The Portland Trail Blazers were in quite a spot after game 1 of their playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs. San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama dominated Portland with 35 points in a 111-98 Spurs win on Sunday. However, between games, no one was talking about how on earth the Trail Blazers were going to defend Wembanyama or how they could get back into the series.
Instead, new owner Tom Dundon stole the show for all the wrong reasons.
It’s been reported that not only are Trail Blazers fans not receiving T-shirts at the sold out Moda Center for playoff games (a standard atmosphere builder by teams), but the team also reportedly had personnel leaving the team hotel early during the play-in in Phoenix to avoid late fees, wouldn’t allow players to overstay checkout for pre-game massages, did not travel two-way players to the San Antonio for the first two games of the Spurs series, taking away complimentary home tickets from staff and is making lowball offers to acting coach Tiago Splitter and other coaching candidates.
None of that is a great way for a new owner to make a good first impression. However, with Dundon apparently scrambling for cash savings wherever he can find them, the late Paul Allen’s arena apartment may get some dust bunnies cleaned from under its couches while Dundon checks for loose pennies.
After a constant drumbeat of news about “El Cheapo” Dundon, the team desperately needed some good news and a good a showing on Wednesday night to avoid going back to Portland in 2-0 hole. They got. Not in a way that anyone wanted, but they got it.
With the Trail Blazers and Spurs battling a tight game, Wembanyama was knocked to the floor by a collision with Jrue Holliday early in the second quarter and hit his head on the quarter. He immediately left the game and was quickly ruled out with a potential concussion. With the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft out of the game, the No. 3 pick in the 2023 draft went to work.
After missing much of the season with injury and not receiving consistent playing time in the first game of the series, Scoot Henderson showed out with a game that should leave Portland fans tingling with anticipation. With no Wembanyama to guard the middle, Henderson took the Spurs defense apart. He would finish with a team-high 31 points in 38 minutes while shooting 5-9 from three-point range. Over the past three years, Portland has developed a reputation for pulling Henderson at the first sign of trouble with their young guard. This time, it was Henderson’s job to rescue Portland from trouble.
He started the 4th quarter on the bench with Portland trailing San Antonio by one point.
By the time he returned two and a half minutes into the quarter, Portland was down by 9 with the Spurs on their way to a 13-0 run to start the quarter. He would not leave the game again until the closing seconds, and not only helped get the Portland offense back on track with a dynamic element that was missing while he was on the bench, but also helped lock the Spurs down at the other end. Over the final eight and a half minutes of the game, the Trail Blazers outscored the Spurs 27-10 and held San Antonio without a field goal over the final 3:30 of the game.
That closing effort included two outstanding sequences that saw the team take 5 seconds off the clock when Holliday passed up a wide open layup to burn time before passing it back to Toumani Camara who was fouled and hit both free-throws for a three point lead, and then having Matysse Thybulle stick a hand in the face of Devin Vassell on a potential game-tying three pointer that clanged off the rim as Portland hung on for a 106-103 win to tie the series at 1-1.
No one knows if or when Wembanyama will return to the series. Concussions are fickle injuries. Unfortunately, it took one of the NBA’s brightest stars being knocked out for the Trail Blazers to have a shot at getting back in the series, but no matter how you get a shot, you have to take it. The Trail Blazers can guarantee three games in Portland by winning one of the next two, and considering how lopsided this series looked in Game 1, any day Portland can keep pushing the series past Game 4 is an accomplishment.
With their own top 2023 draft pick coming into their own and a raucous crowd expected to be on hand Friday for the start of the Portland leg of the series, the team’s young stars and new owners have an opportunity to turn the page on a rough start to the playoffs and show that they can make a positive and lasting impact on Rip City.
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