The Portland Trail Blazers are back in the Rose City looking to shake off a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers that ended their unbeaten road run. Now they open a three-game homestand with a tough one: Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
San Antonio arrives at 7-2, sitting half a game ahead of Portland and half a game behind the first-place Lakers. The Spurs have already put together some eye-catching wins, including victories over the Mavericks and Timberwolves.
Wembanyama has been the engine behind it all. He’s averaging 29.1 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.2 steals and a league-best 4.2 blocks in 31.0 minutes per game. His impact shows up everywhere for San Antonio, which ranks fifth in defensive rating at 107.7, fifth in offensive rating at 117.5 and seventh in net rating at +9.8.
The Spurs’ backcourt has also held up better than Portland’s preseason concerns might have suggested. Second-year guard Dylan Harper is putting up 18.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, while Stephon Castle, at 22 years old, is averaging 15.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists. De’Aaron Fox has added 14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists.
Devin Vassell has chipped in 11.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Off the bench, Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie have been the main support pieces.
Johnson, last season’s NBA Sixth Man of the Year and a former 22.0-point scorer, has had a rough shooting start, averaging 8.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 20 percent from three and 45.9 percent overall. Champagnie has stayed dangerous from deep, hitting 42.9 percent of his threes while averaging 9.6 points per game.
Luke Kornet is also part of that key reserve group, grabbing 4.2 rebounds in a little more than 15 minutes a night.
As a team, San Antonio ranks fifth in rebounds per game at 48.2, 26th in assists at 26.7, 18th in steals at 8.0 and second in turnovers at 12.4.
Portland’s numbers look strong in their own right. The Blazers have slipped to 10th in defensive rating at 110.1, but they remain second in offensive efficiency at 120.5 and still own a better net rating than the Spurs at +10.4.
The question now is whether Portland can bring its hot shooting from the Lakers game home with it. The Blazers shot 51.4 percent from the field and 44.2 percent from three against Los Angeles, and their only real stumble came in a 15-point third quarter.
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