SAN ANTONIO — Victor Wembanyama had 17 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks, and the San Antonio Spurs never trailed in eliminating the Portland Trail Blazers with a 114-95 victory Tuesday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
De’Aaron Fox had 21 points, Julian Champagnie added 19 and Dylan Harper scored 17 for the Spurs, who led by as many as 28 in winning their third straight game in the best-of-seven series to advance to the second round.
“We didn’t want to go back to Portland,” Champagnie said. “That was kind of the emphasis for the guys on the team. We just didn’t want to fly back to Portland. It’s a four-hour flight. So being up 3-1 and playing at home, it’s a good chance to close it out and not go back. So, that was all of the motivation we needed tonight.”
San Antonio advances to the Western Conference semifinals for the first time since 2017, when it beat the Houston Rockets before losing Kawhi Leonard to an ankle injury and then getting swept by Golden State in the conference finals.
The Spurs will face the winner of the series between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves lead that series 3-2, with Game 6 scheduled for Thursday.
Leonard’s injury and subsequent trade led to a rapid descent in the Spurs’ fortunes. That futility allowed San Antonio to draft Wembanyama, and the 7-foot-4 center from France was stellar in closing out the Blazers.
“It’s extremely difficult,” Portland coach Tiago Splitter said of Wembanyama’s defence. “You’ve got to do a lot of tricks and try to set back screens and seals and spin actions. It’s not easy because he can contest the three and the rim at the same time, basically. He’s going to create a lot of problems for a lot of teams for a long time.”
Portland cut its deficit to 91-82 with eight minutes remaining following an 11-0 run. But the Spurs stuffed the rally, including Wembanyama sending Deni Avdija’s floater off the top of the backboard and into the crowd in the final minutes.
Avdija finished with 22 points, but was 1-for-6 from three-point distance as the Trail Blazers shot 23 per cent from long range.
Portland’s Scoot Henderson scored five points. He was limited to 10 points after a skirmish with Harper in the final minute of the third quarter in San Antonio’s 120-108 win in Game 3 on Saturday.
It was one of several skirmishes during a physical and chippy series between the second-seeded Spurs and No. 7 seed Trail Blazers.
Coach Mitch Johnson said the Spurs could not afford another early double-digit deficit as they had in the third and fourth games. San Antonio responded by charging to a 17-4 start, fueled by a pair of three-pointers and eight points from Champagnie.
“It’s never perfect, of course, but that’s exactly what we said we wanted to do before the game,” Wembanyama said.
Champagnie finished 5-fo-7 from long distance and San Antonio shot 40 per cent from three-point territory.
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