The Portland Trail Blazers are heading back home knotted at 1-1 with the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs. After falling 111-98 in Game 1, the Blazers were able to overcome a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit in Game 2, earning a 106-103 victory.
With home court successfully stolen, Portland will be looking to add another win and take the series lead tonight over the powerhouse Spurs.
However, the story looming over this game and the remainder of the series is the health
of San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama. Wembanyama hit his head early in the second quarter of the last game and exited, not to return. It was later reported that he had been diagnosed with a concussion.
To return to action following a concussion, there must be at least 48 hours between the injury and a return. Wembanyama must also clear the NBA’s concussion protocol. Game 3 will take place after that 48-hour window, meaning Wembanyama will be eligible to play if he can clear the protocol. He is officially listed as questionable for this contest, but no announcement has been made about his progression toward a return.
What you need to Know:
No. 7 Portland Trail Blazers vs No. 2 San Antonio Spurs – Friday, April 24th – 7:30pm Pacific
How to watch via streaming: Amazon Prime Video
How to listen: Rip City Radio 620AM
Trail Blazers Injuries: Damiam Lillard (Out).
Spurs Injuries: Victor Wembanyama (Questionable).
Spurs SB Nation Affiliate: Pounding the Rock
What to Watch For:
Wembanyama’s health. I know I mentioned it already, but it’s the obvious story. There are two different Spurs teams that Portland could face tonight. One that has the defensive monster that is Wembanyama, and one lacking the Defensive Player of the Year and MVP finalist. After Wembanyama’s injury, San Antonio played backup center Luke Kornet heavy minutes. The 7’1” veteran finished with 10 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes in the contest. However, when Kornet was off the floor, the Spurs opted to go small. Outside of Kornet, the tallest players who played were the 6’7” Julian Champagnie and Harrison Barnes.
Without the strong paint presence that Wembanyama provides, the game opens up for Portland’s drivers to find good shots at the rim. Deni Avdija’s ability to get into the paint and score will be on full display as the Blazers will try and utilize every advantage at their disposal.
If Wembanyama plays, however, things are able to go back to relatively normal for San Antonio. They are able to run their normal sets and not be left to make quick adjustments on short turnarounds to account for missing a major part of their schemes.
Scoot Henderson. Throught two playoff games, Henderson has been maybe the best Portland player so far. He followed up an 18-point playoff debut with a 31-point performance in Game 2. He did this while shooting 64.3% from the field and 53.8% from three. Those splits will have to regress to the mean eventually, but for now his dynamic scoring ability has been a massive boost for the Blazers.
Throughout his young career, Henderson has shown flashes of greatness. But this stretch looks like more than that. After not making his season debut until February, Henderson took some time to settle in. He started to look better and better as he got more time on the court after his return. These last few games have been another level entirely. If this is a real leap and not just a hot stretch, it is a major boost to Portland and can help impact the series in a massive way.
Defend Home Court. The Blazers have done the hard part. They’ve stolen home court from the higher seed. From here on out in a tied series, more games will be played in Portland than San Antonio. Now the Blazers just have to win with the crowd behind them, an easier task than when playing in a hostile environment.
Obviously there’s a lot more that factors in outside of cheers and boos. But if Portland can find momentum from the crowd, they may find themselves in good position to play spoiler to the great season San Antonio has enjoyed.
What Others are Saying:
Pounding the Rock’s Charlie Thaddeus writes about his thoughts following San Antonio’s game two loss, both as a writer and as a fan.
A thing I totally forgot about playoff basketball is that weird feeling where you never give the Portland Trail Blazers more than two seconds of thought during the regular season, and then, all of a sudden, after about two quarters of playoff basketball, these guys are your mortal enemies. I hate them. They’re bad guys and they should feel bad for being so bad. Deni Avdija? Bad guy. Jrue Holiday? Villain. Donovan Clingan? If you lay hands on my sweet boy Luke Kornet one more time, the next thing you’ll be seeing is me in the octagon.
If I could somehow manage to ethereally float outside my body and think about this game objectively, which I can’t, I’d be sitting here raving about Dylan Harper going toe to toe with Scoot all night. Two extraordinarily physically gifted guards battling it out, draining shots, mean mugging each other. That was electric. What a blessing that would be to watch if I wasn’t having a panic attack at the same time.
