Victor Wembanyama had already finished the game that will be replayed for years before the fourth quarter began. The San Antonio Spurs center scored 52 points, pulled down 24 rebounds and blocked eight shots on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, at the Frost Bank Center, and then closed out a 112-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks from the free-throw line with 24.2 seconds on the clock.
The points and the rebounds were career highs. The blocks were not quite — but no one has ever had that many in a 50-point game since the NBA began counting them in the 1973-74 season.
The first half
Most of it happened before halftime. Wembanyama had 29 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in 16 minutes and 37 seconds of first-half playing time, and he got the points without missing: 15 attempts from the free-throw line, 15 made. That ties the mark James Harden set in 2019 for the most first-half free throws without a miss in the era for which play-by-play records exist, since 1997-98.
No player in the previous 30 seasons had reached 25 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in a single half.
The defensive sequence that defined the night came in the second quarter, when he blocked Cooper Flagg, P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford on consecutive attempts inside 13 seconds. Dallas shot 2-of-13 in the first half on the shots he contested.
The ankle, and the finish
San Antonio led by 19 early in the third quarter and should have been comfortable. Wembanyama rolled his right ankle with 9:11 left and went to the bench with the Spurs ahead 94-87 — and the game turned at once. Dallas closed to within two at the 8:17 mark, and when Flagg finished an alley-oop to make it 100-99 with 6:05 remaining, Wembanyama came back on.
Washington's three-pointer still put Dallas ahead 103-100 with 5:38 left, and Naji Marshall's three tied the game at 111 with 1:41 to go. Wembanyama scored 10 points over the closing stretch, the last of them the free throw that decided it. Kyrie Irving's contested turnaround jumper with 2.5 seconds left did not go in.
Afterwards Wembanyama said he was "feeling fine." He also said he had been sick and was only now getting his legs back, and described the performance as "just figuring things out." Asked about nights like this one, he said: "It should be more like this. More often."
The numbers around him
The margin was one point; the gap his presence made was not. San Antonio outscored Dallas 87-64 with Wembanyama on the floor and was minus-22 in the minutes he sat — which is another way of reading the 19-point lead that nearly disappeared during his eight minutes on the bench.
Dylan Harper added 21 points for the Spurs, Stephon Castle 17 and De'Aaron Fox 10. For Dallas, Irving scored 29, Marshall 22 off the bench, Washington 21 with 10 rebounds and Flagg 19 with 10 rebounds.
Coach Mitch Johnson said Wembanyama "was a man tonight" and credited his teammates for feeding a player who was dominating at both ends. Harper reached for the obvious comparison and then went past it: "He's Superman."
Where it sits in the record books
- The 50-point, 20-rebound game won by a single point is the first since Wilt Chamberlain in 1964; Wembanyama is only the third player to produce that line, alongside Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor.
- He is the second player since blocks became an official statistic to post 50 points, 20 rebounds and five blocks in a game, joining Bob McAdoo in 1974.
- At 22, he becomes the fifth player with more than one 50-point game at that age or younger.
- His 29-point first half is the second-biggest of his career, behind the 37 he scored in a half against the Los Angeles Lakers in February.
He currently leads the league in points, rebounds and blocks — and against Dallas he matched or set the season's highest single-game figure in all three.
Reporting from ESPN, Al Jazeera and the NBA.
