Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs goes to the basket against Rudy Gobert #27 of the Minnesota Timberwolves within the second quarter at Goal Center on January 11, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. David Berding/Getty Images/AFP
Rudy Gobert knew long before the remaining of the world.
Victor Wembanyama was only 13 when Gobert first heard of him. It didn’t take long for Gobert to see the big potential in his French countryman. Once they would talk, Wembanyama asked the questions and Gobert gave him the answers.
“And the remaining is history,” Gobert said.
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The basketball world is now fully aware of what Gobert saw in Wembanyama years ago. A French center can be headed to the NBA’s Final 4 in a few weeks; which one it’ll be hangs on the end result of a Western Conference semifinal series between Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs and Gobert’s Minnesota Timberwolves. Game 1 is Monday night in San Antonio.
“I’m very, very proud and I’m very excited to look at him grow daily, to see his work paying off,” Gobert said. “Outside of the talent, he’s someone that has a really unique soul, a really unique mind and nothing is an accident. It’s not an accident that he’s having the success that he’s having.”
There’s never been a playoff series that’s entirely a couple of 1-on-1 matchup, though it’s easy to grasp why a lot attention can be dedicated to the Wembanyama vs. Gobert element of those games.
It’s reasonable to think many basketball fans learned of Wembanyama when the now-infamous video of a 2-on-2 game featuring he and Gobert got here out six years ago. The primary three baskets on the clip were Wembanyama making two jumpers over Gobert, then cutting free for a dunk.
Wembanyama is now a defensive player of the 12 months and MVP finalist, a bona fide superstar. But he’s still asking Gobert for advice — including a recent query about what water filter Gobert uses in his home. A small detail, sure, but an illustration of how Wembanyama’s thirst for knowledge stays in place.
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“He’s meant lots as a task model,” Wembanyama said. “There’s plenty of (ways) that he inspired me and I believe he should encourage more people by way of taking good care of your body. He must be a model for all big men. So, I’d say that’s the fundamental thing.”
Minnesota is trying to achieve the Western Conference finals for the third consecutive season, while San Antonio is bidding for its first trip there since 2017. The Timberwolves found a option to defeat third-seeded Denver in Round 1, ending that off even after Donte DiVincenzo tore his Achilles and Anthony Edwards was sidelined with a knee injury.
DiVincenzo is lost for the season; Edwards is lost for the short-term and the assumption is that he’ll have a likelihood to play sooner or later on this series — possibly as early as Game 1, after Minnesota listed him as questionable along with his left knee injury. And the Spurs insist they won’t have any false sense of security simply because Minnesota’s typically starting guards are either out or hurting.
“They guard. They’re physical. They struggle to impose that can and impose their will and their competitiveness on you,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “And so they’ve got quite a lot of individuals that take pride in that.”
The series
Minnesota went 2-1 against San Antonio this season, and Edwards was actually amongst the largest explanation why — he averaged 36.7 points within the three games on 58% shooting, 52% from 3-point range.
The Spurs blocked only seven shots against the Timberwolves, by far the bottom total that they had against any Western Conference opponent this season. Wembanyama appeared in just two of those three games, but that’s still an indication of how Minnesota probably picked the appropriate shot most of the time.
“It’s going to be decisions that you just make within the paint,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “It’s going to come back all the way down to them.”
Wemby vs. Gobert
The French centers have gone head-to-head eight times within the regular season, and each can claim bragging rights.
Gobert’s teams have gone 6-2 in those games. Wembanyama has scored 20 or more points in five of those meetings.
Oddsmakers say
The Spurs are huge favorites within the series — oddsmakers have them at minus-2000 to win, meaning a $100 wager at those odds would earn a bettor a whopping $5 in profit.
The Timberwolves’ odds going into the series are +950; which means a $100 wager would return $1,050.
2 vs. 6
That is the nineteenth time on this playoff format — in place since 1984 — where a No. 6 seed has met a No. 2 seed within the conference playoffs.
There have been 4 upsets in such matchups:
— 2024, Indiana defeated Recent York 4-3.
— 1995, Houston defeated Phoenix 4-3.
— 1989, Chicago defeated Recent York 4-2.
— 1984, Phoenix defeated Utah 4-2.
Busy times in Minnesota
Starting Sunday, there might be either a Timberwolves game or a Minnesota Wild game within the Stanley Cup playoffs on 10 of the subsequent 11 days (assuming those series don’t end in sweeps). The Wild are playing the Colorado Avalanche within the West semifinals.
The Minnesota teams play their home games in several buildings — the Wild play in St. Paul — but when each series go six games then the Timberwolves and Wild will each be home on May 15 for Game 6s.