Clingan's Trail Blazers Comeback to Even Up Series, Drummond With A Playoff First

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Game 2: Donovan Clingan vs Stephon Castle

Donovan Clingan nearly recorded his first career playoff double-double, and Stephon Castle scored a team-high 18 points, but the Portland Trail Blazers erased a 13-point deficit with just under eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter to tie their Western Conference First Round series at 1–1 with a 106–103 Game 2 victory against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night in San Antonio.

Game 2 started exactly like Game 1, with Donovan Clingan defending Stephon Castle and Castle banking in a jump shot over the 7-foot-2 big man for the game’s first basket. With just under 9:30 left in the first quarter, Clingan accounted for six straight Blazers points. After Castle switched onto his former Husky teammate, Clingan backed him down and kicked it out to Deni Avdija, who connected on a three-pointer. A few minutes later, Clingan knocked down his own three-pointer at the top of the key just over the outstretched arms of Victor Wembanyama to give the Blazers an early 10-4 lead.

The Blazers led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, but then Castle took over. In a 1:12 span, the 2024–25 NBA Rookie of the Year went on his own 8-0 run starting off by taking a handoff from Luke Kornet and drilled a wide-open step-back three-pointer, then caught a pass on the wing, drove downhill, and scored a tough basket over Scoot Henderson. He followed that by knocking down a corner three with Robert Williams III closing out, cutting the Spurs deficit to 25–23 with just over two minutes left in the first quarter.

With under five minutes left in the second quarter, former St. John’s star Julian Champagnie came up with a steal, sparking a Spurs fast break. Devin Vassell missed the layup, but no Blazers player boxed out Stephon Castle, who finished with a follow-up putback dunk to tie the game at 42. Clingan trailed the play and was behind Castle, but couldn’t get into position to contest the dunk. Later in the quarter, Castle recorded one of his seven assists by driving to the basket and kicking it out to Champagnie for an open three-pointer, giving the Spurs their largest first-half lead at 54–48.

Clingan scored the first Husky basket of the second half after grabbing a rebound by ripping by the ball out of the hands of Champagnie and Kornet and finishing with an angry flush to cut the Blazers deficit to 63-61. Later in the third quarter, Steph took Shaedon Sharpe one-on-one and got the layup plus the foul for the and-one. Castle made the free throw to give the Spurs a 73-70 lead with under five minutes to go in the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Castle finished a layup while narrowly avoiding a block attempt from Clingan to put the Spurs up 90–79 with just over nine minutes remaining. Their largest lead of the quarter grew to 13 when Vassell knocked down a jumper to make it 95–82 with 7:55 left.

From there, the Blazers mounted their comeback. Clingan was on the bench for most of the run, as he checked out with 8:25 remaining and did not return until 10.4 seconds left for a potential rebounding situation with Vassell at the free-throw line. The former Seminole made both free throws to cut the Spurs deficit to 104–102, but Portland called a timeout after the second make, and Clingan was subbed out again. The Spurs still had a chance to tie the game, trailing by three with 5.2 seconds left. Castle inbounded the ball to Vassell, who missed a heavily contested three-pointer as Portland completed the comeback, securing a 106–103 victory to even the series at one game apiece.

Notes

Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama left the game with just under nine minutes to go in the second quarter after faceplanting and was diagnosed with a concussion. He did not return and his availability for Game 3 on Friday is still to be determined.

Here are Castle’s numbers before and after Victor Wembanyama left the game with a concussion:

• Before Wemby left game with concussion: 10 points (4-7 FG, 2-3 3-FG), 1 assist
• After Wemby left game with concussion: 8 points (3-13 FG, 0-3 3-FG, 2-5 FT), 6 assists

Through his first two playoff games, plus the play-in, Clingan has struggled from the field. He is just 7-of-25 (28%) overall, including 2-of-18 (11.1%) from three-point range. However, he is still making a major impact on the glass, recording double-digit rebounds in two of the three game (averaging 11.3 boards per game), while also tallying at least two blocks in two of the three contests.

Up Next

Game 3 tips off Friday night at an even later time than UConn-UCLA did as with the series shifting to Portland, the game will start at 10:30pm ET on Prime. Game 4 will begin at 3:30pm ET on ESPN.

Andre Drummond

For the first time since his days with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2021 postseason, Andre Drummond recorded double-digit points in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 111–97 Game 2 victory over the Boston Celtics. The 14-year veteran finished with 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field, including his first career postseason three-pointer, which was also the 50th three-pointer of his career. Drummond’s biggest bucket came on a tip in with just over 4:30 to go in the fourth quarter to extend the 76ers lead to 10 points.

The former Husky grabbed eight rebounds, dished out two assists in a team-high 26 bench minutes. It’s the third straight game, going back to the play-in game against the Orlando Magic, that Drummond has led the 76ers in minutes off the bench.

With the series now tied at 1-1, both teams will head to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Friday at 7:00pm ET tip on Prime and Game 4 on Sunday night, also at 7:00pm ET on NBC/Peacock.

Tage Thompson

The Boston Bruins scored three goals in the second period en route to a bounce-back 4–2 Game 2 victory over Tage Thompson and the Buffalo Sabres in the First Round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Thompson, who recorded two goals and an assist in the Sabres’ improbable Game 1 comeback win, was held without a point in Tuesday night’s Game 2 loss.

The series heads to Boston with the series tied at 1-1. Game 3 is slated for Thursday at 7:00pm ET on TNT/TruTV/HBO MAX.

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