The Portland Trail Blazers were supposed to be the easy target in West Group C of the NBA Cup.
But now they can win “The Group of Death” if they knock off the visiting San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night.
Portland is 2-1 in the tough five-team group that includes the Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets. The Nuggets are also 2-1 but the Trail Blazers defeated Denver and control their own destiny.
Beat the Spurs, and Portland advances to the knockout stage.
“It’s an important game for the Cup and for the standings as well,” Trail Blazers coach Tiago Splitter told reporters. “I think we’re going with a good positive energy, with confidence, with a big chance to go win the game. So I’m happy with where we are. We got to stay two feet on the floor, but it’s going to be a good game for us.”
The Spurs are 1-1 in NBA Cup play and remain without star big man Victor Wembanyama (calf) and reigning NBA Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle (hip flexor). No. 2 overall draft pick Dylan Harper (calf) is questionable after missing the previous 10 games.
San Antonio lost for the first time in four games without Wembanyama on Sunday when it fell 111-102 to the Phoenix Suns in the opener of a four-game road trip.
The Spurs committed 19 turnovers and only pressured Phoenix into six.
“We didn’t come out with the right approach at the start and they got a few shots that were probably too comfortable,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “They made some plays, obviously, so credit to them, but I thought we could have showed a lot more resistance and discipline at times with the gameplan execution, especially in the third quarter.”
De’Aaron Fox scored 26 points for San Antonio, which was outscored by 16 points in the second half.
“We were guarding a lot better,” Fox said after topping 20 points for the fifth straight game. “The second-chance points weren’t hurting us too much at that point, but you can’t hang your hat on that. And they continued to do what they did and they came out with the win.”
Julian Champagnie had 10 points and 12 rebounds for his first double-double of the season but made just 3 of 14 shots.
Portland is coming off an impressive 115-103 road victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. The Trail Blazers led by as many as 33 points.
“We really stuck together,” Trail Blazers big man Donovan Clingan said. “We played together the whole 48 minutes. We guarded very well, got to the foul line, and we did what we had to do.”
Jerami Grant registered a season-high 35 points. He repeatedly got to the line and made 16 of 19 free throws.
“We had to be aggressive,” Grant said. “We came out, started out aggressive on both ends of the court. I think we did that.”
Deni Avdija added 22 points and Clingan recorded 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“A lot of guys played well in a lot of aspects of the game,” Splitter said. “Just the energy, it was great from the beginning to the end. Now we’ve got to keep going.”
Sharpshooter Shaedon Sharpe (calf) is listed as questionable after missing the previous four games.
The Spurs went 3-1 against the Trail Blazers last season.
