Last night, the Spurs capped off a 4-1 first round victory over the Trail Blazers by torching Portland in the first half and then coasting (somewhat uncomfortably at times) the rest of the way. As lopsided as the series looks on paper, I would actually argue that it’s been an ideal training ground for this young team, as they’ve had to endure the temporary absence of their superstar, a demoralizing fourth quarter collapse, and two back-to-back games in which they pulled off a win after being down
by double digits. Given that everyone appears healthy and happy with time to rest before the second round, I am hopeful that Spurs fans will look back on this time as the gentle trial by fire that gave the Silver and Black critical playoff experience in the nick of time. In the meantime, we’ve got some crazy box score stats to review.
Note: Now that we’ve moved into the postseason, the reference period used for grading changes from the set of regular season games since 2012-2013 to the set of postseason games since 2012-2013. Unless otherwise noted below, this set DOES include play-in games. As of the end of April 28, 2026, this group include 1,157 games.
Factors that decided the game
- The long and short of this game is that Portland had some major advantages in offensive volume from the field, but the Spurs were far more efficient.
- Largely due to their substantial advantages in turnovers (-8) and offensive boards (+7), Portland took 19 more shots than San Antonio in this game. However, the Spurs had a massive advantage in FG% (+19.56 percentage points) resulted in them making eight more shots.
- San Antonio also enjoyed a huge edge in 3P% (+16.6 percentage points), which allowed them to achieve a 3PM margin of +1 despite attempting 17 fewer shots from deep.
- The Spurs’ lone blemish with regard to efficiency was at the free throw line, where they went just 20-of-29. However, because they had extra volume in this area (+6 FTA), they still outscored the Blazers from the charity stripe.
Rare Box Score Stats
- Wemby has recorded 16 total blocks in his first four playoff games of the 2026 NBA playoffs. Since the 1996-1997 postseason, there have been just 13 other instances in which a player reached 16+ blocks in the first four true playoff games of a postseason run, and only one other person has done so in less than 113 total minutes of play (Dwight Howard, in 2010).
- This is the ONLY time in the 1,157 postseason games since 2012-2013 in which a winning team has earned a FGM differential of +8 or better while having a FGA margin of -19 or worse.
- Relatedly, this was just the 10th postseason contest in the same period in which a playoff winner achieved a FG% margin of +19.56 or better. In other words, that kind of winning FG% margin happens about one time per 116 postseason games.
- This game was also just the third occasion in the same period in which a winning team has made 1+ more threes than their opponent with a 3PA differential of -17 or worse.
- This was just the 27th postseason game since 2012-2013 in which a winning team shot at least 54.67% from the field, 40% from three, and no better than 68.97% from the free throw line.
What are Team Graded Box Scores?
Very briefly, these box scores grade winner-loser differentials for basic box score statistics, with the grade being based on the winning team’s differential relative to other NBA winners during a defined reference period. Think of it like a report card for understanding how a given winner performed relative to other winners. The reference period used runs from the start of the 2012-2013 season to the latest date of play, including only games in the same season category (i.e., regular season and playoff games are not compared to each other).
Data Source: The underlying data used to create these box scores was collected from Basketball Reference. In all cases, the data are collected the morning after the game is played. Although rare, postgame statistical revisions after data collection do occur and may affect the results after the fact.
