Late collapse ruins Blazers comeback, Grant’s Big Night vs. Spurs

Jerami Grant wasn’t ready to claim any moral victories after the Portland Trail Blazers’ 118-116 loss to San Antonio Spurs in the Moda Center on Friday evening.

“You can look at the positives in the game and things like that,” Grant told reporters after the narrow loss. “But this is a game we have to have.”

If anyone was going to take a small victory lap in the loss, it might have been Grant. The 30-year-old veteran sparked the Blazers’ offense with 22 third-quarter points. He finished with 32 points on 12-19 shooting and an 8-10 mark from 3-point range. His firestorm in the third ignited a 46-point quarter from the Blazers, helping turn a 10-point halftime deficit into a 105-88 lead with 8:29 left in the fourth quarter.

Then it all collapsed during the onslaught of a 30-11 Spurs run to end the game. Spurs 7-foot-3 phenom Victor Wembanyama played all game for San Antonio with 28 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. He broke the tie with 2.4 seconds left by hitting two free throws. The disappointing result put the hot third quarter from Grant and the Blazers on the back burner — at least for Grant.

“I was just trying to win the game,” Grant said of his run in the third quarter. “We needed it at that point. It helped us take the lead and get ahead. That’s all I’m really thinking about.”

Portland head coach Chauncey Billups had a less black-and-white view in his assessment of the game. When asked if he felt good about how his players performed overall or if he was frustrated about losing the lead, Billups said, “all of the above.”

“I was proud of our group,” Billups said. “I thought we played hard as hell and there are so many things to learn from in the fourth quarter.”

The Blazers had the Moda Center rocking Friday when things went well. Grant’s third-quarter shooting seemed contagious as Blazers guard Anfernee Simons scored 30 or more for just the second time this season. Striker Toumani Camara popped up to make three impressive blocks in the second half. Rookie 7-footer Donovan Clingan returned from injury to provide a burst of stress and defensive disruption off the bench. Near the top of the explosion, Deni Avdija looked like a bat out of hell as he flew coast to coast to wrap it up. Then San Antonio called time as Avdija angrily bowed to the crowd for emphasis.

After scoring just 42 points in a somewhat lackluster first half, the Blazers stayed threw himself over on San Antonio to build the big lead. It looked like it would be easy to sled to the finish line.

So what went wrong over the last 8:29?

Billups thought the team let its “guard down” after getting that big lead. He pointed to the Spurs’ defensive pressure and how they won a couple of crucial 50-50 balls that turned into 3-pointers. He said he called a few timeouts and tried a few subs to stop the run, but it didn’t work.

“It just snowed a little bit,” Billups said.

Grant felt the team “relaxed a little bit” and didn’t bring the same aggressiveness to both ends of the floor.

“We didn’t show a lot of poise in the fourth,” he said. “We kind of went away from what we were doing to get the lead.”

The breakdown led to an unexpected crunch-time duel. Billups thought the Blazers mostly handled the final two minutes, especially after timeouts. Grant came through with a big 3 to tie it at 1:07. Then Grant drove in for a layup to tie it again with six seconds left.

But the Spurs had a timeout and the ball. And they had Wembanyama.

Clingan, Portland’s best rim protector and the only Blazer who rivals the alien-like Wemby in size, had already played 15 minutes — the maximum limit in his minutes restriction for his first game back from an MCL sprain.

If the minutes limit was 16 minutes, Billups said Clingan “probably” would have been in the paint for the final play. Instead, Grant left himself on an island against Wembanyama at the high post and the Spurs star drained two free throws to win it.

The night should have been a celebration of Grant’s hot shooting or the Blazers coming alive for a big comeback. Instead, the Blazers must think about how to turn a safe win into their fifth straight loss.

“We have to win these games,” Grant said. “We had played.”