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Andrew Lopez, ESPN
OKLAHOMA CITY — The San Antonio Spurs will hold rookie Victor Wembanyama out of Wednesday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder because of right ankle injury management.
The Spurs are playing on a back-to-back and are being cautious with Wembanyama, who has played in 70 games this season.
Wembanyama expressed his desire to play but Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and the team made the call to rest him after traveling into Oklahoma City after a win in Memphis against the Grizzlies on Tuesday night.
“We’re going to talk it out,” Popovich said after Tuesday’s game. “It’s a question because we’ve held him out a lot of the back-to-backs. Once when he had that foot thing and now down the stretch, I’m not sure it makes much sense to push it.”
Wembanyama rolled his right ankle three times in a span of 12 days in December and the team had him on a minutes restriction and held him out of back-to-backs for a month after that.
He last missed a game on March 25 against the Phoenix Suns because of a left ankle sprain. He rolled his right ankle against the Pelicans on April 5 but finished that game and wasn’t on any restrictions in the Spurs’ past two games.
He is expected to be available for the Spurs’ next game Friday at home against the Denver Nuggets. San Antonio wraps up the season Sunday against the Detroit Pistons.
With Wembanyama out, there won’t be a matchup of the expected top two vote-getters in the Rookie of the Year race with Chet Holmgren set to suit up for the Thunder.
Holmgren, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft, has played in all 79 games this season for Oklahoma City after missing last year because of a foot injury.
San Antonio will also be without Keldon Johnson (left foot sprain), Devin Vassell (right foot stress reaction), Jeremy Sochan (left ankle impingement) and Cedi Osman (right ankle sprain). The team also could be without Malaki Branham, who is listed as questionable for the Thunder game with a right hip contusion.
Oklahoma City says Lu Dort (rest) will miss the game while Jaylin Williams (low back contusion) and Gordon Hayward (left posterior tibialis strain) are both questionable.