The San Antonio Spurs are likely to be without star center Victor Wembanyama as they look to stay in the hunt for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs when they host the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday in a game with postseason implications on both sides.
The Spurs (60-19) are guaranteed to finish no worse than second place in the Western Conference but are still chasing Oklahoma City for the best record in both the conference and the league, 2.5 games back with three and four regular-season games left, respectively.
San Antonio has captured 12 of its past 13 games, including a 115-102 home victory over Philadelphia on Monday. Stephon Castle produced his fifth career triple-double with 19 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds.
“(Monday) was a classic Steph Castle game in the sense that his competitiveness at times probably won out versus some basketball cerebral decision-making,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “And I will never, almost never, penalize him for that.”
Wembanyama and Dylan Harper each added 17 points, De’Aaron Fox and Keldon Johnson hit for 13 points apiece and Luke Kornet scored 10.
Wembanyama had all of his points in the first half. He did not return to the floor in the second half after he sustained a left rib contusion in a second-quarter collision with the 76ers’ Paul George.
He’s listed as doubtful to play vs. Portland, but ESPN reported Tuesday that the Spurs are confident he’ll be able to play again during the regular season. Johnson felt it was a positive that he returned to the court for a few more minutes after sustaining the injury before leaving the game for good.
The win was San Antonio’s 60th of the season, marking the eighth time in its history — and the first since the 2016-17 season — that the team has reached that win total.
“(Sixty wins) was definitely a goal of ours, especially late in the season, so to be able to accomplish that before the end of the regular season is definitely a big deal,” Castle said. “But I think we’ve got our eyes set on bigger goals right now.”
Wembanyama played 15:40 in the first half, which counts as an official game for the purpose of postseason award consideration (under the “near miss” exemption). The MVP candidate must play at least 20 minutes in one of the Spurs’ final three games to qualify for awards.
The surging Trail Blazers (40-39) travel to the Alamo City after a 137-132 overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets on Monday. The setback snapped Portland’s three-game winning streak and dropped it into ninth place in the West as it chases the Los Angeles Clippers for eighth to avoid needing to win two play-in games.
The Trail Blazers canned a franchise record 25 3-pointers and led by 16 points with 8:34 to play. But they squandered that margin in the end game, needing a jumper by Deni Avdija to force overtime and then succumbing in the extra period.
“It is a learning experience,” acting Blazers coach Tiago Splitter said of the loss. “We’re going to have those games coming up. … We’ve got to finish those games. This is what you learn from. We just got schooled by one of the best teams in the NBA.”
Toumani Camara hit eight of those 3-pointers to account for the majority of his 30 points in the loss. Avdija added 26 points, Jrue Holiday racked up 19 and 11 assists, Donovan Clingan had 18 points and 12 rebounds, Scoot Henderson also tallied 18 points and Matisse Thybulle had 14 off the bench for the Trail Blazers.
Portland has won eight of its past 11 games to clinch a spot in the postseason. The teams have split their two meetings so far this year, each winning a road game.
