With Wembanyama back, Spurs come from 19 down, take commanding 3-1 series lead over Trail Blazers

In Game 3, with Victor Wembanyama in street clothes recovering from a concussion, Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle led a comeback from 15 down in the third quarter to win comfortably.

Sunday in Game 4, the Spurs trailed by as many as 19, and the deficit was 17 at the half. Portland was playing with urgency, and their fans were fired up and loud.

But this time, San Antonio had Wembanyama. He had 18 points and, more importantly, five blocked shots in the second half alone. The Spurs cranked up their defense after halftime, holding the Trail Blazers to 33.3% shooting in the final 24 minutes, including 3-of-15 from 3-point range. Meanwhile, De'Aaron Fox got rolling and scored 18 on his own after the break. The Spurs went on 62-23 run over 20 minutes of Game 4.

The result was a 114-93 Spurs win, giving them a commanding 3-1 lead heading back to San Antonio for Game 5 on Tuesday.

In his return, Wembanyama scored 27 points with 11 rebounds and seven blocks — he is the youngest player ever, and only the 10th, to have that stat line in a playoff game — and he was a +28 on the night.

In his walkoff interview after the win, Wembanyama talked to ESPN's Malika Andrews about going through the concussion protocol.

"The Spurs have done an amazing job," Wemby said. "I'm very unhappy about the way the protocol has been handled by other parties. But my staff has been amazing. I've been really healthy starting on day one after injury. The injury was weird, though. It was funny."

Portland came out Sunday with the urgency of a team that knows it needed a win — its defense and energy were way up. Portland led by two after one quarter because they took advantage of the Spurs' 37.5% shooting and got out and ran, scoring 11 fast-break points. Shaedon Sharpe came in off the bench firing and has six points as the Trail Blazers won the bench scoring in the first quarter 14-0.

However, it was the second and third quarters that told the story of this game.

In the second quarter, San Antonio scored just 18 points on 7-of-22 shooting (31.8%), and they were 2-of-8 from beyond the arc. The Spurs were just 5-of-12 in the paint in that quarter against a pressure defense from Portland. By comparison, the Trail Blazers had a 33-point second quarter on 57.9% shooting (5-of-8 from 3), which included a 13-0 run at one point. The result was a 17-point lead for Portland at the half.