Splitter led the Blazers to the playoffs as a 1st-time NBA head coach but his future is uncertain

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — As uncertainty about his future with the Portland Trail Blazers swirls, interim coach Tiago Splitter is approaching the job with the same positivity that has helped carry the team through a strange season and into the NBA playoffs. The sentiment was apparent after the Blazers won Game 2 against the San Antonio Spurs 106-103 to even the first-round series at 1-1 heading into Friday night's game in Portland. “This is why we do this, to have games like this, to experience wins like this,” Splitter said. “I told them before the game, I mean, all the stuff that we went through throughout the season is to get to these moments. And have fun. Go there and hoop. Go there and ball.” Hired as an assistant last June, Splitter took over as interim head coach after Chauncey Billups' surprising arrest and he led Portland to its first playoff appearance in five years. But according to recent reports, new Blazers owner Tom Dundon has been looking at different candidates to fill the head coaching job on a permanent basis. Splitter shrugged off the reports. “Just trying to be a pro,” Splitter said before Game 2. “Try to focus on my locker room and my staff to stay and think about basketball. Same way when I got the job and all the stuff that was going on.” Splitter, a 6-foot-11 center from Brazil, played seven years in the NBA with San Antonio, Atlanta and Philadelphia before officially retiring from basketball in 2018. He won an NBA championship in 2014 with the Spurs. He previously served as head coach for Paris Basketball in the top French league for one season after a stint as an assistant for the Houston Rockets. Just hours after the Blazers opened the season with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota, Billups was taken into custody in an early morning raid, part of an FBI takedown of two sprawling gambling operations that authorities said leaked inside information about NBA athletes and rigged poker games. Billups has pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Splitter was tasked with continuing Billups' development of a young and inexperienced but talented squad that included Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija. Along the way the Blazers withstood several extended absences because of injury. Henderson missed 51 games with a hamstring injury, Avdija struggled with a sore back, and veteran Jrue Holiday had calf injury that sidelined him for 25 games. And then there was the speculation over Dundon's acquisition of the team. The former majority owner of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes struck a deal with the estate of former owner Paul Allen to buy the team before the start of the season. The sale became final last month. There were concerns about possible changes under Dundon, based on cost-cutting measures he took with the Hurricanes. One has already drawn the ire of Trail Blazers fans: There will be no free T-shirts on the seats at the Moda Center for fans attending Friday's game. No matter what the future holds, the fact remains that under Splitter the Blazers finished the regular season 42-40, above .500 for the first time since the 2020-21 season. “Just glad to be in this situation with that group, they make everything easier," Splitter said about making the postseason. "Great group of guys. I think Joe (general manager Joe Cronin) put a great group of human beings first, and that makes everything easier, the day to day. Even though we went through a lot of things throughout the season, I told them, I’m so proud of every accomplishment that we had, individually and as a group.” Splitter has certainly made a case for removal of the interim tag among the players. “He got thrown in a difficult situation,” Deni Avdija said. “It wasn’t easy for him to just all of a sudden take the head job. But I think he’s done phenomenal. He’s getting the best out of everybody. He’s believing in each and every single one of his players, and we love playing for him.” \\\_ AP NBA: