Game Thread Playoffs Round 1, Game 3: Spurs @ Blazers (1-1) (Fri 04/24/2026) [9:30 CDT]

[tearsofmorningdew]

This guy... Spurs wouldn't give him a call and he took the hint...

View attachment 1779

blazers trash cans in the foreground is a nice touch. barely better than DDR

 

[Mugen]

LMA been playing both sides for a while now tbh

 

[Arguendo]

While I agree there’s no reason to hold Wemby out or restrict his minutes if he clears protocol, I would be far from heartbroken if they sit him for a game just to be safe.

You don’t mess around with neurological injuries. A concussion is essentially a “shadow” injury. It can’t be directly visualized on imaging except in severe cases (not this one), and instead is diagnosed and managed through clinical assessment. So there's no REAL way here to 100% ensure he's actually back at baseline. The team medical staff is making a very educated guess.

Should he get the chair pulled again or whatever (since the League obviously isn't concerned with protecting him from these types of plays at this point), a second head injury in such a short span could be catastrophic. With a second head injury that close together, the concern isn’t just another concussion and a resetting of the protocol. It’s increased brain vulnerability that could lead to something like increased intracranial pressure and/or worse. That’s why Spurs being extremely conservative, even if he barely clears protocol, wouldn't bother me

Wholly agree on the first part, but I think we can be 100% certain that the medical staff is highly biased toward caution, they have no doubt been expressly told to be extremely conservative. They are not neutral, they will absolutely side with "be safe" in their subjective determination of clinical findings. So, if he cleared, its because that subjective judgment overcame the burden of being (highly) biased towards playing it safe with the future of a 22y/o.

The league should not be concerned with protecting Wemby from him putting himself in reckless positions and allowing a veteran to pull an exceptionally come tactic. Victor needs to not be reckless, to not try to spin move around a agile 6'3" guy and just fucking shoot over him. That was the problem here. The league does far too much meddling with this shit and its making the on-court product worse every season. For players, play smarter, play in control. For the league, let people fucking play D, call a fucking travel, stop redefining "steps" and that bullshit. Basketball had universal rules, the NBA keeps implementing terrible new rules and definitions that are turning real basketball into streetball bullshit on O with no meaningful contact on D. It sounds like you want the league to implement a "Defenders are not allowed to suddenly pull away from an Offensive player" rule. That'd be great, we should prolly have the defenders yell out their intentions every second so nothing like this is "allowed" to happen again. Except, I'd bet you wouldn't want that rule imposed on the Spurs.

A plane crash could be catastrophic. The NBA should stop air travel. A car wreck can be catastrophic, the NBA should cease all motor vehicle transport. Really, what the league needs is a bubble.

 

[Knoxxx]

You forgot to finish with End Rant.

I expect Wemby to play as usual and think the real determinant is our good fortune in having 2 days off between games.

 

[spurs2112]

a minutes restriction makes no sense. it's not like he's gassed or something. he's either cleared to play or he isn't. He goes 36 min or 0

Add I agree with your statement. But we are talking about the Spurs here and thats what I based my statement off of.

 

[Seventyniner]

This guy... Spurs wouldn't give him a call and he took the hint...

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tbh

 

[Exstatic]

Nowhere did I say I was a star player. All I was giving is my perspective as I tended to play through injuries all the time. Didn't give a shit about the consequences at the time (I'd maybe think about it a bit more these days, but ultimately, I think I'd still do the same now even though I know it's not good to do so - still got lingering injury to my knee). Personally, if I wasn't dizzy or feeling disoriented, I'd come back the same game if taking the same knock as Victor. I grew up in the Kobe, TD, Manu, D-Wade era, those guys didn't take games off unless they were forced to. I didn't grown up in the Kawhi era (can't think of another example as I didn't want to use his name due to it pissing me and probably other people off).

Manu constantly missed games. Of all the star players of his era, he probably played the fewest games and minutes.

 

[Ice009]

Manu constantly missed games. Of all the star players of his era, he probably played the fewest games and minutes.

Yeah, but he would have played a lot of those. He was forced to sit. The Spurs wouldn't let him play.

 

[dn0774]

Yeah, but he would have played a lot of those. He was forced to sit. The Spurs wouldn't let him play.

The dude literally gave his left nut for the franchise. Someone had to advocate for Manu's well being and it sure as fuck wasn't going to be Manu lol.

 

[Spurs Homer]

First of all, i think too much has been made of this and wemby is fine…

However, im almost sure the spurs will be overly cautious and sit him -even though he is fine and it sucks that he cannot just suck it up and play both road playoff games- but we are where we are….

Which leaves us here; if you absolutely must prove to your accountants that you are really concerned about the future $$ investment future of the franchise- just bring him off the bench and limit wembys minutes to;

The last 6 minutes of the 1st qtr
The last 5 minutes of the second qtr
The last 4 minutes of the 3rd qtr and continuing thru the first 4 minutes of the 4th..

Rest him from the 8 minute mark of the 4th

And finally insert him for the last 4 minutes of the 4th qtr/game

That gives you 23ish minutes max and a fresh finish to the game and the spurs should win…

And the best part is that those 23 minutes will have wemby fresh for the early sunday game….
Spurs come home at worst 2-2

But these fuckin pussies are sure to rest him friday night and try to baby him on sunday…and might get punished by the basketball gods for their cowardly actions imo.

