Victor Wembanyama, Spurs suffocate Blazers in second half to take 3-1 series lead: Takeaways

After returning from a one-game absence, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit to defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 114-93 in Game 4 of their first-round series on Sunday afternoon. San Antonio now leads the series 3-1.Wembanyama, who missed the Spurs’ Game 3 win while recovering from a concussion he sustained in Game 2, scored 27 points with 11 rebounds, three assists, four steals and seven blocked shots. The Blazers scored just 35 second-half points while being held to 40-percent shooting for the game.Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox scored a game-high 28 points with six rebounds and seven assists, and Stephon Castle added 16 points and eight assists for the Spurs. Portland turned the ball over 18 times, leading to 29 Spurs points.Here are some takeaways with Game 5 set for Tuesday in San Antonio:Portland’s offensive second-half outputThe Trail Blazers will head back to Texas on the brink of elimination knowing they squandered two prime opportunities to make the Spurs sweat in this series. On Friday, with Wembanyama sidelined, Portland gave up a 15-point lead. Two days later, Portland again watched a sizable lead it built at home melt away.The Trail Blazers couldn’t hold on against the Spurs, despite leading by 17 points at halftime. Portland’s offense went ice cold in the second half. With Wembanyama controlling the paint, the Trail Blazers tried to keep pace by launching 3s, but Portland converted just 3 of 15 looks from behind the arc in the second half.Scoot Henderson, who averaged 23.3 points per game in the first three games of the series, went scoreless in 27 minutes. Donovan Clingan, Portland’s starting center, wasn’t much more effective, scoring five points on 2-of-10 shooting. The Spurs seemed content to let Clingan jack up 3s. The 7-foot-2 big man went 1 of 6 from distance. Deni Avdija scored a team-high 26 points, but Wembanyama was able to limit his slashing-oriented game in the second half. Wembanyama swatted Avdija with 1:41 remaining for the last of his seven blocks. — Christian Clark, NBA senior writerSpurs make brilliant halftime adjustmentIt’s obvious that Wembanyama had a stellar performance in his first road playoff game, but Spurs coach Mitch Johnson and his staff deserve outsized credit for another dramatic second-half turnaround in Portland.In the first half, Wembanyama had the ball in his hands for much of the time. The Spurs could not create advantages, and the spacing stalled out.So Johnson reconfigured the Spurs’ spacing in the second half to put Wembanyama at the elbow and corner off the ball, often bunched up with a teammate, in an attempt to pull Portland’s centers away from the paint. Suddenly, the Spurs got uncontested dunks at an alarming rate. Portland couldn’t figure out how to pass off help assignments to deal with the downhill speed of San Antonio’s guards and wings, with the Blazers’ centers distracted on the perimeter.When Blazers coach Tiago Splitter tried throwing a curveball and bringing in wing Kris Murray off the bench to guard Wembanyama, the Spurs’ giant left him in the dust multiple times in a short span for open buckets at the rim. The Blazers then tried putting Jrue Holiday on Wembanyama, as they did in the first half, but that gave De’Aaron Fox more room to cook mismatches without worrying about getting trapped.The Spurs were down 19 before Fox hit a layup at the halftime buzzer. The Spurs went up 20 by the beginning of crunch time. It happened because Fox took over this game as Wembanyama turned into a terror off the ball.The Spurs have shown their championship bona fides in Portland with their game-plan management and execution. The deeper this series has gone, the more they have shown they can find Portland’s vulnerabilities and exploit them in a variety of ways. It’s the wide range of answers the Spurs have shown that makes them look like serious title contenders as they move a win away from their first playoff series win in nine years. — Jared Weiss, Spurs writerThe Fox says it’s overWhat do the San Antonio Spurs really need from Fox? It’s a question that’s been hard to define all season, with Wembanyama being Wembanyama and backcourt mates Castle and Dylan Harper being well ahead of schedule. Fox’s leadership has been universally lauded, but it’s been odd at times watching the Spurs play so well without even needing their 27-year-old two-time All-Star and one-time All-NBA point guard to play like it on the court.But there’s always been an answer to that basic question: The Spurs need Fox when they’re in a tight spot in a pivotal playoff game. A game like Game 4, for example, when Castle got in foul trouble and the Spurs had an opportunity to step on an opponent’s neck.Fox answered the call. For the first time in these playoffs, the 2023 NBA Clutch Player of the Year lived up to that billing. He supplied seven straight points on a layup, midrange fadeaway and stepback 3, then dished a rope to Keldon Johnson for another 3 to put San Antonio up 13. The Spurs never looked back.Fox isn’t the same explosive player he was in Sacramento. He sometimes appears reluctant to finish in the lane, at least off one leg. But he’s twice as crafty as he was in his Kings days and has displayed a knack for knowing when to take over and when to hang back on this talented Spurs team. San Antonio will need Game 4 De’Aaron Fox to show up in critical moments as this playoff run continues. —Mike Prada, NBA staff editor

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