NBA's grave Wembanyama mistake is about to come back to bite them quickly

The NBA doesn't have a real answer for third-year Victor Wembanyama, and we've seen it all season. In a November game against Phoenix, they played with extreme physicality, and it threw the Spurs off, but it would be the first of many necessary experiences this team needed. Fast forward five months later, and San Antonio is doing the majority of the bullying. Where does that leave opponents?

The funny thing about the "rough them up" strategy is when you look at the Silver and Black, they aren't a small team. The roster is filled with big, strong guards, physical players like Keldon Johnson and Carter Bryant, and imposing bigs like Wemby and Luke Kornet. Vic is slight, but that doesn't make him fragile, and that's something the NBA is about to learn the hard way.

The Spurs have been preparing for these moments

Within the first two minutes of last night's game against the Celtics, the Alien was clocked in the nose. He fell and stayed on the ground for a while before heading back to the locker room for a spell. Once he returned to the court, he got right back to business. What you didn't see from him was a bunch of complaining.

He didn't get the foul call, and his reaction to the contact didn't prompt a review from the officials. He would have been well within his rights to express his frustration with such a blatant missed call, but that doesn't solve anything, and this team understands that. The focus must be on the game. Let the other teams get distracted. Mitch Johnson has made sure his team operates with more maturity.

Spurs fans have seen their superstar get assaulted all season. He's left games with bumps, bruises, and cuts from aggressive contact that never resulted in a whistle. Wemby and his teammates play through it and only turn up the pressure when opponents want to go that route. They've seen it so much that the playoffs won't be a shock to them at all.

Jalen Duren, Cade Cunningham, and the rest of the Detroit Pistons were doing everything in their power to make Wembanyama feel their presence. The most physical team in the league lived up to their name and did some borderline grimy stuff when the two squads met in Michigan last month. The Spurs adjusted to it and won the game. The next time they met, San Antonio clowned them.

Houston is another one of the more aggressive teams in the NBA, and the West's second seed made them look slow and weak. The Spurs are beating all comers right now, and they're doing it in a variety of ways. All defensive strategies are failing as the league's best team post-All-Star Weekend dominates with their physicality, athleticism, selflessness, and intelligence.