyama's development, nine straight wins represents an early but significant signal that the timeline for genuine playoff contention may be arriving faster than expected, even with more than seventy games still remaining on the schedule.
