Grant and Simons keep the Blazers close in a narrow loss to the Spurs

The Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs played a close game on Friday evening at the Moda Center. Each team was shorthanded, with Portland missing most of its centers and the Spurs missing some of their guards. This led to a chaotic, heated contest that came down to the last minute. When the dust cleared, the Spurs emerged victorious by a narrow margin of 118-116. The loss was Portland’s 17th loss of the season in 25 tries.

Here are some of the points that decided the game.

Simple looks

It’s tempting to flippantly say that every shot Victor Wembanyama takes is an easy shot, but the Blazers were far more generous across the board against San Antonio tonight. Portland allowed the Spurs to shoot a season-high 72% in the first quarter and continued to be forgiving throughout the first half. Predictably, Portland was unable to stop their opponent from passing inside or scoring and grabbed it, allowing San Antonio to strike from beyond the arc. The lack of points inside OR outside might be understandable. Leave both to the opponent? Pooh.

Portland patched things up in the second half, thanks in part to an offensive surge that we’ll describe shortly. The Blazers frequently scored and caused San Antonio to take the ball out of the net, slowing their offense enough for the defense to catch up.

In the end, the Spurs had 44 players on the team, not exactly a tragic number. It certainly didn’t look like that was going to happen. A 16-6 advantage in second chance points proved telling.

San Antonio shot 51.8% from the field and 46.7% from distance, so you can see the problem never really went away.

Wembanyama

Victor Wembanyama is so damn good it’s disgusting. With centers Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams III missing and Donovan Clingan severely minutes-limited, the Blazers started Jerami Grant in Wemby. The future Hall-of-Famer took JG inside and scored from the post. Clingan then intervened, prompting Wembanyama to move to the perimeter, where he calmly sank threes and passed to his teammates in the lane. For one possession in the first half, Portland put small forward Toumani Camara on Wemby. So the center drove past Camara for a layup. What the fuck??? That’s just unfair.

After proving he was almost a tidal force all night, on the Spurs’ final possession of the game, Wembanyama took the ball in the paint, was fouled by Grant, and sealed the win with two free throws.

Wembanyama finished the game with 28 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in 34 minutes.

Paul leaves

In theory, the Blazers had a big advantage early in the game as the Spurs, already missing Stephon Castle, lost Chris Paul to two technical fouls and a ejection with 1:03 left in the first quarter. It didn’t seem to do much damage to San Antonio’s offense at first, because guess who took over the playmaking duties? (sigh) But it definitely hampered Spurs in the second half. They struggled to build their offense beyond the basic plays: Wemby-Iso and simple picks. They weren’t bad per se, but they certainly weren’t coordinated. Possessions lasted longer and resulted in poorer shots, which helped Portland’s cause.

It was only when the game became chaotic in the final minutes of the quarterfinals that the imbalance was evened out. Both the young Blazers and the captainless Spurs had to play opportunistic, catch-nothing ball games. At this point the game was back and forth.

Taken for granted

The Blazers went on a big run early in the third period behind an unholy barrage of three-pointers from Jerami Grant. Grant generally kept his team steady in the face of adversity, but that third quarter run was special. As soon as he started hitting, everyone broke free and started connecting as well. As a result, Portland turned a potential setback into a victory.

The barrage reversed a common denominator this season when Portland was eliminated in the third round. It certainly helped to score 46 points in the weak phase.

Grant put up 32 points tonight by hitting 8 of 10 triples. It’s like watching a man drive up in a Lamborghini covered in jewels. Pretty.

More threesomes

Speaking of connecting everyone, as soon as the lid came off the three-point basket for Portland, there might as well have been a pneumatic tube between the Portland shooters’ hands and the net. Anfernee Simons caught fire from distance in the second half en route to 30 points of her own. Anyone who has seen them this season knows that the three are the key that opens the door to possible victories in Portland. Tonight it was almost like that again.

Unfortunately, the Blazers got so hot in the third period that they got just as cold in the fourth. That made it much harder to maintain momentum.

The Blazers finished the game with an impressive record of 16-41, 39.0% from beyond the arc.

Drive Denis

All season long, Deni Avdija has struggled to create and/or complete drives to the bucket. Halfcourt, fast break, that didn’t matter. On a disturbing number of his dribble attempts, he either fumbled the ball or missed the shot.

Tonight we saw Deni unleashed. When Simons and Grant spread the floor, the middle was open. Avdija attacked hard and fast, even dunking on a half break and posing for the crowd during a play in the second half. He had 19 off the bench, a big factor in Portland’s success.

Clingan returns

Donovan Clingan returned tonight after missing a few weeks with a knee injury. He put up his usual good defense against everyone except you-know-who. His final stats were: 6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in 15 minutes. Overall it was a mixed performance but it’s still good to have him back.

challenges

Whatever you say about Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups this season, it’s hard to defend his use of challenge. He just seems to be a snakebite, not only in terms of wins and losses on challenged calls, but also in terms of the aftermath.

Tonight, Billups parried a Grant tip off Wembanyama’s wrist on a contested possession in the fourth quarter. He lost the challenge as the piece was dark in nature. That cost the Blazers a timeout they desperately needed as Wemby hit the aforementioned game-winning free throws with 2.4 seconds left in regulation. Instead of timing out and hitting in the halfcourt, Portland had to take the ball out from under the opponent’s baseline with the game on the line. This led to a lob from Avdija from three-quarters of the field that decided the game. It was very exciting, but not exactly what you want to cling to for victory.

Next

Box score

The Blazers face the Phoenix Suns on Sunday at 5 p.m. in the Pacific.