The San Antonio Spurs will take on the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the NBA playoffs, and the Blazers have an overlooked weapon.
The San Antonio Spurs are heavy favorites heading into their first-round matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers. Both teams ended the season red-hot, although the Spurs dominated all year long, finishing 2-1 against the Blazers despite being without Victor Wembanyama in all three games.
While the Spurs are expected to make short work of Portland, both teams are inexperienced and led by young All-Stars, so fans can expect a battle even if the series is over in only four or five games.
However, with Wembanyama having not seen Portland yet this season and the Blazers' physicality always serving as a looming threat, not everyone thinks it will be a dominant Spurs' win.
Why Spurs Might Struggle Against Portland
This season, the NBA saw an influx of defenses picking up full-court. While Stephon Castle has thrived as a 94-foot defender, it was actually the Blazers who ushered in the newer, more intense style.
Add in the referees swallowing their whistles during the playoffs, and Portland should be poised for some degree of success.
"Physicality sometimes is allowed," summed up Stephen A. Smith on ESPN, regarding the officiating in the postseason. "Maybe not consistently, but best believe far more often than not, the referees are going to let you play. If they're going to let you play and Portland is able to incorporate some level of physicality against Wembanyama, who the hell knows what's going to happen?"
Wembanyama has struggled this season against physical defenders like Julius Randle and Dillon Brooks, although against taller players like Rudy Gobert, Mitchell Robinson, and Bam Adebayo, he's found success.
Donovan Clingan might be able to push him around, but in space, give Wemby the edge.
"The one thing that we still have to question about Wembanyama is that he is still relatively thin," he added. "We know this. So when they're getting physical with you, are you going to be able to withstand all of that? Particularly if the referees allow it. Now, they may not because he's a superstar in this league, and you want to protect the asset. We understand that. So it's not going to be consistent. But there are going to be games where they're going to let you play, and they're not going to call it as tightly as they would some other games."
"The Portland Trail Blazers are built in a fashion where they don't mind being in attack mode," finished Smith. "They don't mind coming at you. They don't mind challenging you with their physicality because they believe that they have the physicality to match up against anybody in the NBA. That's something they stand on. That's going to make this San Antonio Spurs series interesting, seeing how Wemby is able to deal with that."
After all that, Smith admitted that he still thinks the Spurs are heavy favorites in the series, but he isn't quite willing to write off the Trail Blazers just yet.