Victor Wembanyama was listed as questionable. He played like anything but for the San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs’ 7-foot-4 Defensive Player of the Year returned from a concussion to post 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 blocks as San Antonio overcame a 17-point halftime deficit to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 114-93 on Monday and take a 3-1 series lead. De’Aaron Fox added 28 points in a second-half performance that turned what looked like a Portland statement game into a Spurs victory. Game 5 returns to San Antonio on Wednesday.
Wembanyama’s availability was confirmed roughly an hour before tip-off after he cleared the league’s concussion protocol—the result of an injury sustained in the first half of San Antonio’s Game 2 loss. He missed Game 3, the Spurs won anyway, and on Monday he made his presence felt immediately—drawing gasps from the Moda Center crowd with an emphatic dunk just under ten minutes into the first half.
Portland’s First Half, San Antonio’s Second
The Trail Blazers came out of the gates flying. An 18-3 run pushed Portland ahead 45-28 in the first half, fueled by a Robert Williams III dunk, back-to-back three-pointers from Jerami Grant and Scoot Henderson, and a fadeaway jumper from Deni Avdija to cap the surge. The Blazers led by as many as 19 and went into the break ahead 58-41. At that point, a Portland win looked entirely plausible.
Then the second half started.
The Spurs opened with a 13-0 run. Just like that, the 17-point deficit was down to four. Devin Vassell’s jumper with 4:38 remaining in the third tied it at 62, then gave San Antonio the lead. By the time the fourth quarter arrived, it was 74-74 and an entirely different game.
Fox and Keldon Johnson hit back-to-back three-pointers early in the fourth to push the Spurs ahead 90-77 with 7:14 left. Johnson’s dunk with 4:31 remaining made it 101-81—and that was that.
Wembanyama’s Spurs Statement
There is a version of this game where Wembanyama’s return is a cautious one—limited minutes, conservative usage, a gradual ease back into the series. That is not what happened. Wembanyama played through the game’s critical stretches, finishing with a dominant across-the-board statline that served as a reminder of what Portland had been dealing with before the concussion removed him from the equation.
Avdija led the Blazers with 26 points and was their best player for most of the night. Stephon Castle—who had scored 33 in Game 3—appeared to injure his left hand in the first half but returned. A tense moment arrived with 2:13 left when Avdija and Castle exchanged shoves, earning offsetting technical fouls. Neither changed the outcome.
What It Means
San Antonio leads 3-1 with Game 5 at home. The Spurs won Game 3 without their best player, and they won Game 4 with him back—overcoming a 17-point hole in the process. Portland fought hard but ultimately could not sustain what they built in the first half.
Wembanyama is healthy, San Antonio has the lead, and Wednesday’s game is at home.
The Blazers are running out of time.
