A Victor Wembanyama injury is not how the Portland Trail Blazers wanted to get a leg-up against the San Antonio Spurs in this series. That's what happened on Tuesday night though, as the Spurs' superstar left the game in the first half after a brutal fall, immediately entering concussion protocol after his face and head hit the court pretty hard and being officially diagnosed with a concussion after the game concluded.
If he is forced to miss time (which seems likely, but is not a sure thing), the Blazers' on-court strategy obviously changes greatly. In that case, their identity of a driving, rim-attacking team would be on full display. This series seemed to be such a bad matchup for the Blazers because of how much they (Deni Avdija specifically) rely on success in the paint and offensive rebounding in finding success on the offensive end. Victor Wembanyama is so good that he single-handedly takes those things away. If he's not in the picture, the whole complexion of the series changes.
Luke Kornet has done an admirable job as the backup center in the first two games of this series, and he's no scrub, so it's not like the Spurs would have no paint presence whatsoever without Wemby. But Kornet is obviously not the game-wrecking, historically great defender that Wemby is, and the Blazers should be emboldened to attack him.
Blazers get an unfortunate break as Wembanyama leaves after fall
Per NBA rules, Wembanyama has to wait at least 48 hours after being diagnosed to play again. With Game 3 happening on Friday, there's a chance Wemby doesn't miss any more action than he already did tonight, and if that's the case, this strategy basically goes out the window again.
The Blazers held on to win in a thriller, and they obviously should not apologize for that. There was no dirty play involved in Wemby's injury, it was more of a freak accident than anything. The biggest win for this franchise in the 2020s won't come with an asterisk, but it does still remain a bummer to see superstars get injured.
It's not like the Spurs are a team full of scrubs when Wemby isn't out there, and the Blazers still beat a very good team even sans the superstar. injuries do happen in the playoffs — it's a sad part of the battle of atrition that is the postseason — but even in a heated duel, no one was rooting for that.
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