<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rudy Gobert knew long before the remaining of the world.<\/p>\n
Victor Wembanyama was only 13 when Gobert first heard of him. It didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the remaining is history,\u201d Gobert said.<\/p>\n
The basketball world is now fully aware of what Gobert saw in Wembanyama years ago. A French center can be headed to the NBA\u2019s Final 4 in a few weeks; which one it\u2019ll be hangs on the end result of a Western Conference semifinal series between Wembanyama\u2019s San Antonio Spurs and Gobert\u2019s Minnesota Timberwolves. Game 1 is Monday night in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very, very proud and I\u2019m very excited to look at him grow daily, to see his work paying off,\u201d Gobert said. \u201cOutside of the talent, he\u2019s someone that has a really unique soul, a really unique mind and nothing is an accident. It\u2019s not an accident that he\u2019s having the success that he\u2019s having.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s never been a playoff series that’s entirely a couple of 1-on-1 matchup, though it\u2019s easy to grasp why a lot attention can be dedicated to the Wembanyama vs. Gobert element of those games.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama is now a defensive player of the 12 months and MVP finalist, a bona fide superstar. But he\u2019s still asking Gobert for advice \u2014 including a recent query about what water filter Gobert uses in his home. A small detail, sure, but an illustration of how Wembanyama\u2019s thirst for knowledge stays in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s meant lots as a task model,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cThere\u2019s 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\u2019s the fundamental thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
DiVincenzo is lost for the season; Edwards is lost for the short-term and the assumption is that he\u2019ll have a likelihood to play sooner or later on this series \u2014 possibly as early as Game 1, after Minnesota listed him as questionable along with his left knee injury. And the Spurs insist they won\u2019t have any false sense of security simply because Minnesota\u2019s typically starting guards are either out or hurting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey guard. They\u2019re physical. They struggle to impose that can and impose their will and their competitiveness on you,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cAnd so they\u2019ve got quite a lot of individuals that take pride in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minnesota went 2-1 against San Antonio this season, and Edwards was actually amongst the largest explanation why \u2014 he averaged 36.7 points within the three games on 58% shooting, 52% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s still an indication of how Minnesota probably picked the appropriate shot most of the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be decisions that you just make within the paint,\u201d Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to come back all the way down to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The French centers have gone head-to-head eight times within the regular season, and each can claim bragging rights.<\/p>\n
Gobert\u2019s teams have gone 6-2 in those games. Wembanyama has scored 20 or more points in five of those meetings.<\/p>\n
The Spurs are huge favorites within the series \u2014 oddsmakers have them at minus-2000 to win, meaning a $100 wager at those odds would earn a bettor a whopping $5 in profit.<\/p>\n
The Timberwolves\u2019 odds going into the series are +950; which means a $100 wager would return $1,050.<\/p>\n
That is the nineteenth time on this playoff format \u2014 in place since 1984 \u2014 where a No. 6 seed has met a No. 2 seed within the conference playoffs.<\/p>\n
There have been 4 upsets in such matchups:<\/p>\n
\u2014 2024, Indiana defeated Recent York 4-3.<\/p>\n
\u2014 1995, Houston defeated Phoenix 4-3.<\/p>\n
\u2014 1989, Chicago defeated Recent York 4-2.<\/p>\n
\u2014 1984, Phoenix defeated Utah 4-2.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t end in sweeps). The Wild are playing the Colorado Avalanche within the West semifinals.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota teams play their home games in several buildings \u2014 the Wild play in St. Paul \u2014 but when each series go six games then the Timberwolves and Wild will each be home on May 15 for Game 6s.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[51325,2064,4216,1083,51326,1788,30176],"class_list":["post-328995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-gobert","tag-match","tag-series","tag-set","tag-spurswolves","tag-wembanyama","tag-wits"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328998,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328995\/revisions\/328998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}