Add The New York Post on Google Victor Wembanyama made his statement loud and clear on Monday night: this is his league.
One of the most dominant performances we’ve seen in NBA playoff history, Wembanyama led the Spurs to a victory in double overtime over the Thunder in Game 1.
We look to Game 2, where the Spurs are 6.5-point underdogs on most sports betting apps and sites after pulling off the Game 1 upset.
Interestingly, the Thunder were forced to completely change their lineups with former Knick Isaiah Hartenstein the odd man out.
After starting the game, Hartenstein played just 12 minutes, and aside from some very insignificant moments where he played to get rebounds off late free throw attempts, followed by immediate timeouts to get him off the floor, he barely played in the second half.
Hartenstein ended the game with two points, two rebounds, and two assists in Game 1.
His 12 minutes played is the second-lowest total of the season, behind only a 40-point blowout win over the tanking Jazz at the end of the season.
Wembanyama is going to be a nightmare for the Thunder to deal with, and Hartenstein’s inability to shoot effectively will make him difficult to play.
There will be adjustments from the Thunder, and I suspect one of those could be Harteinstein playing even fewer minutes and Oklahoma City looking to go small by surrounding the perimeter with shooters to draw Wembanyama away from the basket.
Isaiah Hartenstein turned into a cheerleader during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Getty Images The Thunder were boasting about stealing Hartenstein from the Knicks in free agency two offseasons ago, but he won’t be any help in this series.
Target the Under on all of the Hartenstein props that you can get your hands on.
THE PLAY: SGP Hartenstein Under 4.5 points + Under 4.5 rebounds + Under 1.5 assists (+234, DraftKings)
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