LOS ANGELES – French phenomenon Victor Wembanyama poured in 38 points and came up big in the fourth quarter, as the San Antonio Spurs held off a late Phoenix rally to beat the Suns 132-121 in the National Basketball Association (NBA) on Thursday.

The Suns’ All-Star guard Devin Booker called Wembanyama an “unbelievable talent”, telling ESPN: “Just trying to figure out what he is because we have never seen him before.

“We got him early in the season, and hopefully next time that we play him we can make some adjustments to make it tougher on him.

“But he has an advantage being 7-4 (2.24m) and being able to shoot over everybody. Just finding different ways to make it tough on him.”

Wembanyama, the No. 1 draft pick playing in his fifth NBA game, notched 20 points in the first half as the Spurs pushed their advantage to as many as 27 on the way to a 75-55 lead at the break.

The towering 19-year-old then showed plenty of poise after the Suns roared back to tie the game at 116-116 on Keita Bates-Diop’s three-pointer with 4:21 remaining.

The Spurs responded with 12 straight points, 10 of them from “Wemby”, who produced three free-throws, a dunk, a three and a turnaround jump shot to put San Antonio back in charge.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” Wembanyama said of taking responsibility at the crucial moment. “Tomorrow it’s going to be one of my teammates.”

The burst was even more impressive than his highlight-reel dunk in the second quarter and back-to-back threes to end the first half.

In all, he connected on 15 of 26 shots from the field and pulled down 10 rebounds with two blocked shots to help the Spurs notch their second win in three days over the Suns.

On Tuesday, San Antonio erased a 20-point third-quarter deficit to stun Phoenix 115-114.

The two games reinforced what Wembanyama said was the biggest NBA lesson he had learned so far – that “maybe a 20-point lead is nothing”.

On Thursday, the Spurs never trailed, although it looked like the Suns might turn the tables as Booker scored 21 of his 31 points and Kevin Durant scored 15 of his 28 after the break in a furious rally.

Booker, back from an ankle injury, added 13 rebounds and nine assists, but the Suns, hindered by 14 turnovers, never gained the lead.

“Of course, there was the threat of Durant and Booker, that was our major concern playing the Suns, especially in the fourth quarter,” Wembanyama said.

“It worked really well in the first quarter – the energy we brought – so we really tried to find this again, to lock in, know our rotations, our tactics.”

Durant, a former NBA Most Valuable Player and an idol of Wembanyama’s, said he did not think the youngster’s game was too heavily influenced by his own.

“I’m sure he said he watched me growing up, but he’s his own player,” Durant said.

“He’s going to create his own lane much different than anybody who’s ever played.”

Meanwhile, Walter Davis, the all-time scoring leader for the Suns and a member of the 1976 United States Olympic gold medal men’s basketball team, died on Thursday. He was 69.

Elsewhere, Joel Embiid scored 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead Philadelphia to a 114-99 win over the Toronto Raptors in the 76ers’ first game since trading James Harden to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Kelly Oubre Jr and Tobias Harris added 23 points apiece and Tyrese Maxey had 18 for the 76ers, who notched a third straight victory and improved to 3-1 in a season that has been overshadowed by Harden’s trade demand.

Maxey insisted that Harden’s professionalism meant there were no distractions for a team adjusting to new coach Nick Nurse.

“Everybody was really focused on trying to get better,” he said of pre-season preparations.

“This is coach Nurse’s first year, so we were trying to learn schemes, learn how he thinks... there wasn’t much of a distraction at all.”

Nurse said before the game that from a competitive standpoint, Harden’s trade to the Clippers “would have been better a month ago”. AFP