PHOENIX — Victor Wembanyama scored 40 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked eight shots in just 25 minutes on Monday night, 9 November 2026, as the San Antonio Spurs blew out the Phoenix Suns 122-96 for their ninth consecutive victory.
The win lifted San Antonio to 9-2 on the season, second in the Western Conference, with the longest active winning streak in the NBA and a perfect record on the road. It was a remarkable turnaround for a team that opened the season with two straight defeats before reeling off nine wins in a row — and the latest was arguably the most emphatic of the run, a 26-point road win built around a performance from Wembanyama that needed barely more than half the game to reach 40 points.
Illustration: Victor Wembanyama rises for a dunk as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns 122-96 on Monday night in Phoenix. (AI illustration)
What Happened
Wembanyama did his damage in remarkably little time. The French star shot 15 of 19 from the field, including 2 of 3 from three-point range, and finished with a plus-minus of plus-30 in his 25 minutes on the floor, according to the Associated Press. He reached 40 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks before the fourth quarter had even begun to matter — and the Phoenix crowd cheered when he scored his 40th point of the night.
San Antonio was in control for most of the evening. The Spurs led by 15 points at half-time and stretched that advantage to 25 points by the end of the third quarter, turning what had been a competitive road assignment into a comfortable win. The decisive stretch came in the third quarter, when Wembanyama and rookie Dylan Harper combined for 24 of the Spurs' 32 points — Wembanyama scoring 10 and Harper adding 14 — to break the game open and leave the Suns with no way back.
The highlight reel wrote itself. Wembanyama leads the NBA with 36 alley-oops this season, and four of them came on Monday night, as the Spurs repeatedly threw the ball up toward the rim for their towering centre to finish. According to Sports Illustrated, he also blocked two shots on a single possession — twice. By the end of the night, the Suns had no answer for a player who was scoring at will at one end and erasing shots at the other.
It was the second time in a week that Wembanyama had produced a game of at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks, according to the NBA — a combination of scoring, rebounding and rim protection that very few players in league history have ever managed even once, let alone twice in the space of a few days. Five days earlier, he had set career highs with 52 points and 24 rebounds in a win over the Dallas Mavericks, a performance that already looked like one of the great individual games of the young season. On Monday night in Phoenix, he came close to matching its impact in far fewer minutes.
After the game, Wembanyama sounded like a player entirely comfortable with where his game — and his team — currently stands. "I'm where I want to be," he said, according to the Associated Press. It was a short sentence, but it captured the mood of a Spurs side that has gone from two straight losses to open the season to nine straight wins, and of a star producing numbers that would be remarkable over a full game, let alone in 25 minutes.
Illustration: Wembanyama's eight blocks included two rejections on a single possession — twice — in the Spurs' ninth straight win. (AI illustration)
Background
To understand how striking this run is, it helps to remember where the Spurs started. San Antonio lost its first two games of the 2026-27 season, and the early questions around the team were familiar ones: could a young roster built around a generational talent turn promise into consistency? Nine games later, those questions have been replaced by very different ones — about how far this streak can go, and how high this team can climb in a crowded Western Conference.
The Dallas game five days earlier was the first warning shot. On that night, Wembanyama posted career highs of 52 points and 24 rebounds against a Mavericks side coached by Dusty May, who took over in Dallas after Jason Kidd parted ways with the club in May 2026. It was the kind of performance that dominates a news cycle on its own. That Wembanyama followed it up, within a week, with 40 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks in 25 minutes against Phoenix suggests that the Dallas game was not an outlier but a sign of the level he is now reaching on a regular basis.
The supporting cast is playing its part. Harper, the rookie, showed his growing confidence with 14 points in the third quarter alone on Monday night, sharing the scoring load at exactly the moment the Spurs needed to pull away. The combination of Wembanyama's dominance inside and the young guards' willingness to attack has given San Antonio an offence that can score in bursts — 32 points in a single quarter, with 24 of them coming from two players, is the kind of explosion that breaks games open.
The defensive numbers matter just as much. Eight blocks in 25 minutes is a rate of rim protection that changes how opponents play: drives that would normally end in layups become kick-outs, shooters rush, and possessions end in contested looks that rarely fall. Wembanyama's presence at the rim has become the foundation of the Spurs' defence, and the Suns discovered on Monday night that there is no easy way to scheme around a defender who can block two shots on the same possession — and do it twice in one game.
San Antonio's position in the standings reflects the streak. At 9-2, the Spurs sit second in the Western Conference, and their perfect record away from home is one of the most eye-catching details of the young season. Road wins are the currency of contenders: they require focus, discipline and the ability to quiet a hostile crowd, and the Spurs have now done it repeatedly. The fact that the Phoenix crowd ended up cheering Wembanyama's 40th point says something about the quality of the performance.
Why It Matters
The first thing that matters is the efficiency. Forty points in 25 minutes is a scoring rate that few players in NBA history have matched, and Wembanyama did it while shooting 15 of 19 from the field — a combination of volume and accuracy that leaves defences with no good option. Foul him and he scores at the line; play off him and he shoots over the top; crowd him and he finds the lob or the open teammate.
