SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The San Antonio Spurs’ lack of postseason experience was not much of a factor in their first playoff series since 2019.
San Antonio held Portland under 100 points three times in capturing its Western Conference first-round playoff series in five games.
Victor Wembanyama had 17 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks, De’Aaron Fox added 21 points and San Antonio never trailed in eliminating Portland 114-95 on Tuesday night in Game 5.
“This is a great basketball team,” Trail Blazers coach Tiago Splitter said. “They’ve got a superstar (in Wembanyama) that changed the game. They deserved it. They played better.”
It was the first playoff series for Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper and more than half of the team’s youthful core.
The Spurs were constantly reminded about their lack of postseason experience even while earning the West’s second seed. Most saw this as a detriment, but San Antonio viewed it as a progressive step after finishing 62-20 in the regular season.
“We don’t care about that,” Castle said. “We’ve seen these teams throughout the regular season multiple times. We know what other teams like to do against us. We have nothing but confidence in each other.”
San Antonio advances to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2017 and will face the winner of the Denver-Minnesota series. The Timberwolves lead the series 3-2, with Game 6 scheduled for Thursday night.
“We gain experience all the time,” Wembanyama said. “And that was just one example of how a series can go. And that’s a good way to start the playoffs. But, yeah, we gain experience and I’m still hungry for even better matchups.”
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, himself in his first postseason, stressed that while the intensity increases in the playoffs, they needed to remain who they are. San Antonio finished third in both offensive and defensive efficiency during the regular season and is led by the Defensive Player of the Year in Wembanyama.
The Spurs averaged 112.4 points while holding the Trail Blazers to 100 points. Wembanyama averaged 21 points, 8.8 rebounds and four blocks in 28.3 minutes and San Antonio averaged five players in double figures in each game.
“We did discuss about not changing what we do, just correcting little things and doing everything the same but better,” Wembanyama said. “And we kept trusting the game plan. And what I like is we resorted to going back to the game plan and going back to trusting each other in moments where it was hard. So that’s the statement of how much we trust each other and how much we trust the process.”
The Spurs were prepared for it all, but rookie forward Carter Bryant was among those hoping for some “oomph” as well.
“I grew up watching Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant absolutely duking it out, elbows to the throat, elbows to the rib cage, all that stuff,” Bryant said. “Dudes head-butted each other and like those guys played on the Olympic team together to represent our country, but they knew when it was time to get to the nitty-gritty and to win some basketball games. Like, they didn’t care who was across the line from.”
The Spurs prepared for and embraced greater physicality.
Castle and Fox received technical fouls after being involved in skirmishes with Portland’s Deni Avdija. Harper received one after he and Scoot Henderson taunted each other.
“Yeah, I think all the things that are discussed regarding the playoffs are real, obviously,” Johnson said. “The physicality, the competitiveness, every single possession is survival. And I think when you play a team every single day that you play a game, it comes a lot less of a cute strategy. ”
San Antonio also had to fight through losing Wembanyama in the first half of Game 2. Wembanyama fell, his right cheek and jaw hitting the court squarely after he was fouled by Jrue Holiday with 8:57 remaining in the second quarter.
Wembanyama did not return, and Portland rallied from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat San Antonio 106-103 in Game 2.
Wembanyama was immediately placed in the league’s concussion protocol and was not cleared to return until Game 4, although he took exception to how the NBA handled his absence in Game 3.
Without Wembanyama, the Spurs rallied from a 15-point deficit to win Game 3 on Saturday.
“I feel like it brought the best out of us, especially after Game 2 being to where they won that game just being more physical than us, getting more offensive rebounds than us,” Julian Champagnie said. ”I felt like it was a wake-up call that we needed, especially this early on in the playoffs. So I felt like it brought the best out of everybody.”
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Raul Dominguez, The Associated Press
