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

[Ice009]

I need everybody here to do something for me:

Keep me accountable and tell me to shut my pessimistic self up. This is one of what, 30, 40 times I’ve naysayed this team only to look like a fool at the buzzer.

Seriously, check me on it next time.

A lot of us, including me, need to be checked. I still feel I was right on certain things, though. CB is one of them.

A quote from Lebron after the Lakers vs Rockets game "The amount of confidence a young kid in our league can get from a post season game, is like, a regular season game, you will never get nervous from a regular season moment ever again when you play meaningful postseason games." Pretty good quote from him and I hope this really pushes the young guys on the team even higher. Fantastic to do it on the road too. It's one thing to play well at home, but for young kids/rookies to do it on the road in a huge playoff game. That's just great.

Fuck, gotta stop forgetting to give LUKE huge props for tonight. Luke was great. Freaking great stepping in for an MVP level superstar and trying to the best of his ability to hold the fort. Dylan said it perfectly in his prime interview.

 

[1kangaroo]

I don’t know if it was the team sticking to a consistent plan. They started over aggressive and reckless, trying to get in a track meet with them and it wasn’t until they finally started slowing things down late in the third, is when they started taking over on both ends with Dylan leading the way. Kornet was the most consistent player from the very beginning.

That is what happens to young players sometimes and in the playoffs it gets magnified but the young guys have started to adjust as they get experience. I am just glad after shitting the bed last game they closed it out with a big run to put the game away.

 

[BatManu20]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2047909684107976759

 

[SpurPadre]

They shouldn't get overconfident and think they don't need Wemby to win this series. If he clears, he needs to play.

True but we all know Pop has a say in this.

 

[Ice009]

Wemby mom sighting!

I was wondering if someone else saw that. She had the Portland thundersticks. Awesome that she travelled with the team for the game.

That Dylan Harper dunk tho

I had the same reaction as D-Wade.

Shoulda drafted Kon my ass

Darn, man. Like I said, if the Spurs had a lower pick (say the 4th pick) and I was in charge, I probably wouldn't have drafted him. I would have taken Ace. Now that might have been a mistake, but yeah, back to the point. No fucking way do I ever take Kon over D-Harp.

That is such a resilient win. Love to see how Castle and Harper!!!! responded tonight. Thought Carter Bryant and Luke both had great games too. I thought Keldon was pretty good too but a bit unlukcy. Dev and Champ were fine. I wanted more from Fox for sure, but glad he at least contributed in the 4th.

Going to say for sure. Keldon did play much better in the second half. He competed. Hit a three at one point which was a huge shot. Still gotta play better, though.

I think this was the Blazers best shot, we have to break them on Sunday. Let's just hope Spurs medical staff won't pull any bs and sit him because we won this one.
(If he's actually not ready, fine. But no precaution bs.)

Yep. Just one win. Man, this is the playoffs again for the Spurs. Celebrate this win tonight and gotta forget about it tomorrow like it never happened and lock in to game 4. I hope someone can tell the young guys not to celebrate this one too much and move on to the next game quickly focus wise.

Hitting some midrange jumper with a 10 pts lead?

If Fraudster Fox hit some 3s that break the tie or take the lead then he is shitting on us

Disagree. It was still a playoff game and we still needed to make shots. Those shots weren't nothing.

 

[Mugen]

Portland scored 43 in the 2nd half.

This team wins with their defense tbh. Huge props to the small ball lineup for competing and gang rebounding...

Once the flukey stuff stopped falling, the guys had the Blazers in a straight jacket, big shout out to CB for stonewalling a ton of 2nd half drives.

 

[Ice009]

This one is great, not just for the raw "W", but for the playoff intensity that our boys just experienced. They're inexperienced, yes -- but not completely lacking experience now.

This is the beginning of greatness, in my opinion, dynastic greatness - and we're witnessing it in real time.

Cheers!

See the Lebron quote I posted in one of my previous posts that he had in regard to playoffs after the Lakers Vs Rockets game. This will be huge for the young guys.

 

[BatManu20]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2047925838503456819

 

[BatManu20]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2047928109299806709

 

[SpurPadre]

The irony of Scoot trying to play head games on the team is that it made him start feeling himself and caught himself trying to play hero ball and our guys clamped him down.

 

[spursistan]

if Wemby is ready to go, he must play. We can't get cute here. Spurs aren't getting another 60 points combined from Harper/Castle on Sunday and Fox can't be relied upon to deliver.

 

[Mugen]

And finally, big props to Mitch for shortening the rotation and letting the guys get extended minutes beyond the set rotations tbh.

The last 4 minutes of the 3rd won us the game and that's because Mitch didn't try to get too cute and let Harper & Co. just go out there and ball.

Big game for his development as well I hope.

 

[Robz4000]

And finally, big props to Mitch for shortening the rotation and letting the guys get extended minutes beyond the set rotations tbh.

The last 4 minutes of the 3rd won us the game and that's because Mitch didn't try to get too cute and let Harper & Co. just go out there and ball.

Big game for his development as well I hope.

Mitch had been coaching a horrible series up to that point as well tbh. Hope this is him turning a corner; would be huge for his development as an NBA HC.

 

[SupremeGuy]

That was one more three than Playoff Bonner seemingly ever hit for us lol.

C'mon bro. No Red Mamba slander.

 

[Silverheart80]

The losing scars almost become part of a player's DNA. For the other career vets on big money contract (Fox, HB) i would genuinely feel embarrassed to watch Harper/Castle take me home on a road playoffs game.

We always hear about players learning how to win. But we don't hear so much about overwriting the expectation to lose. Agree with you -- not a coincidence that the young guns are the ones who aren't afraid to win.

 

[BatManu20]

Portland scored 43 in the 2nd half.

