LOS ANGELES (AP) — Victor Wembanyama began his 40-point performance against the Lakers on Tuesday night with a 25-point first quarter. That relentless start was a direct message from both the San Antonio Spurs and their young superstar.
Wembanyama is tired of the Spurs playing poorly against lesser opponents, and he took it on himself personally to make spectacularly quick work of a Lakers lineup missing nearly all of Los Angeles' best players in San Antonio's 136-108 victory.
“What got me going was honestly proving myself a point, proving my team a point,” said Wembanyama, who also had 12 rebounds while matching his highest-scoring performance of the season. “I’m not worried about us, I’m not worried about me, against good teams. But history has showed that I need to be worried about us against teams like this. So yeah, we don’t just talk about what we need to do. We need to actually act.”
When Wembanyama coolly dropped in a turnaround fadeaway jumper that gave him 25 points with four minutes still left in the first quarter, it was clear he was in a profound groove.
The French big man went 8 of 9 from the field with three 3-pointers in those first eight minutes. He went on to a 37-point first half while leading San Antonio to a 30-point lead over the Lakers, who were without Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves.
“He was very aggressive, as aggressive to start a game as I’ve seen him, both in attacking the basket and in shooting without hesitation from three,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He just really put his imprint on the game in that first half.”
Wembanyama had the highest-scoring first half performance by anybody in the NBA this season, and the highest-scoring half by a Spurs player in the 21st century.
And he played only 26 minutes — the fewest by any player in a 40-point game since Sleepy Floyd did it in 24 minutes in February 1991.
“It feels right,” Wembanyama said with a grin when asked to describe his first-half flow.
He was looking for his shot at every opportunity, and his teammates fed him relentlessly. It was all by design for the center, who will start his first All-Star Game this weekend several miles down the freeway at Intuit Dome.
“These kind of games, you’ve got to have the greed,” Wembanyama said. “I mean, every game you’ve got to have this greed to want more every time, because, you know, at all times, it doesn’t matter who’s on the court, somebody is going to want to stop you from what you’re doing out there. So you’ve got to be greedy.”
Although the Lakers altered their defensive game plan and upped their intensity in the third quarter after that first-half embarrassment, only the grind of the NBA season likely held Wembanyama to a mere 40 points, 10 shy of his career high.
The Spurs have another game at Golden State on Wednesday night, so coach Mitch Johnson gave an early night to Wembanyama after he hit one last 3-pointer and checked out with 4:13 left in the third.
“Of course I’m ready to go back on the court,” Wembanyama said. “I was also pushing to go back. But I mean, they made the right choice by keeping me on the bench. We’ve got to think long-term."
The Spurs are 14-7 since New Year’s Eve, but they’ve lost to Charlotte, New Orleans, Memphis and Portland in that stretch. San Antonio has the NBA’s third-best record despite those lapses.
“Playing against quote-unquote ‘bad teams’ or teams missing players has been our problem,” Wembanyama said. “Or consistency. I think almost every time we’ve been ready against the top seeds. Our record against them shows it. But we’ve also been bad against below-.500 teams. Tonight, I think we had to make a statement and show progress.”
Wembanyama will be the Spurs' only All-Star in Inglewood this weekend, and Johnson is surprised by that development — although he also has a guess about why it happened.
“I do think it's very interesting that De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle have not been named an All-Star,” Johnson said. “Seven teams in this league have multiple All-Stars, and we’ve played pretty good against a lot of the top teams in this league. ... Nothing to take away from anybody who has been named an All-Star, because they have a lot of great players, but the only way I can think we are deserving of (only) one All-Star means there must be an awful lot of people that have Victor Wembanyama as one of the front-runners for MVP.”
The Spurs (37-16) have the best record among teams without multiple All-Stars.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) works around Los Angeles Lakers guard Luke Kennard (10) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) watches action during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) descends after making a dunk as Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bufkin (18) looks on during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia is demanding criminal charges over a 2024 Israeli airstrike on an aid convoy in Gaza that killed seven people, including an Australian aid worker, the country's prime minister said Wednesday in a case that has drawn sweeping condemnation and strained relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he conveyed the request to visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog during a meeting earlier in the day.
