Yuta Watanabe¡¯s rookie season provided another memorable chapter on Wednesday.

In a season of steady production for the NBA G League¡¯s Memphis Hustle with some time also spent on the parent club (Memphis Grizzlies), Watanabe has been getting acclimated to the pro game at a rapid pace.

And then on Wednesday night, Watanabe started at point guard for the first time as a pro.

The move paid off in the Hustle¡¯s down-to-the-wire, 122-119 first-round playoff victory over the host Stockton Kings.

With the victory in California, the Hustle advanced to meet the top-seeded Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Friday night in the G League¡¯s Western Conference semifinals, a single-elimination round, in Edinburg, Texas.

Watanabe finished Wednesday¡¯s playoff opener with 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a pair of blocks in 41-plus minutes. He made 8 of 17 shots from the floor, including 2 of 4 from 3-point range. The Hustle recorded their first-ever playoff victory.

In an appearance on the ¡°Chris Vernon Show,¡± Hustle coach Brad Jones summed up Watanabe¡¯s big contributions on Wednesday.

¡°If Yuta doesn¡¯t play point guard for us, I don¡¯t think we have a chance to win,¡± the coach admitted on the Memphis sports podcast.

¡°It was a really exciting thing for everybody involved,¡± the coach added, summing up the win.

The fifth-seeded Hustle needed a spark and the 206-cm Watanabe, a George Washington University product, stepped up and accepted the challenge.

¡°With all our injuries and Jevon (Carter) being gone and Tyler Dorsey now starting for the Grizzlies, actually Jay-R Strowbridge was our only point guard left on the roster, and we¡¯ve known that Yuta had the ball-handling and play-making capabilities all year long,¡± Jones said.

¡°And we tried to put him in that position, whether he played the small forward (spot) or the power forward (spot) for us. It was somewhat a little bit out of desperation, but we went to him yesterday morning when he got assigned (to return to the G League from the Grizzlies) and we said, ¡®Listen, Yuta, do you feel comfortable doing this? I think you can be a point guard for us tonight, and if you¡¯re good, you can give us a chance to win.¡¯

¡°He was really excited about the opportunity, and he played really well at (the) point.¡±

Strowbridge delivered the game-winning basket, a 3-pointer with less than 2 seconds remaining.

Watanabe completed the G League regular season with appearances in 33 games (32 starts). The Kagawa Prefecture native averaged 14.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.2 blocks and 0.9 steals per game. He¡¯s also come off the bench in 11 games for the Grizzlies.