25 Minutes, 40 Points: Victor Wembanyama Joins Sleepy Floyd as the Spurs Win 9 Straight in Phoenix
Wembanyama shot 15 of 19, blocked nine shots and sat for good with 9:13 left in a 122-96 win, the fewest minutes for a 40-point game since Sleepy Floyd's 24 in 1991.
Photo: NBA.com. Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs. Card design: The Dyme.
Victor Wembanyama scored 40 points on 15-of-19 shooting with 11 rebounds and nine blocks in 25 minutes and 21 seconds Monday night, and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns 122-96 for their ninth straight win. ESPN Research says he is the second player since minutes were first tracked in 1951-52 to score 40 or more in under 26 minutes, joining Sleepy Floyd, who scored 40 in 24 minutes on Feb. 26, 1991.
San Antonio is 9-2 and 5-0 on the road. Phoenix fell to 3-6.
Five blocks in 1:53
The game turned late in the first quarter. Devin Booker's three put Phoenix up 25-24 with 1:41 left in the period. The Spurs then scored 21 of the next 23 points and led 45-27 when Wembanyama made two free throws with 7:59 left in the half.
He scored 13 of those 21: a tip-in, a 26-foot three, a 17-foot turnaround and two dunks, plus the two free throws. He also set up a Harrison Barnes three. At the other end, between 10:06 and 8:13 of the second quarter, by our count from ESPN's play-by-play, he blocked Ryan Dunn's alley-oop, Jalen Green's driving layup, two Oso Ighodaro shots and a Dillon Brooks five-footer. The only Phoenix basket in the whole run was a Miles Bridges eight-footer.
With Wembanyama on the floor, the Suns went 5 of 14 on shots from five feet and in, by our count from the play-by-play, and seven of the nine misses were his blocks. Booker said as much after the game. "If he's not blocking shots, he's altering them so it's a tough matchup," he said, per ESPN.
The nine minutes he did not need
Wembanyama had 14 points after one quarter and 22 at halftime, per ESPN. Dylan Harper scored 14 of his 17 in the third, and the Spurs led 93-68 going into the fourth.
Wembanyama opened the fourth with eight points in the first 2:26: three dunks and a driving layup, with Stephon Castle assisting two of the dunks and De'Aaron Fox the other. In the middle of that burst he blocked Collin Gillespie twice in four seconds. He checked out at 9:13 with San Antonio up 104-73 and did not come back.
Those nine sitting minutes put the line in Floyd territory. According to The Athletic's Jared Weiss, as cited by Yahoo Sports, nine other players in NBA history have posted at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks in a game, and none of them did it in fewer than 38 minutes. Wembanyama needed 25.
Three short nights, 99 points
At Sacramento, Portland and Phoenix, Wembanyama played 26, 24 and 25 minutes and scored 30, 29 and 40, per his ESPN game log. That is 99 points in about 75 minutes, and the Spurs won those games by 15, 22 and 26.
Through 11 games he is averaging 30.1 points, 11.9 rebounds and 4.4 blocks in 29.8 minutes a night, by our count from the same game log. The minutes number is what should worry the rest of the West. San Antonio keeps getting his best basketball while giving him fourth quarters off.
Wembanyama described the approach after the game. "I should keep the physically amazing things for the amazingly difficult situations, not the day-to-day," he said, per ESPN. "Opponents can't really put me in a situation where I can't answer, so now all I have to do is not beat myself."
Monday backed that up. He took 19 shots and turned it over once. By our count from the play-by-play, 24 of his 40 points came on dunks, layups and a tip-in. Phoenix coach Jordan Ott said his team had a plan for him, then described how it broke. "He just does it from all three levels right now and then anytime he has a switch, they just literally throw the ball to the top of the backboard," Ott said, per ESPN.
What the other 23 minutes looked like
San Antonio was plus-26 for the night and Wembanyama was plus-30, per the official NBA box. In the 22:39 he sat, the Spurs were outscored by four. By our count from the play-by-play, they were plus-one across his first three rests and minus-five over the final 9:13, after the game was decided.
The Spurs outrebounded Phoenix 55-35 and outscored the Suns 62-48 in the paint, per the NBA box. Booker scored 32 on 10-of-17 shooting, and Khaman Maluach was the only other Sun in double figures with 11.
Five days earlier, Wembanyama put up 52 points, 24 rebounds and eight blocks in 34 minutes against Dallas. Monday's line came in nine fewer minutes, on the road, in a game his coach could end early. The Spurs play at Chicago on Wednesday.
Sources: ESPN box score, Spurs at Suns, Nov. 9, 2026 · ESPN play-by-play, Spurs at Suns · NBA official scorer's report, Spurs at Suns · NBA.com box score, Spurs at Suns · ESPN News Services and ESPN Research: Wembanyama scores 40 in 25 minutes as Spurs win 9th straight · AP recap via ESPN · Yahoo Sports, citing The Athletic's Jared Weiss · ESPN Victor Wembanyama game log
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