Spurs advance with Game 5 win

The San Antonio Spurs beat the Portland Trail Blazers 114-95 on Tuesday night to win their first-round series in five games. (nba.com) Victor Wembanyama had 17 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks, and De'Aaron Fox added 21 points as San Antonio never trailed at Frost Bank Center. (nba.com) Julian Champagnie scored 19 points, Dylan Harper added 17, and the Spurs led by as many as 28 while closing the series with a third straight win. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) Fox scored 13 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter after Portland cut into the deficit, and San Antonio finished with six players in double figures. (nba.com) Portland got 22 points from Deni Avdija, but the seventh-seeded Blazers could not extend a series that San Antonio controlled after taking a 3-1 lead. (espn.com) (nba.com) The win sent the second-seeded Spurs to the Western Conference semifinals, their first trip past the opening round since 2017. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) San Antonio now waits for the winner of the Denver Nuggets-Minnesota Timberwolves series, which Minnesota leads 3-2 with Game 6 set for Thursday, April 30. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2) The bracket now shows Oklahoma City and San Antonio as the two Western teams already through to the second round. (nba.com) For a Spurs group built around Wembanyama and reshaped under coach Mitch Johnson, Tuesday was the franchise's first playoff series win since the post-Kawhi Leonard break in 2017. (nba.com) (nba.com) San Antonio opened the night trying to avoid a return flight to Portland. By the end, the Spurs had ended the series at home and moved on. (nba.com)