The second thing is that he did it at both ends of the floor. A 40-point game on its own is a headline; a 40-point game with 11 rebounds and eight blocks is a statement about two-way dominance. Players who can take over a game offensively are rare. Players who can take over a game offensively and defensively, in the same 25 minutes, are rarer still. Doing it twice in a single week moves the conversation from a hot streak to something more durable.
The third thing is what it means for the Spurs' season. A nine-game winning streak, the longest active run in the league, has turned San Antonio from a team that started 0-2 into a team sitting second in the Western Conference at 9-2. Streaks like this change a season's shape: they bank wins early, build belief in a young locker room, and force the rest of the league to take notice.
The alley-oop numbers tell their own story. Wembanyama's 36 alley-oops lead the NBA this season, and the four he finished on Monday night were a reminder of how the Spurs' offence is built around him: throw the ball near the rim and he will go and get it, over almost any defender. It is a simple play, almost unstoppable when the passer and the finisher are in sync, and it has become one of the most reliable weapons in the league.
There is also the matter of the crowd. When a visiting player is cheered by the home fans for scoring his 40th point, it usually means the performance has crossed from sporting contest into something closer to appreciation. Wembanyama's own assessment — "where I want to be" — suggests a player who feels settled in his role and confident that the best is still to come. For the rest of the Western Conference, that should be the most concerning detail of all.
Finally, the win matters because of the way it was achieved. This was not a narrow escape or a game decided in the final seconds. It was a 26-point road win, led by 15 at half-time and by 25 after three quarters, in which the star player sat for long stretches and the team still kept pulling away. Winning comfortably, on the road, with your best player playing only 25 minutes, is the profile of a team with depth and control.
What Happens Next
The immediate question is how far the streak can go. Nine straight wins is already the longest active run in the NBA, and every additional victory raises the stakes: the longer it lasts, the more attention it draws, the more opponents circle the date, and the harder it becomes to keep winning. The Spurs will now look to make it ten in a row, bringing the same focus on the road that has kept their away record perfect, and the same defensive intensity that held Phoenix to 96 points.
For Wembanyama, the question is whether this level can be sustained. Two games of 40 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks in a single week, plus a 52-point, 24-rebound career night against Dallas, is a stretch of basketball that invites the obvious comparisons — and the obvious follow-up: what does he do next? The history of the league says that performances like this tend to come in clusters when a great player finds his rhythm, and Wembanyama's rhythm right now is unmistakable.
The Western Conference race is still young, and 9-2 in November guarantees nothing. But the Spurs have given themselves a cushion that few teams enjoy this early in the season, and they have done it by winning in different ways — blowouts on the road, career nights from their star, third-quarter explosions from their young guards. The test in the weeks ahead will be whether they can keep banking wins when the schedule tightens and opponents adjust.
Illustration: The Spurs' ninth consecutive victory kept them perfect on the road and second in the Western Conference. (AI illustration)
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FAQ
What were Victor Wembanyama's stats against the Phoenix Suns?
Wembanyama finished with 40 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks in just 25 minutes on Monday night, 9 November 2026, as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns 122-96. He shot 15 of 19 from the field, including 2 of 3 from three-point range, and finished with a plus-minus of plus-30, according to the Associated Press.
How many games in a row have the San Antonio Spurs won?
Nine. The Spurs started the season 0-2 and have won every game since, improving to 9-2. The run is the longest active winning streak in the NBA, and San Antonio remains perfect on the road this season.
What did Wembanyama do five days before the Phoenix game?
He set career highs with 52 points and 24 rebounds in a win over the Dallas Mavericks. The Phoenix game was the second time in a week that he recorded at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks, according to the NBA.
Where do the Spurs stand in the Western Conference?
San Antonio is 9-2 and second in the Western Conference after the win in Phoenix. The Spurs also hold the NBA's longest active winning streak and have not lost a road game this season.
Did Wembanyama have eight blocks or nine?
Eight. The Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, theScore and Pounding the Rock all record eight blocks for Wembanyama against the Suns, and that is the confirmed figure. One early text version listed nine, but the official count is eight blocks in 25 minutes.
Sources
- Associated Press (David Brandt), via TSN, "Spurs star Victor Wembanyama 'where I want to be' after another spectacular night on the court" — 10 November 2026 — https://www.tsn.ca/nba/article/spurs-star-wembanyama-where-i-want-to-be-after-another-spectacular-night-on-the-court/
- Reuters, "Victor Wembanyama scores 40 points as Spurs roll past Suns for ninth win in a row" — 10 November 2026 — https://www.reuters.com/sports/basketball/victor-wembanyama-scores-40-points-spurs-roll-past-suns-ninth-win-row--flm-2026-11-10/
- theScore, "Wemby has 40 points, 8 blocks as Spurs win 9th straight" — 10 November 2026 — https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/3651013/wemby-has-40-points-8-blocks-as-spurs-win-9-th-straight
- Sports Illustrated, "Six Ways Wemby Dominated to Lead Spurs Past Suns" — 10 November 2026 — https://www.si.com/nba/spurs/onsi/six-ways-wemby-dominated-to-lead-spurs-past-suns
- Pounding the Rock, Spurs vs. Suns game report — 10 November 2026
- Basketball Network, Spurs vs. Suns game report — 10 November 2026
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