Un de moins
APT. - Fortuna aka Lady Luck is a mischievous sage with a twisted sense of humor. Literally less than two hours after I finished writing and posting Un de fait (the opening episode in this reboot season of the Black & Silver blog series), a post in which I wrote about the epochal luck we as Spurs fans had on May 16th, 2023 in winning the NBA Draft Lottery and the rights to draft Victor Wembanyama, and less time than that after receiving his first career Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy, The Alien was injured and knocked out of Game 2 of our Western Conference First Round series against the Portland Trail Blazers Tuesday night at the Frost Bank Center on a freak play with 8:57 left in the second quarter. Drew Holiday was guarding Vic by getting up underneath him (a common tactic by smaller players when checking the 7’4” third-year superstar) and when Wemby changed direction by spinning to separate from the two-time NBA Champion, Holiday “pulled the chair” on him causing our MVP candidate to spill dangerously to the ground unprotected and slam his face violently against the hardwood. Wemby seemed knocked at cold for a couple of seconds and then woozy as he attempted to sit up. With every heart in every throat of every Spurs fan everywhere, Wemby eventually jumped up and started jogging directly to the locker room but it was pretty clear that our best player had just suffered a concussion and would not be returning to this game. It was a dumbest of luck freak occurrence. Later in the game, it was confirmed that the injury had in fact ended the Defensive Player of the Year’s second career playoff outing after 12 minutes of action and five points, four rebounds, one assist, and one block. It probably goes without saying but this untoward anomaly completely shifted the trajectory of the game, possibly the series. The irony of this stroke of terrible, calamitous misfortune happening shortly after I published a post reliving the singular luckiest moment Spurs fans have experienced in the past 29 years is not lost on me. Atrox Fortuna, you wicked devil you.
The rest of the team did their best to shake the natural reaction of feeling shell-shocked by losing our leader in such a freakish manner. We played hard and gave tremendous effort for the game’s remaining 33 minutes and with 8:33 left in the fourth quarter (having come out like gangbusters to start the final period), we looked poised to put the game to bed and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. For whatever reason, though, from that point on we seemed to forget that (even without Vic), we’re the better team and started playing like we were a “one, two, three…Cancún” 39 win play in team. We gave nine points back over the course of the next 1:28 and once the Blazers had pulled within five, we were in a dogfight the rest of the night. Overall in Game 2, we were sloppy, careless in possession of the basketball, out of position for defensive rebounds, unfocused at the free throw line (going 20-28 from the charity stripe) and ultimately, we gave away a game we easily could have and should have won, falling to Portland 106-103. Series tied 1-1.
Our other 2025-26 NBA All-Star, De’Aaron Fox (a player who we just gave a max extension to this summer and consequently are paying to be our leader and take over games when Wemby is unavailable) was (save for a brief stretch early in the third quarter when he went on a personal 6-0 run) particularly ineffective, getting swallowed up by Tumauni Kamara on one end of the court and outplayed by Scoot Henderson on the other. With a golden opportunity to still get a W and put a stranglehold on the series down the stretch of the fourth quarter, to be frank, Swipa seemed annoyingly nonchalant about the whole ordeal. While this isn’t the first time this season that I have noticed a frustrating lack of intensity and focus in the former Clutch Player of the Year’s “clutch time” performance, he did play a strong game on Sunday in Game 1 so I will withhold further judgement for now (given the circumstances) and give him the benefit of the doubt with the expectation that he will bounce back in a major way for Game 3 and show up as the player we are paying him and critically need him to be. If Wemby is unable to clear concussion protocols and play in Game 3 in Portland, we need 30 and 10 (assists) tonight from De’Aaron on high efficiency and with low turnovers and I have confidence that he’s going to deliver.
The player of the game on Tuesday was Luke Kornet. The “vanilla” half of French Vanilla aka the “white” half of White Castle had 10 points (4-5 from the floor, 2-3 from the stripe), nine rebounds, and two assists and was a +11 in 28 minutes in Game 2. (De’Aaron was a -14 in 34 minutes, by the way.) As he has done all season long, Luke held it down in the middle on Tuesday evening in Wemby’s absence at a level one would expect from a quality starting big man. With his clever finishing around the rim and his gritty rim protection this season, Kornet was easily one of the best free agent signings in the entire NBA last summer. A proven winner and a 2023-24 NBA Champion with the Boston Celtics, Luke is one of the biggest reasons that we won 28 games more this year than we did last year when we did not have a quality back up center and our opponents regularly had a field day getting to the rim in the non-Victor minutes. From the outside looking in, he also appears to be a revered teammate that brings a lot of conviviality and humor to this tight-knit group inside the locker room and on the court. One of my favorite moments of the season was when Kornet had a game-saving block at the buzzer on the road in Orlando against the Magic on December 3rd and then spontaneously celebrated by doing the iconic Vince Carter pose from the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk contest.
As of the time of completing this post, Victor Wembanyama’s status for Game 3 tonight is still questionable. He is more than 60 hours into the process of working through his concussion protocol and the good news is that it was confirmed yesterday that he did travel with the team from San Antonio to Portland in preparation for Game 3. Like countless Spurs fans around the globe, I’ve been waiting with bated breath and fingers crossed constantly refreshing my news and social media feeds hoping against hope that I will receive the update I so desperately want to hear: there will be an encounter of the third kind at the Moda Center in Portland, OR this evening. Please, Fortuna, Feronia, Minerva, Salus, and Fides, holiest of holy basketball gods and goddesses, impart thy divine healing on the savior and allow us, his flock, to go forth with the relief that this wicked desultory accident was just a minor blip and not a major setback 🙏 Regardless of whether Wemby is able to clear protocols and suit up tonight or not, the #BlackAndSilver have to embrace playing in the most hostile environment most of our young core will have ever experienced to date and come out with the type of focus and force (which we have displayed consistently enough all year to win 62 games) to snatch our home court advantage in this series immediately back. Even without Vic, I believe we are still better than these young and scrappy Trail Blazers and that being the case, we should have the capability to make the necessary tactical adjustments as well as bring the energy and desire necessary to outwork our opponent and grab a victory this evening in the PNW. With Vic? We are the better team by an astronomical amount. Should he successfully clear the concussion protocol and play, expect Game 3 to be another otherworldly dominant une victoire écrasante. We got the guillotine, you better run.
#GoSpursGo
Featured & Headline Image Source: San Antonio Express-News
