San Antonio begins its first playoff journey in seven years Sunday as the No. 2 seed. The No. 7 seed Trail Blazers punched their ticket in the Play-In Tournament.
SAN ANTONIO — It’s official: San Antonio will play the Portland Trail Blazers when the Spurs take the court Sunday for their first postseason game in seven years.
The matchup was solidified with Portland’s comeback win over the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday in the Play-In Tournament, an upset victory on the road that saw All-Star Deni Avdija pour in a season-high 41 points. The win cemented Portland as the No. 7 seed in their first playoffs trip since 2021.
The Trail Blazers win sets up a matchup with the 62-win Spurs, a team Portland went 1-2 against this season. Interestingly, Victor Wembanyama didn’t play in any of the three games against Portland this year, yet the Spurs still won twice.
Portland will have no such luck this time around. Wembanyama is looking healthy in time for the start of the playoffs and should play in every game barring a new injury, so the games we saw in the regular season might not be a great preview for this playoff series.
But we’ll look back anyway.
The first matchup was a 115-102 San Antonio win in a Nov. 26 NBA Cup game. Castle, along with Wembanyama, didn’t play in that game either.
Without two of their best players, De’Aaron Fox led the way with a season-high 37 points along with eight assists en route to the Spurs win.
The Blazers got revenge in the next game, a 115-110 Portland victory on Jan. 3. Avdija scored 29 and Clingan had 24. On the Spurs’ side, Luke Kornet, starting in place of Wemby, led the team in scoring with 23.
The third and final matchup of the season was a 112-101 win for the Spurs. Castle didn’t play in that game either. Fox led the way with 25 points and Keldon Johnson had 20 points off the bench.
So Wembanyama didn’t play in all three games and Castle didn’t play in two, meaning the team the Blazers are set to see in the playoffs is largely different than that they played in the regular season.
One constant in those games: Fox, who averaged 27 points, 6.3 assists and 5.7 rebounds in the three games against Portland.
The Blazers’ season was a surprisingly good one, as many people weren’t expecting them to be a playoff team this year.
Avdija led the way this season, averaging 24.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists while making the All-Star game for the first time in his career.
But it wasn’t just Avdija who contributed this year. A host of players played valuable minutes for Portland.
Shaedon Sharpe, while only playing 50 games, averaged 20.8 points a game. Jerami Grant and Jrue Holiday were two great veteran presences (scoring 18.6 PPG and 16.3 PPG, respectively). Scoot Henderson showed some flashes, averaging 14.2 points and 3.7 assists this year.
Toumani Camara (13.4 PPG, 1.1 SPG) and Donovan Clingan (12.1 PPG, 11.6 RPG and 1.7 BPG) were both defensive nightmares that made the Trail Blazers a pain to play at times.
So while they are a 7-seed, it’s important not to count out these Blazers. Anything can happen in the NBA Playoffs.
The first game of the series tips off Sunday at 8 p.m. CT from the Frost Bank Center.