After the San Antonio Spurs handled the Portland Trail Blazers in the first playoff game of the Victor Wembanyama era, the two teams return for Game 2 tonight at 8 p.m ET.
If you didn’t watch Game 1 or are just trying to refresh your mind ahead of some Game 2 wagering, you are in the perfect place!
As many of us expected, the Trail Blazers did not merely rollover and die. Deni Avdija did a great job in his playoff debut – scoring 30 points on 63.5% true shooting while also tallying ten rebounds and five assists. But he and everyone else on the floor was on a completely different level than Wembanyama.
The prodigious big man set a franchise record with 35 points in his postseason debut. That is a big deal considering this is the same organization that fostered the likes of Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker.
More than scoring, Wembanyama’s presence in the paint made it nearly impossible for Portland to operate. In his minutes, Portland was held to a 102.9 offensive rating, which is over ten points lower (113.1) than their regular season offensive rating – that was already viewed as unimpressive (21st in NBA).
The current spread for this game is set at 11.5, meaning that you can bet on whether you think the Spurs will win by more than 11 points or less than 12 points and vice versa with the Blazers.
As we said, the Spurs looked like the clearly superior team in Game 1. But the Blazers kept it close throughout, and San Antonio shot nearly 20% better from three than the Blazers on similar volume in Game 1. In the season, the two teams are separated by just 1.6% in that category. If that evens out a little (which you expect given the unusually large gap in this department), the game will be a lot more closely contested.
The over/under for this contest is set at 220.5. Game 1’s total finished at 209, so oddsmakers think there will be more scoring tonight.
According to the moneyline probabilities, FanDuel sees San Antonio as a heavy-favorite in Game 2. Their moneyline is listed at -700, giving them an 87.5% implied probability of victory.