SAN ANTONIO – Victor Wembanyama scored a career-high 50 points in a performance that stunned his San Antonio teammates and rivals.

Wembanyama shrugged and wondered when the Spurs would perform better after beating the Washington Wizards 139-130 on Wednesday night.

“Actually, my first thought was, eventually I want the rest of our performances, the rest of our games to overshadow this,” said Wembanyama, the first pick in the 2023 draft. “I wish, I want to do this in the future just to have another one.”

Pragmatism is what has enabled Wembanyama to become one of the league’s youngest superstars.

“Very impressive,” Spurs point guard Chris Paul said.

At 20 years and 314 days, Wembanyama became the fourth-youngest player to score 50 points, joining Brandon Jennings (20/52), LeBron James (20/80) and Devin Booker (20/145).

“Big guy, man,” San Antonio winger Julian Champagnie said. “Obviously it’s not going to be like that every night, but when you come out with that mentality, man, it’s hard to do, very hard (for the opposition). Big praise to him, big shout out to him. He’s working on his game.

“So we’re very proud of him and that’s what we expect from him.”

Wembanyama was 8-for-16 on 3-pointers, a career-high, and he tied that mark by making six 3-pointers in his previous two games.

Wembanyama started fast against the Wizards, hitting 3-pointers from 25 and 28 feet as the Spurs took a 13-3 lead.

“Probably the guy who does everything at a high level (not playing against everyone),” Washington center Jonas Valanciunas said. “Shoots, 3-pointers, we did everything to take those things away, but he still made them.”

Wembanyama scored 24 points in the first half, his highest performance in the first half, and then achieved his highest performance in all halves with 26 points in the last two quarters against the Wizards.

Wembanyama became the first player in league history to make 20 three-pointers and 25 blocks over six games.

Wembanyama became the eighth player in San Antonio history to score 50 points in a game. David Robinson holds the franchise record with 71 points against the Los Angeles Clippers on April 24, 1994.

That success could mean something later, but Wembanyama was already focused on Friday night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers to open the Emirates NBA Cup.

“I like to celebrate small and big wins for a short period of time, but we are already locked in on the Lakers tomorrow,” Wembanyama said.

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