Victor Wembaniama had a 12-block triple-double in the Spurs loss

SAN ANTONIO – Mindful after that 104–102 damage from Minnesota Timberwolves In Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals, San Antonio Spurs the star Victor Wembanyama He lamented what he described as a mismanagement of energy to spoil a historic defensive performance.

Wembanyama racked up an NBA-playoff-record 12 blocks and scored 11 points with 15 rebounds on Monday night, becoming just the third player in postseason history to log a triple-double with a block after Andrew Bynum. Hakeem Olajuwon.

But Wembanyama believes his powers could have been used more effectively.

“I think I had to use my strength,” he said. “Obviously, I used a lot of it on one side of the court. On the other hand, offensively, I used too much energy on things that didn’t really help our team. So, that’s on me. Some were good and some were bad. It’s more on me because my game didn’t look good tonight (where) the team was going to look for me. If we could have been leaders on our team, it would have been better. So, basically, if everything had been different, it would have been different.”

Wembanyama’s last comments drew laughs from the assembled media, but what wasn’t funny was his performance and decision-making on the offensive end. In addition to connecting on his lowest field goal percentage (29%) thus far in the playoffs, Wembanyama missed all eight of his attempts from 3-point range, registering the most misses from deep by no player in Spurs playoff history.

Minnesota’s stout defense played a role, especially the frontcourt duo Rudy Gobert And Julius RundleThat constantly pushed Wembanyama from his spots and prevented him from establishing a presence in the paint. The Timberwolves contested 14 of Wembaniama’s 17 attempts, with the 22-year-old making 14 of 5-of-14 attempts.

The four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Gobert defended Wembanyama more than anyone else, especially in the first half. But Randle took the assignment for most of the second half. On 24 plays ending with Randle as the final defender, the Spurs averaged 0.73 points, shooting 5 of 16 with three turnovers.

Wembaniama shot 0-for-2 on those plays with one turnover.

“Honestly, I have to watch the film again to see a little more, the dynamics,” he said. “Right now, it’s a little bit of a blur for me. I think I played the last 16 minutes of the game, maybe, and it just went like that. It’s not good. It just means I didn’t have the play I could have.”

This did not stop Wembanyama from establishing a block party vibe at the Frost Bank Centre. He pushed the two away Terence Shannon Jr attempts at the rim in the first 40 seconds of the game. Wembanyama tallied three blocks in the first quarter and finished the opening half with seven total as the teams entered a deadlock at 45.

“Yeah, he had a lot of blocks,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “He also had a couple of unforced goaltends. So, those are valuable points we’ll want to get back. I thought there was a smarter offense in the second half, and I think we did a better job of finding that.”

San Antonio also searched, but came up empty. Wembanyama and veteran point guard De’Aaron Fox A combined 10-of-31 shot with nine turnovers.

The Spurs entered this second-round series shooting 42% from 3-point range throughout the playoffs but connected on just 27.8% in Game 1. Fox and Wembanyana came into Game 1 with a combined 41.2 points in the playoffs.

With 3:49 left to play, Randle sank a 13-foot turnaround jumper to give Minnesota its biggest lead of the night. But with 30.9 seconds left, a Dylan Harper The dunk pulled San Antonio within two points.

Julian Champagne A potential game winner from 26 feet out was missed.

“We’re going to watch film and stuff, but I don’t need to hear from anybody else that I played bad,” Fox said. “I know I played bad. But you take it on the chin, move on and try to play better in the next match.”

At 22 years and 120 days old, Wembanyama became the youngest player in Spurs history to log a triple-double in the playoffs, surpassing Hall of Famer Tim Duncan, who accomplished the feat in 2002 at the age of 25 years and 360 days.

“He played great,” Harper said. “We didn’t win, but I think that’s another building block and building stone for him in terms of how good he can really be on offense and defense. The next game is going to be even better because that’s the type of guy he is.”

ESPN’s Anthony Slater and ESPN Research contributed to this report.