{"id":712209,"date":"2026-04-17T05:45:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712209\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:45:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:45:01","slug":"spurs-have-the-perfect-answer-to-deni-avdija-to-avoid-a-first-round-upset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712209\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs have the perfect answer to Deni Avdija to avoid a first-round upset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">The San Antonio Spurs now <a href=\"https:\/\/airalamo.com\/spurs-draw-perfect-first-round-victim-for-the-playoff-experience-they-need\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">know exactly who they will be playing<\/a> in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Portland Trail Blazers surprised the NBA world when they upset the Phoenix Suns in the play-in tournament.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">That could give the Spurs a break considering they struggled against the Suns this season. On the other hand, San Antonio is 2-1 during the regular season against Portland.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"66\">In fact, they appear to have the perfect recipe to stop their best player. Deni Avdija ranks among the NBA&#8217;s best slashers, but that is unlikely to work nearly as well against San Antonio.\n<\/p>\n<p>Spurs have the perfect answer to Deni Avdija<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">The Spurs are incredibly stingy in that regard, giving up the seventh-fewest points in the paint this season. Victor Wembanyama is the obvious reason, with him serving as the ultimate rim deterrent given his length and size.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">However, he isn&#8217;t the only player that could cut off Avdija&#8217;s drives to the basket. Stephon Castle will likely be tasked with guarding Portland&#8217;s best player and has the tools to keep Avdija in front of him.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">Castle&#8217;s terrific at navigating screens, making it tougher for players to gain separation. If Portland&#8217;s best player can&#8217;t get free on the perimeter, then it makes it even harder for him to get into the paint.\n<\/p>\n<p>San Antonio matches up perfectly against the Blazers <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">That gives San Antonio two layers of terrific defense. Even when Wembanyama is out of the game, Luke Kornet is a terrific rim protector in his own right. The Silver and Black don&#8217;t rank third in defense for nothing.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">They have a slew of good defenders on the perimeter to throw at Avdija and two centers who can put a lid on the rim. Considering that the Blazers were 21st in offensive rating this season, they may not be able to keep up scoring-wise if Avdija struggles.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">To their credit, Portland ranks 12th in defensive rating. Therefore, they can muck things up, but likely not enough to stop San Antonio&#8217;s elite offense. Spurs in five.\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow airalamo.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=airalamo.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Antonio Spurs now know exactly who they will be playing in the first round of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-712209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-portland","12":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","13":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","14":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116418464280676508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712209","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=712209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}