This team wins with their defense tbh. Huge props to the small ball lineup for competing and gang rebounding...

Once the flukey stuff stopped falling, the guys had the Blazers in a straight jacket, big shout out to CB for stonewalling a ton of 2nd half drives.

Also helped bigly that Clingan was so bad in the 2nd half (on both sides of the ball, but esp defensively after Mitch went with the small-ball lineup) that they benched him for the entirety of the 4th, negating their size advantage. That and the fact that Scoot decided to piss of Dylan throughout the third. He went apeshit after that.

 

[z0sa]

Mitch had been coaching a horrible series up to that point as well tbh. Hope this is him turning a corner; would be huge for his development as an NBA HC.

Where Mitch scares me is ATOs in close games. Something I NEVER feared with Pop was his ability to draft exceptional ATO plays in close games.

 

[z0sa]

It also helped bigly that Clingan was so bad in the 2nd half (on both sides of the ball, but esp defensively after Mitch went with the small-ball lineup) that they benched him for the entirety of the 4th, negating their size advantage.

I saw at least 2 possessions where he could have taken an open 3 and immediately, within a half second if that, deferred. It really made our job a lot easier.

Mitch made Tiago adjust to us. That's worth something.

 

[SupremeGuy]

True but we all know Pop has a say in this.

Bro. Senile poop better not have anything to say about anything anymore. Let him have his executive position, watch practices, and that's it.

 

[Robz4000]

Where Mitch scares me is ATOs in close games. Something I NEVER feared with Pop was his ability to draft exceptional ATO plays in close games.

Pop became pretty terrible at them by the time Tim retired tbh. I remember several playoff games in 2017 and 2019 where he just called isos for LMA and DePression, though tbf they may have just ignored the plays and reverted to hero ball.

 

[z0sa]

Pop became pretty terrible at them by the time Tim retired tbh. I remember several playoff games in 2017 and 2019 where he just called isos for LMA and DePression, though tbf they may have just ignored the plays and reverted to hero ball.

Fair. Perhaps I should clarify, during Timmy/championship winning era.

 

[SupremeGuy]

Mitch had been coaching a horrible series up to that point as well tbh. Hope this is him turning a corner; would be huge for his development as an NBA HC.

The team hadn't been playing well tbh. Letting the Guests get thim into stupid fouls and whatnot.

Tiago has outcoached Mitch tho. At the same time he knows our plays.

 

[Ice009]

Do not piss off the basketball gods....we haven't won the series yet tbh

Way too early. If you were around for previous Spurs playoff runs that went all the way, you gotta take it one game at a time and with a win like this, you gotta forget about it quickly. The team can celebrate a little tonight, but gotta forget about this game by morning and focus in on the next one. That is how it all all through the playoffs.

Looking to the next round this early is McGrady type stuff. Loser stuff. Like when he said he'd never been to the second round when up 3-1 and then they lost the series. The guy only got past the first round because he was with the Spurs late in his career.

Props to Mitch for reading the room and adjusting his rotation to give the rookies the PT they earned as the game progressed.

He stuck with the guys impacting the game and I think that’s hard to do with a coach who has shown a very consistent rotation throughout the season.

Good adjustments all the way around.

Couldn’t be more proud of this team.

Alright, I'll relent a bit a give him props. I said earlier the young guys bailed him out, but I guess he had to play them for them to do it . So yeah, I'll give him props for sticking with them when he could have easily reverted.

Winning this game without Wemby could be really huge in the long run. These guys proved to themselves they don’t need a crutch, they can make things happen. Only going to make us even better with Wemby

Some of you guys did say that winning a game without Wemby could be huge for the team. Props to those that believed. I thought we could, but I also thought it'd be hard as h%ll, and it was.

IMO the best adjustment was CB bringing the ball up because they knew Robert Williams wouldn’t try to be an aggressive onball defender. This caused the entire Portland defense to become stagnant. Great coaching call by Mitch.

Yeah, like Paramore said, it was sort of a decoy point forward. I'd agree with what Paramore said. I do believe Carter can play that role sometime in the future, but tonight, it was strategic, so I should also give Mitch props for that too.

We got lucky when they didn’t gave the turnover off ball hit his legs.

Fortunately Raptors dont have challenges. That would have been brutal change of sequence. He should not be that sloppy.

The expectation is he should be our jrue

Which play was this? I thought the ball was off of Portland's player?

 

[Dbreiden83080]

I need everybody here to do something for me:

Keep me accountable and tell me to shut my pessimistic self up. This is one of what, 30, 40 times I’ve naysayed this team only to look like a fool at the buzzer.

Seriously, check me on it next time.

Dude, I was saying the game was over like 10 times in the thread. The game was going like shit and we had pretty much nobody playing well except for Steph. This team has tons of grit and heart. We do need to stop underestimating them.

 

[Ice009]

These are the kinda standout games from guys like Harper that you need to make a special run. Great game everybody

I'm going to bed now lol

Have a great night. I gotta go to work soon. I'm drained, but it was more than worth it.

Its not even about Fox shooting. He had Ok game today there.

He is very sloppy with the ball, with weak D and bad rebounding.

For his deficiencies he need to cover with superb scoring. Ok game wont move the buck

Yeah, darn, he's still gotta be better. He had some miscues that at the time I thought cost us big.

KJ 5pts 1/7 he still needs to step up going forward. I think he will.

I mean, I just had a thought, if anyone remembers Boston's 2007 playoff run. Ray Allen pretty much shit the bed every round and was choking up until the finals, and I think by that point, he couldn't choke anymore and played good. Obviously, I don't want KJ to take that long, but hopefully KJ can pull himself out of this. All anyone now remembers about Ray Allen is him being clutch, but he really was awful and it looked like he was sucumbing to the pressure in Boston's first year together in that finals run.