LAS VEGAS (AP) — Victor Wembanyama is finally ready to play again. It just so happens that his return coincides with his San Antonio Spurs being in the NBA Cup semifinals against the defending league champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Wembanyama will be on a minutes restriction Saturday night when he and the Spurs take on the Thunder in the Cup semifinals. It'll be Wembanyama's first game back after he missed 12 contests with a strained left calf; the Spurs went 9-3 in those games, including a Cup quarterfinal win in Los Angeles against the Lakers earlier this week.
He wanted to come back earlier. And he also acknowledges that wouldn't have been wise.
“When you’re part of a team like this, now we're starting to be even more successful, we’re starting to win," Wembanyama said. “Every single game is important, and I have a responsibility towards my team to come back as quick as I can — but also to be healthy, to not come back too early, It would have been a mistake to come back earlier. So, it just happens that I’m coming back on this game in Vegas here. But every single game I was pushing.”
It could have been argued — and surely was discussed at Spurs headquarters — that there's some logic around sitting Wembanyama on Saturday, not playing him in the Cup final if San Antonio got there because the game won't count in the standings anyway, and essentially getting him another week off before regular-season play resumes on Dec. 18 against Washington.
But Wembanyama lobbied to play. The Spurs' medical team deemed him ready to play. As such, he's playing.
“The added visibility and conversation around this game, around the game in LA, around any potential games after this, I totally understand," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. "But in all reality, we would strip all that back when we had those real honest conversations about, ‘where are we at what are we walking out of, what are we walking into’ — understanding visibility, understanding it’s a long season, understanding all the things that go with it.”
Wembanyama is averaging 26.2 points and 12.9 rebounds this season for the Spurs, who are off to a 17-7 start — having gone 8-4 with Wembanyama and 9-3 without him.
“They have had a great start,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We haven’t seen them yet. So, it’s a first pass at them, and we’ll see where we are at against them. We’re not going to overprepare or overdo anything. First time we’ve seen them, go out there and play and see where that leaves us. We’ll see them a few times here in the next couple weeks.”
The Thunder are 24-1, tying the best record through 25 games in NBA history. Orlando and New York are playing in the other NBA Cup semifinal at Las Vegas on Saturday.
Wembanyama expects some level of fatigue Saturday. He was winded Friday after a cardio workout in Vegas, and Johnson said Wembanyama was getting tired playing against the Spurs’ video staffers a few days ago as part of his ramping-up process toward this return.
“I would suspect an early sub and not his normal minutes,” Johnson said.
Saturday would be the first time that Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, De'Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper all play together for the Spurs this season. It might be more than a bit surprising that the Spurs entered Friday tied for the fifth-best record in the NBA despite constant injuries over the first few weeks of the season.
“Of course, it’s been hard to watch from my couch, but almost every night they’ve proven to me that I have nothing to worry about," Wembanyama said. "But yeah, no, really the brand of basketball we’re playing, that they’ve been playing just makes me proud because it’s getting closer to the ideal basketball in my opinion.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
San Antonio Spurs forward/center Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots before an NBA basketball game against the New Orleans Pelicans, in New Orleans, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, center, talks with teammate forward Carter Bryant (11) during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies in San Antonio, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama, center, reacts to a play during the second half of an NBA Cup basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Mohamed Salah's long goodbye to Liverpool begins on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, the competition which represents his best chance of a trophy in his final year at Anfield.
The Egypt winger announced last week that he will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season after nine years at a club where he has broken scoring records and established himself as one of the world's best players.
Salah potentially has 15 games left in the famous red shirt: Seven in the Premier League as well as three in the FA Cup and five in the Champions League, should Liverpool reach the final in both of those competitions.
That won't be easy.
In the Champions League, defending champion Paris Saint-Germain is up next in the two-leg quarterfinals and it's pretty much as tough in the FA Cup, with Liverpool handed an away match at Manchester City.
Salah, who has 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, missed the Reds' last game before the international break — a 2-1 loss at Brighton in the league — with a muscle injury but has told manager Arne Slot he should be healthy enough to return this weekend.
“He just does so much for his body for such a long time that he recovers so fast," Slot said on Wednesday. "So, he will train with the team again tomorrow and if everything works well then he’s available to be with us at City.”
The 33-year-old Salah was left out of the Liverpool team for four straight games at the end of 2025 in what appeared to be a breakdown in his relationship with Slot and the club.
Since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, Salah virtually has been an ever-present in the lineup, seemingly winning the Dutch coach round.
“That hunger never drops,” Slot said of Salah. "It's the thing I find most special about him. So many good players around the world — he's definitely one of them in the last 10 years — and to show that hunger every three days, that professionalism, that commitment to the club and to the team, wanting to score again, always wanting to play ...
“When you take him out three minutes before the end, he's like, ‘Ah, maybe I could have scored one extra.’”
City, meanwhile, is seeking a domestic cup double after beating Arsenal in the English League Cup final on March 22. Pep Guardiola's team is also chasing Arsenal in the Premier League, which takes a break this weekend to give the FA Cup its own space in the calendar.
The other FA Cup quarterfinals take place across Saturday and Sunday.
After City-Liverpool in the early kickoff on Saturday, Chelsea hosts third-tier Port Vale — the lowest-ranked team left in the competition — before Arsenal visits second-tier Southampton.
On Sunday, West Ham hosts Leeds in an all-Premier League matchup.
Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden has less than two months to persuade England coach Thomas Thomas he is worthy of a place in the World Cup squad.
Foden started both of England’s recent friendly games — a draw with Uruguay and a loss to Japan — but failed to impress either in the No. 10 role or as a “false nine," prompting Tuchel to say it's “ not a guarantee ” that Foden will be at the World Cup.
Foden was English soccer's player of the year in the 2023-24 season but has not maintained his top form and has rarely started for City in recent months.
Arsenal's team sheet for the Southampton game will be heavily scrutinized, given 10 players missed games for their national team over the international break because of various issues.
Eberechi Eze, Jurrien Timber and Martin Odegaard already had injuries that caused them to miss the League Cup final, before Piero Hincapie, Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Leandro Trossard all pulled out of international duty.
England's Noni Madueke and Spain's Martin Zubimendi missed the second games for their respective countries after reporting injuries.
There might be growing disharmony at Chelsea, going off recent comments by two of the team's best players.
Enzo Fernandez said after elimination in the Champions League that he couldn't guarantee being at Chelsea next season, while Marc Cucurella told The Athletic during this international break that the team was “more stable” under coach Enzo Maresca, who was fired in January, and, "If you asked me, I would not have made this decision.”
Liam Rosenior, the current Chelsea coach, is under big pressure after four straight defeats.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
England's Phil Foden holds the ball during the international friendly soccer match between England and Uruguay in London, Friday, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
FILE - Liverpool's manager Arne Slot talks to Mohamed Salah during the Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Tottenham in Liverpool, England, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)