 

[RC_Drunkford]

blazers trash cans in the foreground is a nice touch. barely better than DDR

probably get emptied once a month to save more money

 

[Goliath]

My understanding is he gets cleared and there is no need for any restrictions or he doesn’t get cleared and he isn’t playing even with restrictions. It’s not like his calf strain earlier in the year where extra days for healing and minute restrictions will come into play

 

[Ice009]

The dude literally gave his left nut for the franchise. Someone had to advocate for Manu's well being and it sure as fuck wasn't going to be Manu lol.

Is that actually true? I always wondered if that was a rumour or not. That is one thing I don't think I could have played with (a nut injury). Manu is definitely tougher than me. Absolute warrior. That pain would have been insane.

 

[dn0774]

Even more than Wemby, the Spurs just need to play like the team that won 62 games. Don't get pulled into a dumb rock fight with the Blazers, don't get cute and play gimmicky basketball (like changing the offensive game plan in the 4th quarter when up 14). Playoffs are about adjustments, too...let's see what Mitch and his staff can do.

 

[spurs10]

probably get emptied once a month to save more money

I thought him going with paper towels instead of real towels was a bridge too far- one roll per team. NO SHOWERS FOR ANYONE!

 

[dn0774]

Is that actually true? I always wondered if that was a rumour or not. That is one thing I don't think I could have played with (a nut injury). Manu is definitely tougher than me. Absolute warrior. That pain would have been insane.

It was just a freak play/accident. He wasn't injured going into the game or anything (to my knowledge).

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

Is that actually true? I always wondered if that was a rumour or not. That is one thing I don't think I could have played with (a nut injury). Manu is definitely tougher than me. Absolute warrior. That pain would have been insane.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/14889135/manu-ginobili-san-antonio-spurs-says-doctors-cleared-play-recovering-testicular-surgery

 

[Trifecta]

Prediction: Spurs win by 6. Fox bounces back especially in crunch time. Wemby looks sharp and plays solid D but does meander over to the Blazers' bench late in the third Q after Tiago calls a TO.

Need a Champ and KJ sighting as well tonight!

 

[Ice009]

It was just a freak play/accident. He wasn't injured going into the game or anything (to my knowledge).

No, it happened during the game, but I think Manu said the pain wasn't going away when he went down.

 

[Corso]

That means getting physical on Wemby if he plays… And Spurs should double-down. Castle should keep attacking the rim, especially if Scoot is guarding. Make him play both sides. Castle/Harper/CB should always lock on Scoot.

If Wemby plays, Spurs by 10pts! Let’s gooooo!!!!

Match the physicalilty?
Double it.

 

[Ice009]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/14889135/manu-ginobili-san-antonio-spurs-says-doctors-cleared-play-recovering-testicular-surgery

Some good stuff in this article:

Ginobili vowed that once he returns, he will play with the same reckless abandon that has cemented his reputation around the league for more than 14 seasons.

"I'm not hesitating, I'm not in doubt, I'm not afraid," he said.

That's the way, that's why Manu is/was the best. You'd think you'd take it cautious after something like that, but that didn't deter Manu. This is what I expect of everyone, but Manu may have spoiled us a bit. It's why I was angry with Kawhi sitting out that whole reason and/or just sitting out in general.

Ginobili suffered the testicular injury with 2:26 left to play in a Feb. 3 win over the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Spurs declared him out for at least a month after he underwent surgery. He suffered the injury when Ryan Anderson's right knee caught him squarely in the groin area just as he turned toward Anderson.

Ginobili collapsed to the floor and fell back down again multiple times as team trainers tried to assist him to the locker room.

"Usually when that happens, it hurts for a little bit. And then after three minutes, you're back at it," Ginobili said. "It was three minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, and I was still in the same level of pain. So when we got to the clinic, once we did an MRI, [the doctors said], 'We need the surgery, and it's got to be right now.' When they told me it was going to take a month or a month and a half, unbelievable. It was a very unfortunate situation. It was a perfect storm for this type of thing."

Yeah, darn, that would suck. This is what I posted above. I remember him saying the pain wasn't going away. Imagine feeling that for hours after. Manu's a warrior.

Another crazy thing I didn't know/remember (thanks to the article), he said he was contemplating retirement before that season. I would have thought for sure he wouldn't have considered retiring with LMA and those guys on board.

 

[Corso]

BALA GAMEDAY BALA!

 

[Exstatic]

Yeah, but he would have played a lot of those. He was forced to sit. The Spurs wouldn't let him play.

He was just injured a lot. If it was just “The Spurs”, then Tim and Tony would have missed a similar amount of games.

 

[BatManu20]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2047771171136196949

 

[First Try]

I highly recommend people listen to the latest Kevin O’Connor Show, even if you’re not a fan of his takes, because he has a host who talks about a recent trend discussed by Dr. Chris Nowinski. There is a correlation between players returning from a concussion and a subsequent lower body injury. They didn’t go into detail, but I would guess since it’s the region farthest from the brain, the coordination there suffers. Hopefully it’s not directly correlated and just a coincidence, but it’s one of the reasons why limited minutes would be ideal if he suits up tonight. I’m not a huge fan of people saying if he’s cleared, that means he’s 100%.