Victor Wembanyama was upgraded from questionable to available for Friday’s spurs game against Dallas, giving San Antonio a crucial lift after he left Monday’s game early with a left rib contusion and sat out Wednesday’s win over Portland.
The third-year star needs to log at least 20 minutes against the Mavericks to stay eligible for major postseason awards, a small window that makes Friday matter more than a routine regular-season stop. San Antonio had already managed one game without Wembanyama on Wednesday, but his return changes the edge of the matchup immediately.
Stephon Castle will miss Friday again, and head coach Mitch Johnson said the reigning Rookie of the Year is working through multiple nagging injuries rather than one clean setback. Castle was listed with right knee soreness two days ago and now carries left foot soreness, a sign the Spurs are trying to manage him carefully instead of forcing him through a stretch that has already pushed him out of Wednesday’s game.
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“Eighty games and the way he plays. It’s real. We’re not just sitting him just to sit him,” Johnson said. That line fits the larger picture around San Antonio right now: Wembanyama is back, but not fully out of the woods, and Castle remains unavailable as the Spurs try to balance urgency with caution.
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Friday’s status shift comes after Jeff McDonald wrote Thursday that San Antonio was privately optimistic Wembanyama would be active against Dallas. The next thing that matters is not just whether he plays, but whether he reaches the 20-minute mark that keeps his awards path intact, a threshold that now hangs over the Spurs game as much as the score itself. For more on the club’s recent finish, see Spurs Game Tonight ends in Denver overtime thriller, 136-134:
