Two short-handed teams on the second night of a back-to-back collided in the Spurs’ home opener of 2026, but unfortunately, the more shorthanded Portland Trail Blazers prevailed. After a slow first quarter,
the Spurs found themselves down by 15 points a couple of times in the second before finally fighting back and even taking the lead a few times in a back-and-forth third quarter. Unfortunately, they took their foot off the gas to start the fourth, giving Portland room to build some cushion, and that would end up being just enough to stave off one last Spurs comeback attempt in the final minutes.
Donovan Clingan was hot to start the game, scoring the Blazers’ first 11 points, including hitting 3-3 threes, and another three from former Spur Sidy Cissoko forced a Spurs timeout after five minutes with them down 10-17. The lead was stretched as high as 12 with Portland hitting five of their first 8 threes while the Spurs missed their first five, several of which were open, before Julian Champagnie finally got one to fall. The Spurs bench fought back a bit, getting as close six at 27-21, but Portland recovered and led 35-24 after the first quarter.
The Spurs continued to struggle to score or stop Portland in transition to open the second quarter and quickly found themselves down 15 a few times. The Blazers’ hot shooting finally started cooling off as the Spurs upped their defense, but it took a while before they finally started chopping away at the lead as shots continued to roll off the rim on the other end. A few transition buckets off rebounds finally got them going offensively, and a 15-1 run got them within a point at 45-46, but the Blazers refused to cede the lead with a couple of threes, and the Spurs were still down 51-55 at the half.
The Spurs finally took their first lead of the game to open the third with Stephon Castle finding Luke Kornet down low for five quick points, and the teams traded buckets and the lead 10 times throughout the quarter. The Spurs led by as much as three a couple of times, but after 11 minutes of what felt like a game of H-O-R-S-E that would never end, the Blazers used what felt like a “huge” 6-0 burst up the lead to 87-80 at the end of the third.
Portland hit two threes to open the fourth quarter, and just like that most of the work the Spurs had done to get back in the game was undone with the lead back up to 13. A Harrison Barnes three helped stop the bleeding, and a couple of free throws and floater from him got them back within six, 91-97. The Blazers continued to keep them at arm’s length for a while, but fourth quarter De’Aaron Fox came back in and made back-to-back threes as part of a 8-1 run to them back within two with just over 3 minutes left. Portland responded with back-to-back threes before five straight points from Castle got the Spurs back within one, but after they had a chance but failed to take the lead, Deni Avdija, who had a 29-11-10 triple-double on the night, hit the back-breaking three to get them up four with 50 sec left, and the Spurs couldn’t find another bucket, leading to a 110-115 loss, their second against a sub-.500 team this season.
Game Notes
- The biggest difference in the game was from outside the arc, where the Blazers hit 19 threes compared to just 1o for the Spurs. That offset any other advantages they had, such as points in the paint (54-42) or at the free throw line (20-16 despite Portland having more attempts). It has been a rough stretch of games for the Spurs from beyond Champagnie’s record night against the Knicks and some solid shooting from Keldon Johnson (who did not attempt a three in this game). The biggest beneficiary of a slump buster would be Barnes, who had hit just 11-46 in their last 1o games. It didn’t come tonight, as he was just 2-7.
- Without Victor Webmanyama, Kelly Olynyk got the backup center minutes. He was okay-not-great, but in an odd decision, Mitch Johnson rolled out a line-up without either of him or Kornet, going with Fox, Castle, Dylan Harper, Johnson, and Carter Bryant late in the first quarter. Unsurprisingly, they got killed on defense against a Portland team that likes to play big.
- Speaking of Bryant, he had another brutal outing with a badly missed dunk and three, and as much as I’m fan of his for the future, he just isn’t ready for the NBA, and I don’t understand why he continues to get regular-ish minutes, especially with Sochan on the bench wasting away (and getting devalued on the trade market). Bryant has managed to be a -33 in just 30 minutes over the last four games, and it’s just as much his play contributing as it is who he’s playing with. It may not have originally been the plan, but he needs G League minutes.
- Scheduling gurus have been pointing out that the Spurs have the most 2-night breaks in the NBA this month at five, which is great and all, but they fail to point out that two of those are coming in between three consecutive sets of back-to-backs, starting with the Pacers game and this one, and the Spurs have the four total this month. As TJ Ford pointed out in the pregame show, players would prefer to always have a break between games over back-to-backs with larger breaks in between, especially when you have to travel each time. Still, the Spurs 4-1 on the second night of back-to-backs this season, so tonight was the first time they appeared affected by it.
Up next: Tuesday at Memphis Grizzlies
7:00 PM, FanDuel Sports
The Spurs won their two home games against the Grizzlies this season, ending an embarrassing streak of having not beaten them in SA since 2019. They didn’t have Ja Morant in those two games, but they should this time. At the same time, without confirming he’d play, Wemby will travel with the team to Memphis, so that’s something to keep an eye on.
