Paris Olympics 2024: Wembanyama takes over in OT, helps France escape a serious challenge from Japan

The first three minutes were easy for Victor Wembanyama on Wednesday. So were the last five minutes.

Everything else was a grind.

Grabbing at his lower right leg after a quick trip off the court late in the first quarter, then grabbing at his left hip a couple of times later in the game, Wembanyama seemed to be laboring at times in France’s second game of the Paris Olympics. He finished with 18 points — getting a three-point play that put his team ahead for good 26 seconds into overtime — and France wound up holding off a serious upset bid by Japan, winning 94-90.

It was tied at 84 going into the extra session, after Wembanyama wasn’t much of a factor in the last 3-1/2 quarters of regulation.

Overtime was all Wemby.

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He had eight points in the first 4:26. Nobody else scored a single point in that span — not from France, not from Japan — and he ensured that the hosts would escape.

He had help, most notably Matthew Strazel’s four-point play to tie the game for France with 10.2 seconds left in regulation and Japanese star Rui Hachimura — who had 24 points — getting ejected early in the fourth quarter after his second unsportsmanlike foul of the game.

It seemed like it would be a dominant Wembanyama night in the early going. Hachimura didn’t even bother jumping for the opening tipoff; he simply conceded it to Wembanyama, who had eight points in the first 3:20.

But he went strangely silent from there — until OT, that is. And France would survive.