[Osborn] Spurs’ Champagnie on how they need to protect Wembanyama: “Hit back. Honestly, hit back.”
Champagnie was asked at shootaround ahead of Game 3 on Friday night how the Spurs can help Wembanyama.
“Hit back. Honestly, hit back,” Champagnie said
“The guys hit him, they pull him, they grab his jersey, they’re grabbing his arm when he’s jumping.
Obviously, that’s not basketball. That’s just a physicality thing. That’s up to the refs to deal with, not us.
But I think as a team, how we can help him is we hit them back.”
The Spurs know that Wembanyama has to keep his emotions in check after he was ejected in the second quarter of Game 4 of the West semifinals for a Flagrant Foul 2 after he threw an elbow in Naz Reid’s face while battling for possession of the ball after a rebound.
But Champagnie said he and his teammates should answer the Thunder’s physicality for him.
“Honestly, truly, do the same thing,” Champagnie said.
“Do the same thing that they’re doing to us to them. Match the level of physicality and then just see how that goes.”
Hartenstein praised Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault for calling on him to serve as Wembanyama’s primary defender.
“He does a great job of just communicating before what kind of your role’s going to be,” Hartenstein said.
“So, going into Game 1, I kind of knew what it was going to be. And yesterday, he sat me down again.
He kind of apologized, but it was more like, ‘Hey, just be ready. Your number’s going to be called more, and we’re going to try to do something different.‘”