The first round NBA playoff series between the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs resumes tonight in the Texas.
The Spurs enter tonight’s play with a 1-0 series lead thanks to a 111-98 win on Sunday night. NBA MVP finalist and newly-minted Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama was dominant in his playoff debut. In addition to game-changing defense, he scored 35 points while making five of his six three-point attempts.
But there will be more than one star on the court in the Lone
Star State tonight.
In Game 1, Deni Avdija was in All-Star form, tallying 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for the Blazers.
Two of our Blazer’s Edge writers wrote about the game in detail. Paul Navarre provided a postgame recap here shortly after the final buzzer, while Conor Bergin shared his observations here and rounded up some quotes from the Blazers’ postgame press conference here.
Can the Blazers even the series before it heads to Portland on Friday night? Let’s take a closer look at Game 2.
What you need to Know:
No. 7 Portland Trail Blazers at No. 2 San Antonio Spurs – Tuesday, April 21st – 5:00pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: NBC
How to watch via streaming: Peacock
How to listen: Rip City Radio 620AM
Trail Blazers Injuries: Damiam Lillard (Out).
Spurs Injuries: Jordan McLaughlin (Out).
Spurs SB Nation Affiliate: Pounding the Rock
What to Watch For:
Game 2 Adjustments: Will Coach Tiago Splitter and the Blazers make any significant adjustments after the Game 1 loss?
Will they change how they defend Wembanyama? How much will they play lineups with neither of Donovan Clingan or Robert Williams III on the court? Or will they scrap the small-ball lineups entirely?
It will be very interesting to see what Splitter decides. A case can be made that the Blazers should mostly stay the course. Wembanyama is incredible, but won’t go 5-for-6 from three-point territory every night.
And the Blazers are not a good three-point shooting team, but won’t go 10-for-38 (26.3%) every night. If those percentages revert back to something closer to their season averages, we could be in line for an even tighter Game 2.
Non-Wembanyama Minutes: Wembanyama’s offensive numbers in Game 1 were spectacular, and he made several highlight-reel plays, but the Spurs only outscored the Blazers by four points in the 33 minutes he played.
When backup center Luke Kornet took his place, the Spurs actually extended their lead. The Blazers trailed by five points in the third quarter when Wembanyama went to the bench. By the time he re-entered the game, the lead was up to 14 points.
Like the Blazers, the Spurs have multiple impactful bigs. Kornet is a reliable reserve, but doesn’t offer the same level of rim protection or floor-spacing as Wembanyama. For the Blazers to make this series competitive, they’ll need to take advantage of the 10-15 minutes per game that Wembanyama rests.
Offensive Boards: Donovan Clingan led the NBA in offensive rebounding during the regular season, but grabbed only one in the opening game of the series.
Offensively, Clingan spent much of his time outside of the three-point line trying to lure Wembanyama away from the paint. Same with Robert Williams III, who attempted a season-high three three-pointers after shooting only 23 during the regular season.
As a result, both were often unable to crash the offensive glass. Can either find a way to earn the Blazers a few extra shots in Game 2?
Matching T-shirts: The Spurs outfitted their fans in Fiesta-themed t-shirts for Game 1. What will they do for Game 2?
What Others are Saying:
Brad Botkin from CBS Sports ranked the five best performances from this past weekend’s Game 1’s around the NBA Playoffs. Wembanyama took the top spot and Botkin includes a series of clips showing the variety of ways he impacts the game.
The dude looks like he’s playing with kids. Honest to god, making plays like this at 7-foot-4 is the peak of basketball evolution. I don’t know how it can ever get any crazier than this.
