Game by game, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama is nestling himself into historical statistical company alongside some of the most vaunted NBA names ever.

Wilt Chamberlain. Hakeem Olajuwon. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Charles Barkley.

Wembanyama used Game 1 of the Western Conference finals to place his name with the greats once again. His 41-point, 24-rebound performance Monday night in the Spurs’ 122-114 Game 1 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder was the 13th such game in NBA playoff history, according to Stathead, in which a player recorded at least 41 points and 24 rebounds.

And he did it on the day Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was awarded his second consecutive league MVP trophy, with Wembanyama — who finished third in the voting — looking on.

“I want to get that trophy,” the 22-year-old Spurs’ star said postgame.

This was the first such game since Barkley dropped 44 points and 24 rebounds against the Seattle SuperSonics in Game 7 of the 1993 Western Conference finals. What makes Wembanyama’s accomplishment even more remarkable, however, is the age at which he is authoring some of the greatest playoff performances the sport has ever seen.

The Frenchman is the youngest player to post such a stat line at 22 years, 134 days old, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar, who was 22 years, 352 days old when he recorded 46 points and 25 rebounds on April 3, 1970. In just his third year in the league, Wembanyama is competing in his first playoff run and only his 11th postseason game.

In his fifth career playoff game, Wembanyama set the playoff record with 12 blocks in a Game 1 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round. The record book seems to expand with every passing day he plays.

When asked postgame about how this performance elevated his standing among the league’s best players, Wembanyama played it coy.

“The world is 8 billion people,” Wembanyama said. “There are a billion opinions.”

But not everyone does what he did Monday. Only generation-defining players have. Chamberlain accounts for eight of the 13 instances when players recorded at least 41 points and 24 rebounds in a playoff game. Wembanyama is just the second player to need two overtimes to accomplish the feat after Olajuwon posted 41 points and 26 rebounds against the Dallas Mavericks in 1988.

The Thunder had the ball with 40 seconds left in the first overtime and a three-point lead. Seconds later, Wembanyama stepped into a 27-foot 3-pointer to tie the game. It was the start of Wembanyama outscoring the Thunder 12-7 by himself across the second overtime to seal the victory.

His Game 1 showing was a display of dominance reserved for only the rarest company.

And at such a young age, it suggests there is still far more to come from Wembanyama.

Need help with today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle? You’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.

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Today’s difficulty

Game No. 603’s difficulty: 3 out of 5

Connections: Sports Edition hints for May 19, 2026

Scroll below for one answer in each of the four categories.

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Yellow: BRASS

Green: AGGIE

Blue: BREES

Purple: WIND

Connections: Sports Edition answers for May 19, 2026

Scroll below for the full answers to each of the four categories.

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Heads of an organization: BRASS, LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, TEAM OFFICIALS

Green

An SEC athlete: AGGIE, GAMECOCK, SOONER, VOLUNTEER

Blue

QB Drews: ALLAR, BLEDSOE, BREES, LOCK

Purple

_____up: CHANGE, TUNE, WARM, WIND

What is Connections: Sports Edition?

Connections: Sports Edition is The Athletic’s first-ever game, a daily puzzle designed for players to find connections between 16 words on the game board.

The game’s objective is to group words or objects into four groups of four based on commonalities within each group as quickly as possible. Find the groups without making four mistakes. Each puzzle has exactly one solution, so watch out for words or items that seem to belong to multiple categories!

Category examples:
Sports ____ : Fan, Car, Bar, Radio
U.S. Summer Olympians: Biles, Phelps, Ledecky, Lyles

Each category group is assigned a color, revealed as you solve, ranging from straightforward (yellow) to medium (green) to challenging (blue) to tricky (purple).

Who creates the puzzles for Connections: Sports Edition?

That’s me! My name is Mark Cooper, and I create Connections: Sports Edition and work as a managing editor for college sports here at The Athletic. I was previously The Athletic’s managing editor for breaking news.

The next puzzle will be available at midnight in your time zone. Thanks for playing — and share your scores in the comments!

WASHINGTON — The New York Mets became the first National League team in more than a century to score 10 runs in an extra inning in their 16-7, 12-inning win over the Washington Nationals on Monday.

What had been an entertainingly tense, back-and-forth game through 11 innings became farcical in the 12th when New York’s offense exploded, and Washington turned to a position player to finish the frame from the mound.

“Every day you see something new,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re seeing a lot right now.”

In a 6-6 game, the Nationals gave the ball to Paxton Schultz, who had worked each of the previous two days out of the bullpen. The Nationals, up until this game, had not asked any of their pitchers to throw three days in a row. After a sacrifice bunt moved the go-ahead run to third, Schultz allowed hits to five of the next six batters he faced, including a comebacker off his glove and a bases-loaded bunt single.

When the lead ballooned to five runs, Washington manager Blake Butera came out to replace Schultz with third baseman Jorbit Vivas. That led to an extended delay in which umpires had to check with the replay office that a position player is permitted to pitch in the situation.

Schultz thought he might get sent to the outfield. Butera said that, while he and his staff knew the rule, the umpires didn’t. New York, he said, couldn’t find the rule, either.

“Very frustrating,” Butera said.

“Shook out weird,” Schultz said.

Beginning in 2023, MLB altered the rules stipulating when a position player can enter the game. He can do so if his team is trailing by eight runs, winning by 10 runs or the game is in extra innings.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” Vivas said through an interpreter.

“There was some confusion there,” Mendoza said. “You’re putting that pitcher at risk, and I’m glad they were able to do that and let the position player pitch.”

Once he got to the mound, Vivas allowed four more hits while recording the frame’s final two outs.

“It’s hard to describe,” Brett Baty said. “It was a really competitive ballgame, and then we broke it open in the 12th.”

The record for runs in a single extra inning is 12, held by the 1983 Texas Rangers in a game against the Oakland Athletics. The last National League team to score 10 in a bonus panel was the 1919 Cincinnati Reds, who broke open a scoreless tie with the Brooklyn Robins in a 10-0 win. (Those Reds won an infamous World Series.)

Entering Monday’s inning, the Mets had never scored more than six runs in an extra inning before.

Already this season, New York has played 10 extra-inning games. After scoring 11 runs after the ninth inning Monday, the Mets have scored 21 runs (or 11 percent of their total on the season) in extra innings.

The biggest development for the Mets might have been the night for Bo Bichette, whose seventh-inning home run was his first extra-base hit since April 28. Bichette added two hits in the 12th, including a two-run double off Vivas.

“I felt like I had a lot of swings that were really close lately,” Bichette said. “I was just waiting for something to connect to feel good about.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s going to get going here and carry us for a little bit,” Mendoza said.

The Mets have won six of their last seven to pull within five games of .500, the closest they’ve been since the middle of their 12-game losing streak.

For Washington, Joey Wiemer reached base five times despite coming off the bench early in the game to replace Jacob Young. In the second inning, Young was removed after being hit by a Christian Scott sinker in the ribs. Wiemer was then hit in the hand by a pitch in the ninth.

The Nationals have lost 16 of their 17 games while one game under .500.