{"id":705657,"date":"2026-04-08T18:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/705657\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:02:14","slug":"portland-trail-blazers-vs-san-antonio-spurs-preview-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/705657\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland Trail Blazers vs. San Antonio Spurs Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Portland Trail Blazers travel to The Alamo City for a late-season showdown with the San Antonio Spurs tonight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For the third time this season, the Blazers will face a Wembanyama-less Spurs squad as the big man sits with a rib injury. This time, Stephon Castle will also be out. The Blazers defeated the Spurs in their last matchup, 115-110.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With just three games left to play in the regular season, Portland is trying to overtake the Los Angeles Clippers for the Western Conference\u2019s 8th seed. Depending on how the dominoes fall, this game could preview a future playoff series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Portland Trail Blazers (40-39) at San Antonio Spurs Wed. April 8 &#8211; 6:30pm Pacific<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">How to stream: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Trail Blazers Injuries: Jerami Grant, Damian Lillard (Out); Shaedon Sharpe, Vit Krejci (Doubtful).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Spurs injuries: Stephon Castle, David Jones Garcia, Emanuel Miller, Victor Wembanyama (Out).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Kit: The Blazers will take the floor in their black <a href=\"https:\/\/lockervision.nba.com\/team\/portland-trail-blazers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Icon Edition<\/a> jerseys. San Antonio will wear its gray Statement Edition unis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/blazers\/leaders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trail Blazers:<\/a> Points, Avdija (24 per game). Rebounds, Clingan (11.6). Assists, Avdija (6.7). Steals, Thybulle (2). Blocks, Clingan (1.7).<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/spurs\/leaders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spurs:<\/a> Points, Wembanyama (24.8 per game). Rebounds, Wembanyama (11.5). Assists, Castle (7.4). Steals, Fox (1.2). Blocks, Wembanyama (3.1).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?CF=MIN*GE*15&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RATING\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trail Blazers:<\/a> Offensive rating: 113.1 (21st place) Defensive rating: 113.7 (13th place)<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?CF=MIN*GE*15&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RATING\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spurs:<\/a>  Offensive rating: 118.6 (4th place) Defensive rating: 110.2 (3rd place)<br \/>Storylines<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">His return would be a boon to the Blazers\u2019 playoff chances. He won the starting shooting guard job in training camp and has been a reliable scorer all season, averaging a career-high 21.4 points per game, which ranks second on the team. He\u2019s also averaging 4.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.4 steals in 48 games, which includes 42 starts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Harper\u2019s Time to Shine?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">Harper averaged 17 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists. He\u2019s been playing some excellent basketball lately, shooting the ball effectively, scoring around the rim, and playing tough defense on the perimeter. He\u2019ll have his work cut out for him against tough perimeter defenders like Toumani Camara and Jrue Holiday, but a big game in the starting five could be exactly what Harper needs to hit the ground running into the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">What will you be looking for tonight?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portland Trail Blazers travel to The Alamo City for a late-season showdown with the San Antonio Spurs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,56618,37790,6,969,474,4075,4074,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-705657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers-game-previews","10":"tag-blazers-gameday-coverage","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","14":"tag-sanantonio","15":"tag-sanantoniospurs","16":"tag-spurs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116370403832511011","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}