Is Victor Wembanyama all right? This question may be on the minds of everyone at Frost Bank Center, as the 1st quarter of the Spurs-Pelicans matchup just ended. The past few days saw the Frenchman suffering from the same injury ailments that have plagued several NBA stars this season. Earlier, Wemby had to miss 3 games because of a bruised right knee. He was then sidelined due to bilateral lower back soreness. If you were glad at his return after a 2-game hiatus, it didn’t help that he had to exit, AGAIN.

According to reports, Victor Wembanyama headed to the locker room while 8:59 was remaining in the first quarter. Nothing was confirmed at such an early stage. However, it was presumed that Wemby may have suffered a re-aggravation of his back injury.

To make matters worse, even Zach Collins, who recently went viral for showing ‘the bird’ to a referee, has now exited the game. He headed to the locker room in the 1st quarter after he fell while attempting to block a shot by Yves Missi. Collins was immediately declared ‘out’ for the remainder of the game.

Fortunately, for the Spurs fans, that brief moment of worry in the 1st quarter won’t last long. Victor Wembanyama returned to the bench and was cleared to return to the game too! Given the recent injury scare, combined with his absences, interim boss Mitch Johnson might be keeping Wemby’s minutes in check. For now, however, he is back.

He already accumulated 10 points in his initial 9 minutes. This helped to give the Spurs a 60-56 lead with 3:35 minutes remaining in the 2nd quarter. If things go well, then the 11th-seeding Western Conference team may finally see their 3-game losing streak snap.

Before the matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans, Wembanyama’s status on his team’s Injury Report was ‘Questionable.’ This typically indicates a 50-50 chance of playing. However, reports from Air Alamo indicated that handing the ‘Questionable’ designation was simply a formality. In fact, the news outlet was confident that despite his back troubles, Wembanyama would take the court.

After all, his team was going up against the Pelicans for the first time this season. In light of this, while the Pels had several players on their IR, the only player the Spurs would miss was Tre Jones. Zach Collins has now joined the list too. Fortunately, Charles Bassey might be able to cover in the backup Center role, at least for the ongoing game.

Having Wembanyama back would’ve provided a sigh of relief to his teammates. After all, the 20-year-old has highlighted his dominance. That too, after establishing a rookie season in which he went on to break several records. As a result, the player was honored with his most recent piece of silverware.

Victor Wembanyama won the Western Conference Defensive Player of the Month!

In the dynamic world of the NBA, they introduced new accolades/honors from time to time. Amongst them is now Kia’s Defensive Player of the Month Award for October/November. Wemby won the award as the representative of the Western Conference. Meanwhile, Atlanta Hawks’ Dyson Daniels took the award given to the Eastern Conference recipient.

Wembanyama earned the accolade after reportedly leading the league with his average of 3.56 blocks.

On top of that, he accumulated a total of 57 blocks too, during his first 16 appearances this season. At the same time, Wembanyama also averaged 1.31 steals in October-November. If that wasn’t enough, the 7-foot-3 star also accounted for 45.9% of the total blocks that the Spurs squad had recorded! Thanks to his contribution, Wemby’s team soon established a 103.8 defensive rating.

The fact that this star player was about to be sidelined if his injury had aggravated was extremely worrisome. Fortunately, nothing of that sort has happened now. After all, no one would want another long losing streak to come their way, again, in the foreseeable future.