Australian Zomi Frankcom was one of four World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by an Israeli drone on April 1, 2024. The other aid workers were an American-Canadian dual citizen, a Palestinian and a Polish national. Three British security staff were also killed in the same airstrike.
There was no immediate response on Albanese's request from Herzog, who visited the national capital, Canberra, on Wednesday after spending two days in Sydney, where he comforted Jews reeling from an antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach in December that left 15 dead.
Though Australia's major political parties largely back Herzog's visit, Albanese spoke in Parliament on Wednesday to several lawmakers who opposed it, accusing the Israeli leader of inciting genocide in Gaza and inflaming community tensions within Australia.
The prime minister defended the visit and said it was an opportunity to “raise the issue” of the killed aid workers.
“That’s one of the reasons why you have dialogue in a respectful way; to get outcomes and to advance Australia’s national interests,” he told Parliament.
Four months after the aid convoy strike, an Australian inquiry found the airstrike resulted from procedural failures and errors on the part of the Israeli military.
Albanese said it was a “tragedy and an outrage” and that he made clear Australia's "expectation that there be transparency about Israel’s ongoing investigation into the incident.”
"We continue to press for full accountability, including any appropriate criminal charges,” he added.
Herzog told reporters that his visit has been “very emotional” in the wake of the suffering the Bondi massacre had caused Sydney's Jewish community.
“It’s also an opportunity to bring the relations between our nations on a new beginning and a better future," Herzog said outside Albanese’s office.
“I think the relations between us do not depend only on the issue of Israel and the Palestinians and the conflict but has a much broader base,” he added. "We should, together, make sure that it’s uplifted to new directions.”
Mainstream Jewish groups in Australia have welcomed the visit of Herzog, a former leader of the centrist Labor Party who now plays a largely ceremonial role.
Albanese and Herzog dined on Tuesday night at the prime minister’s official residence on Sydney Harbor before flying together to Canberra on Wednesday morning in an Australian air force jet.
Hundreds of demonstrators, some waving Palestinian flags, and several lawmakers gathered outside Parliament House to protest Herzog's presence.
On Monday, as Herzog arrived in Sydney, thousands of demonstrators rallied there and also in downtown Melbourne. Australia’s two largest cities are home to 85% of Australia’s Jewish population.
Mehreen Faruqi, the Muslim deputy leader of the influential Greens party, told protesters outside Parliament House on Wednesday that Herzog was not welcome in Australia.
She condemned Albanese and New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns for police using pepper spray and aggressive tactics in clashes with protesters in Sydney on Monday. Police were given increased powers to arrest protesters due to Herzog’s visit.
“It is shameful that the premier of New South Wales and the prime minister of Australia are offering warm handshakes, photo opportunities and canapés to a war criminal, to a war criminal who has incited genocide, while those who are fighting for peace, who are protesting against the genocide, are attacked and assaulted and thrown to the ground,” Faruqi told the crowd, many of whom chanted “arrest Herzog.”
David Pocock, an independent senator and former captain of Australia’s rugby team, also joined the demonstration outside Parliament.
“It was the wrong decision to invite President Herzog at this time when we have seen so much strain on communities and tension in communities across the country,” Pocock told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
A heavy police presence at the Sydney rally on Monday prevented demonstrators marching from the Sydney Town Hall. Police arrested 27 demonstrators and charged nine, mostly with assaulting police.
Minns defended the police actions, saying that if the protesters had marched from the town hall, they might have clashed with thousands of mourners of the Bondi massacre who had gathered at an event with Herzog nearby.
Before returning to Israel, Herzog will visit Melbourne, where protests are planned for Thursday afternoon. In Melbourne, the Israeli president is to visit the ruins of the Adass Israel Synagogue, torched in late 2024.
Australia accused Iran of directing that arson attack and expelled Iranian Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi last August.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, left, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, center, attend a ceremony at the Chabad of Bondi in Sydney, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Bianca De Marchi/Pool Photo via AP)
