The Spurs lost Wemby early but led by 14 in the fourth before the offense came crashing down.
Everything was well coming into this game, with the Spurs up 1-0 in the first round against the Portland Trail Blazers and Victor Wembanyama receiving his Defensive Player of the Year trophy. Then, there was the game. After a rough start, the Spurs fought back from a double-digit deficit only to lose Wemby to a possible concussion early in the second quarter. They still fought and gutted it out, and everything seemed to open up in the fourth quarter as they got out to a 14-point lead with under nine minutes to go. Unfortunately, the Blazers got hot from three, and poor free-throw shooting came back to bite the Spurs as they lost 103-106.
De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Caslte and Devin Vassell combined for 51 inefficient points, while Luke Kornet did an admirable job filling in for Wemby with 10 points and 9 rebounds and was very much a case if “box score plus-minus don’t lie”, as he was at +29 before the game-ending Portland run. They were able to hold Deni Avdija relatively in check with 14 points on 5-13 shooting, but Scoot Henderson exploded for 31 points on 11-17 shooting, 5-9 from three.
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