Surprising Portland Trail Blazers can clinch their NBA Cup group by beating San Antonio Spurs
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Portland Trail Blazers forward Toumani Camara drives against Milwaukee Bucks center Myles Turner in the second half at Fiserv Forum.
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
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PORTLAND – The Portland Trail Blazers were supposed to be the easy target in West Group C of the NBA Cup. But now they can win “The Group of Death” if they knock off the visiting San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night.
Portland are 2-1 in the tough five-team group that includes the Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets. The Nuggets are also 2-1 but the Trail Blazers defeated Denver and control their own destiny.
Beat the Spurs, and Portland advance to the knockout stage.
“It’s an important game for the Cup and for the standings as well,” Trail Blazers coach Tiago Splitter said.
“I think we’re going with a good positive energy, with confidence, with a big chance to go win the game. So I’m happy with where we are. We got to stay two feet on the floor, but it’s going to be a good game for us.
“Just the energy (that we have)... Now we’ve got to keep going.”
The Spurs are 1-1 in NBA Cup play and remain without star big man Victor Wembanyama (calf) and reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle (hip flexor). No. 2 overall draft pick Dylan Harper (calf) is questionable after missing the previous 10 games.
San Antonio lost for the first time in four games without Wembanyama on Sunday when they fell 111-102 to the Phoenix Suns in the opener of a four-game road trip.
The Spurs committed 19 turnovers and only pressured Phoenix into six.
“We didn’t come out with the right approach at the start and they got a few shots that were probably too comfortable,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said.
“They made some plays, obviously, so credit to them, but I thought we could have showed a lot more resistance and discipline at times with the gameplan execution, especially in the third quarter.”
He would have noted these things down on the drawing board before the clash against Portland.
The Trail Blazers, meanwhile, are coming off an impressive 115-103 road victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. They led by as many as 33 points and attributed the win to teamwork, which bodes well for their next game.
“We really stuck together,” Trail Blazers big man Donovan Clingan said. “We played together the whole 48 minutes. We guarded very well, got to the foul line, and we did what we had to do.”
Jerami Grant registered a season-high 35 points and so he would also be a key man for the team when they take on San Antonio.
“We had to be aggressive,” Grant said. “We came out, started out aggressive on both ends of the court. I think we did that.”
Sharpshooter Shaedon Sharpe (calf) is listed as questionable after missing the previous four games.
The Spurs went 3-1 against the Trail Blazers last season. REUTERS
