Game Thread Playoffs Round 1, Game 3: Blazers vs Spurs (1-1) (Fri 04/26/2026) [9:30 CDT]

The best case scenario was Wemby playing tonight and kicking ass. Winning this game without Wemby and handing the adversity in the process was the next best outcome. Hopefully the big fella comes back and they can wrap up this series in games 4 and 5. It can’t be overstated how valuable this experience will be as they play later in the postseason.
 
MannyIG said:
I was more worried in the previous games. In this game the shots were fine unlike the previous two, he had some pop out or just not fall. He spent a fair amount of time on Deni and Deni shot pretty fucking awful because of Keldon's D (and others). I think they are all figuring it out on the fly and for Castle and Harper it happened faster tonight. I thought Keldon was a positive force tonight and looked more comfortable picking his spots.
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Honestly, I think that challenge with Fox ended up changing the game. Avdija was pretty much doing whatever he wanted and getting the whistle before that. The refs really seemed to stop reacting to Deni's head-jerking after that.
 
Chinook said:
I don't think Vassell has been that bad at all. Dude's shown consistent grit getting deflections and fighting for rebounds. During the first half, he was pretty much the only guy doing that. In the second half, other players started helping, and it made all the difference. While it would have been ideal if he'd stepped up as the second option with Wemby out, this was a game where the other guards combined for 78 of the team's 120 points. I'm not mad that he was able to find his impact elsewhere.

Keldon not stepping up is more concerning, because he can break defenses when he's scoring well. Portland has good size on the wings, and I think that's making them a bad match-up for him. Johnson is the fourth piece of the driving puzzle along with the point guards. The team misses Johnson's vertical pressure more than it misses Vassell scoring 20 points.
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100% agree on the rebounding. Spurs had more 2nd chance points than Portland and it was due to a lot of wings getting into the lane and keeping balls alive.
 
This win reminds me that this team is a 3-guards offense with a dominant shot blocker. Nothing against Wemby but until he gets so much stronger, the offense needs to start from the guards attacking imo.
 
210XSpurs said:
The best case scenario was Wemby playing tonight and kicking ass. Winning this game without Wemby and handing the adversity in the process was the next best outcome. Hopefully the big fella comes back and they can wrap up this series in games 4 and 5. It can’t be overstated how valuable this experience will be as they play later in the postseason.
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As I’m sure you know, they can get away without Wemby in this series but no way we can do this without him from Rd. 2 on.
 
Chinook said:
Honestly, I think that challenge with Fox ended up changing the game. Avdija was pretty much doing whatever he wanted and getting the whistle before that. The refs really seemed to stop reacting to Deni's head-jerking after that.
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Deni was pretty shit to start the game, then the whistles started, but yeah you're right. He didn't really get calls after that.
 
Shoutout to....

CB with another "loudest" 3 pts game. 3 pts, 6 rebs, 4asts, 3 blks, 0 TOV, 22 mins!

His D was getting more intensity as the game progress and he play some amazing D on Deni in the 4Q.

Champ grabbed some crucial defensive boards. The wings and guards really have to help out picking up loose ball from defensive boards tbh. Saw a lot of loose ball due to Korndog tapping out the ball after battling with opposing players.
 
Chinook said:
I don't think Vassell has been that bad at all. Dude's shown consistent grit getting deflections and fighting for rebounds. During the first half, he was pretty much the only guy doing that. In the second half, other players started helping, and it made all the difference. While it would have been ideal if he'd stepped up as the second option with Wemby out, this was a game where the other guards combined for 78 of the team's 120 points. I'm not mad that he was able to find his impact elsewhere.

Keldon not stepping up is more concerning, because he can break defenses when he's scoring well. Portland has good size on the wings, and I think that's making them a bad match-up for him. Johnson is the fourth piece of the driving puzzle along with the point guards. The team misses Johnson's vertical pressure more than it misses Vassell scoring 20 points.
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This issue is that literally every championship level team has good size on the wings so it's not like that is going to get any easier going forward. That is sort of a required thing in todays nba.

Devin was fine defensively but one of the reasons why the offense was in such a slog until Harper came and saved the day is because he didn't make shots you need players like him to make if you are really trying to be a championship level team.
 
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John B said:
This win reminds me that this team is a 3-guards offense with a dominant shot blocker. Nothing against Wemby but until he gets so much stronger, the offense needs to start from the guards attacking imo.
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Don't get carried away. You can't just have your offense be all about 3 guards attacking the paint. It works more often than not but it's the playoffs and that'll make your offense predictable and easier to gameplan for. Vic can be the hub of a great offense especially when things slow down. Mix and match. Variety, is all.
 
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