Victor Wembanyama’s availability is at the forefront of discussion as his San Antonio Spurs travel to Portland to play the Trail Blazers on Friday in Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series.
The star center’s concussion, sustained in the second quarter of Game 2 on Tuesday, is one factor affecting the Spurs’ chances for success in these playoffs, but it’s not the only one. The series is tied at 1-1 after Portland won Game 2, 106-103, and earned a split of the first two contests in the Alamo City.
Since then, San Antonio reserve forward Keldon Johnson was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year, with the award announcement coming two days after Wembanyama garnered Defensive Player of the Year accolades. With Wembanyama likely out for Game 3 because of the NBA’s concussion protocol, the other Spurs, including Johnson, will be called on to pick up some of the slack, both in scoring and intensity.
“We know everybody is going to have to step up,” Spurs forward Devin Vassell said. “That’s a huge void to fill. We can’t get bogged down by it.”
But Johnson has mostly struggled over the first two games of the series, totaling only 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting while averaging 19 minutes of court time.
“It’s the playoffs — even if we didn’t play a lot without (Wembanyama in the regular season) — we got to figure it out,” Johnson said. “We have to just stick to what we do. Honestly, we fall back on our habits.”
Wembanyama, while in the league’s concussion protocol, traveled with the team to Portland after going through workouts with no ill effects on Thursday morning.
“He’s looking good,” San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said Thursday. “The update is that he is following each protocol and he is progressing and will travel with the team.”
Lost in all of the speculation on Wembanyama is the dynamic play of the Trail Blazers in this series. At the forefront of Portland’s charge has been the production of forward Deni Avdija (team-high 30 points in Game 1) and guard Scoot Henderson (team-high 31 in Game 2).
Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter lauded Henderson’s play in Tuesday’s win and the overall growth of the third pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
“He’s in a stage where now he’s a little bit more mature,” Splitter said about Henderson, 22. “The game is a little slower for him. He’s shooting the ball well. He worked the whole year on his shooting. Of course, he had time, and he could pull off wraps, and now he’s just flourishing, and we can see the real Scoot Henderson.”
Friday’s clash is also the Trail Blazers’ first home playoff game since June 3, 2021, when they lost Game 6 of a first-round series to the Denver Nuggets and were eliminated.
“We did a great job on Tuesday, and obviously we’re going back to Portland with our home crowd,” Avdija said. “It was going to be loud, and we love playing in front of them.”
The Spurs won two of the three regular-season games with Portland this year, with Wembanyama missing all three contests with injuries. The teams have now split the two games that the Spurs star has played in.
–Field Level Media
