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Nov 21, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Portland Path Blazers middle Donovan Clingan (23) rebounds the ball towards the Golden State Warriors throughout the second quarter at Chase Middle. Obligatory Credit score: Robert Edwards-Imagn Pictures The Portland Path Blazers had been speculated to be the simple goal in West Group C of the NBA Cup.
However now they will win “The Group of Demise” in the event that they knock off the visiting San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night time.
Portland is 2-1 within the robust five-team group that features the Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets. The Nuggets are additionally 2-1 however the Path Blazers defeated Denver and management their very own future.
Beat the Spurs, and Portland advances to the knockout stage.
“It is an necessary sport for the Cup and for the standings as nicely,” Path Blazers coach Tiago Splitter instructed reporters. “I believe we’re going with a superb constructive power, with confidence, with a giant probability to go win the sport. So I am proud of the place we’re. We received to remain two ft on the ground, however it may be a superb sport for us.”
The Spurs are 1-1 in NBA Cup play and stay with out star large man Victor Wembanyama (calf) and reigning NBA Rookie of the 12 months Stephon Fortress (hip flexor). No. 2 general draft choose Dylan Harper (calf) is questionable after lacking the earlier 10 video games.
San Antonio misplaced for the primary time in 4 video games with out Wembanyama on Sunday when it fell 111-102 to the Phoenix Suns within the opener of a four-game highway journey.
The Spurs dedicated 19 turnovers and solely pressured Phoenix into six.
“We did not come out with the fitting strategy initially and so they received just a few photographs that had been in all probability too comfy,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson mentioned. “They made some performs, clearly, so credit score to them, however I assumed we may have confirmed much more resistance and self-discipline at occasions with the gameplan execution, particularly within the third quarter.”
De’Aaron Fox scored 26 factors for San Antonio, which was outscored by 16 factors within the second half.
“We had been guarding loads higher,” Fox mentioned after topping 20 factors for the fifth straight sport. “The second-chance factors weren’t hurting us an excessive amount of at that time, however you possibly can’t hold your hat on that. They usually continued to do what they did and so they got here out with the win.”
Julian Champagnie had 10 factors and 12 rebounds for his first double-double of the season however made simply 3 of 14 photographs.
Portland is coming off a formidable 115-103 highway victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. The Path Blazers led by as many as 33 factors.
“We actually caught collectively,” Path Blazers large man Donovan Clingan mentioned. “We performed collectively the entire 48 minutes. We guarded very nicely, received to the foul line, and we did what we needed to do.”
Jerami Grant registered a season-high 35 factors. He repeatedly received to the road and made 16 of 19 free throws.
“We needed to be aggressive,” Grant mentioned. “We got here out, began out aggressive on each ends of the courtroom. I believe we did that.”
Deni Avdija added 22 factors and Clingan recorded 14 factors and 11 rebounds.
“Quite a lot of guys performed nicely in quite a lot of elements of the sport,” Splitter mentioned. “Simply the power, it was nice from the start to the top. Now we have got to maintain going.”
Sharpshooter Shaedon Sharpe (calf) is listed as questionable after lacking the earlier 4 video games.
The Spurs went 3-1 towards the Path Blazers final season.
–Subject Degree Media
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