If you’ve been looking for a signature San Antonio Spurs win early in the 2026-27 season, look no further. On the second game of a back-to-back, the Spurs waltzed into enemy territory and blew out a team motivated to get revenge. It was one of the first times we’ve seen this year’s Spurs put it all together against a playoff-caliber team.
Defense was the name of the game in San Antonio’s 125-103 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Both teams played incredibly physical (or just flopped a lot). But
the Spurs were the enforcers overall. Stephon Castle set the tone on the perimeter with some suffocating defense on two of the Blazers’ best players, Deni Advija and Jrue Holiday. Advija was particularly frustrated by Castle’s defense, scoring just 15 points on 5-13 shooting.
The rest of the team forced turnovers. Portland coughed it up 18 times, leading to 23 easy points for the Spurs. The tape will show that the Spurs dominated this game with force and athleticism. The stat sheet shows they won a lot of the hustle stats, too. San Antonio won the rebounding battle by 13 and grabbed 14 offensive boards. The force they showed against Portland is the same as what they showed last season in their NBA Finals run, but more refined.
The Blazers just feel like a team the Spurs will have to beat in the Victor Wembanyama era. They are young (for the most part), tough, and skilled. Beating them down in such a dominant fashion after the playoff victory last season is a clear sign that San Antonio has not taken a step back, despite some bumps to start the season. It also showed a lot of grit and edge from the Spurs. It was exactly the type of victory this team needed early in the season.
Takeaways:
- I gave the second unit a tough time in the last WWL. They were MUCH better against Portland. Luke Kornet in particular had one of his best games of the season with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block. There were fewer moments when Kornet needed to go one-on-one with a driver at the rim, as the perimeter defense made it harder for the Blazers to get clear drives to the basket. What was even more impressive about Kornet’s game is that he actually took a few shots when he was open. Typically, the backup center isn’t even thinking about shooting, but he hit a pop-a-shot early in the game and took a jumper from the free-throw line that didn’t fall. Just getting Kornet to take those kinds of shots when they are available will help the second-unit offense tremendously.
- It’s been a minute since we got a sub-25-minute elite performance from Wembanyama. Not because the performances haven’t been elite, but because he’s usually playing more than 25 minutes. He had 29 points on 9-for-13 shooting, including three triples. Portland had absolutely no answer for the early-season MVP candidate. In the last two games, he’s become more selective with his jump shots, and the results have been better looks that are going in more often.
- Carter Bryant got an opportunity to play early in the game and made the most of it. He hit a pair of three-pointers, got a deflection and a block, providing energy off the bench. Bryant still struggles with overaggressiveness on defense. He picked up 5 fouls in just 17 minutes on Saturday. Bryant has a lot of talent; it just needs to be harnessed with improved awareness and experience.
- The Blazers continued their strategy of guarding Castle with Donovan Clingan and putting Toumani Camara on Wembanyama. It’s safe to say the Spurs have figured out how to defeat that coverage. It helps that Castle made two of his five three-pointers, and Wembanyama is a game-breaker. Portland still needed to send doubles at Wembanyama, and when they did, the Spurs were able to get easy looks when the ball was passed out.
