Wembanyama scored 12th career 30-point game in Spurs’ win

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama produced his 12th career 30-point game and his first this season on Monday as he led his team to a 116-96 victory over the Sacramento Kings.

Wembanyama scored 34 points with 14 rebounds, six assists and three blocks in his 82nd career NBA game to become the sixth player in league history to amass 1,700-plus points, 800-plus rebounds and 300 or more assists in his career first 82 competitions. The 20-year-old joins a group that includes Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sidney Wicks, Larry Bird and Blake Griffin.

“He makes shots every day,” Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson said. “He missed really good shots to start the year, and I understand why that’s a figure of speech. But I don’t think we ever gave up on him not making shots. I think it’s just the percentages, that goes out at this time.”

Wembanyama connected on 6 of 12 from 3-point range against the Kings — who played the second night of a back-to-back set — to match his career-high in 3-pointers made Saturday in a 111-110 loss to Utah Jazz. The Frenchman drilled two of his first three attempts from 3-point range in the opening quarter and 2 of 3 in the second quarter as San Antonio took a 38-29 lead into halftime.

Inflicting much of his damage from the perimeter over the team’s first 11 games of the season, Wembanyama shot 10 of 41 from 3-point range in the previous five contests before hitting 12 of 21 from deep over his final two. With the Spurs leading by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter, Wembanyama increased the shooting accuracy even more to close out the game, sinking 4 of 5 from the field and 2 of 3 from beyond the arc.

He whipped the Frost Bank Center crowd of 17,163 into a frenzy with 58 ticks left on the clock with a putback dunk off a Stephon Castle miss.

“I think what definitely changed is that I wasn’t taking less 3s,” Wembanyama said. “I took better 3s, I think. Of course it feels better. I’m 20. I hope in a few years it will feel better and better. There’s no reason for it to feel worse.”

Wembanyama’s performance against the Kings marked his seventh career game with 30 or more points, 10-plus rebounds and at least five assists. The Spurs now own a 5-7 record in those games.

“He’s a great shooter,” Spurs forward Harrison Barnes said. “I’ve never doubted his ability in terms of shooting, in terms of making plays. For us, it’s just continuing to take those shots even when we’re not making them. Obviously early in the season we struggled by shooting a little bit. But we just keep taking shots with confidence and let them fly.”

Defensively, Wembanyama posted his fifth straight game with three or more shutouts, tying for the second-longest streak of his career, just four games short of the nine games he put together last season from February to March. Wembanyama logged one of his three blocks against three-time All-Star Domantas Sabonis.

“Domantas is a top five center in the league,” said Barnes, a former teammate of Sabonis in Sacramento. “His stats speak for themselves. For Vic to take on the challenge tonight, he’s guarding him one-on-one a lot of times. It was a big effort against a big player.”

Veteran point guard Chris Paul spent time Sunday working with Wembanyama and Devin Vassell, who made his season debut Saturday after missing the first nine games of the season. The trio took an extra session together again on Monday at the team’s shootaround.

“I wish you could see the work that goes in, day in and day out,” Paul said. “Things happen in the game where we all see the growth, everyone on the team. So it’s fun to see.”

Paul scored 12 points against the Kings and had 11 assists for his 531st career double-double, which ranks third-most by any guard since the NBA-ABA merger behind John Stockton (714) and Magic Johnson (615). Paul has already put together four games of 10 points or more and 10-plus assists after finishing last season with five such performances in 58 contests.

“I think it was one of those nights where we got back to our strengths,” Wembanyama said. “We needed points and we also had guys that we knew we had to get back to.”