It’s time for Basketball: Spurs vs Trail Blazers, again

Welcome to the Game Thread. Veterans of the Game Thread know how we do things around here, but for all you newbies we have a few rules. Our community guidelines apply and basically say be cool, no personal attacks, don’t troll and don’t swear too much.

They say that sequels are never as good as the original, but I don’t know if that’s always true. Tonight the Portland Trail Blazers are back in the AT&T Center two days after an embarrassing blowout, and will it be like Terminator II where the main bad guy comes back as a hero, or like the Empire Strikes Back, where we finally find out about the main character’s true parentage? OK, it’s not a perfect analogy, but tonight is one of the most important games of the season for the young Spurs squad.

The Spurs have a two game lead on the Lakers with 5 games left, making their magic number for the play-in three. Any combination of wins by the Spurs or Lakers losses means that the Spurs are in 10th and will play a play-in game. ESPN is giving Los Angeles only an 11% chance of making the play-in as of Sunday morning, and it could be even less now. If the Spurs can win tonight, their magic number to make the play-in will be down to two games, and they could lock it up as soon as Tuesday night with a win against Denver. But counting chickens isn’t always wise when you only have eggs, so the Spurs want to take down the shorthanded and obviously tanking Blazers tonight, and the first step would be a more focused start than Friday where they let Drew Eubanks lead Portland to the first 10 points of the game. Portland is a bad team, but any team in the NBA can beat you if you don’t play hard, and with both Dejounte Murray and Jakob Poeltl tonight out, the Spurs will need good performances from whoever starts in their places. I expect that Pop will have the team motivated tonight and motivation will not be a problem tonight, but we won’t know for sure until the game is played. Tune in tonight to see the Spurs take care of business.

Game Prediction:

Devontae Cacok will score his first double double of his career tonight.

They say playoffs they will come and they will go
That’s always what everybody is sayin’
When the rain washes you clean you’ll know
Players also just love to be in the play-in

One final word:

Go Spurs GOOOOOO!!

San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers
April 3, 2022 | 6:00 PM CT
Streaming: NBA League Pass
TV: Bally Sports SW

Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments, but it is not against site policy to exchange email addresses, for instance.