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As it was the theme for most of the Spurs’ and Trail Blazers’ first-round series, the final matchup was a game of two halves. San Antonio cruised to a huge lead before the break in what seemed destined to be a blowout, only to almost allow a surprising comeback. In the end, the play of De’Aaron Fox on offense late was enough to hold off Portland and close the series for the Silver and Black with a 114-95 win in Game 5.
It was hard to predict a somewhat close game, considering how prepared the Spurs looked early. One of the big question marks heading into Game 5 was whether Tiago Splitter would continue to start Donovan Clingan or go with the more effective Robert Williams III. Splitter stuck with Clingan, and Mitch Johnson’s guys made him pay for it by hitting jumpers over the paint-bound big man. It helped that the defense was clicking and allowed the home team to push the pace and attack before the Portland defense was settled, but even in the half-court, the Spurs targeted him on guard-to-guard screens to get him off Castle or with hand-offs that resulted in open looks. It wasn’t just Clingan’s fault that San Antonio came out of the gates roaring and built up a significant lead, as the Trail Blazers’ offense bricked threes and seemed to have no way of putting up points consistently. After one, the lead was 12.
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The issues continued for Portland on the offensive end in the second, even as Splitter tried to get more offensive talent on the floor after doubling down on defense with Sidy Cissoko minutes earlier. The only guy wearing red that could get buckets consistently was Deni Avdija until turnovers from the Spurs gave the visitors some hope. Soon after the sloppy stretch occurred, however, there was foreshadowing of what would happen late in the game, as De’Aaron Fox took control of the offense away from Castle and settled the troops, creating good shots. There were some mistakes to close the second quarter, as San Antonio often overdribbled in hopes of getting to the rim instead of taking jumpers when open and fouled Avdija despite being incredibly disciplined earlier, but in…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/spurs-hold-beat-trail-blazers-054828558.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-29 05:48:00
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