Victor Wembanyama Must Be Seen To Be Believed

On Tuesday night, two days after getting ejected for elbow crimes, Victor Wembanyama played in his first true must-win playoff game. Facing that pressure for the first time in his charmed career, how would he respond?

Glance at the box score of Game 5 between his San Antonio Spurs and the Minnesota Timberwolves, and you'll see Wembanyama with 27 points and 17 rebounds. You'll see that he was plus-24, with three blocks and a single foul. Poke around a little further, and you'll see the Wolves shot an alarmingly terrible 47 percent in the paint. You will see that every single Timberwolf was negative, and that Rudy Gobert (four points, one made field goal, minus-15) and Julius Randle (6-for-17 shooting, minus-22) did not produce how the Wolves need them to produce.

San Antonio rolled Minnesota in Game 5, 126-97, and while you can see the faint outline of Wemby's impact circumscribed within the stats, that will only get you so far. I found his Game 5 performance spectacular. To even say he was the best player on the court undersells it. He seemed to be the only player on the court. It felt so different from Game 4's bombastic frenzy. This game felt contained, never in competitive or aesthetic jeopardy. This is the Wemby effect. When I watch the Spurs, I find myself straying from the visual tenets of how to watch the game and focusing solely on Wembanyama. I don't end up missing anything, because everyone on the court is doing the same. Maybe that's the way in to describing what makes him singular.