Fans of the Portland Trail Blazers should expect to see some crazy things when their team battles the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs. It will be their first look this year at Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, who sat out all three regular season meetings between the two teams.
The third-year superstar out of France led the NBA with 3.1 blocks per game and is a lock to win his first Defensive Player of the Year award. He will be disruptive to the Blazers offense, making life difficult for Deni Avdija and the rest of the Blazers whenever they venture into the lane.
But Wembanyama has developed into much more than a long-armed, rim-protecting monster, averaging 25.0 points per game and scoring 30+ points 18 times in 65 appearances (counting the NBA Cup Final, which did not count in the standings).
In Friday’s episode of We Like the Blazers (at around the 33:00 mark), Blazers Edge editors Brandon Mullen and Conor Bergin discussed the potential defensive strategies the Blazers could use to slow Wembanyama down.
I think we’re likely to see one scenario they didn’t mention. It sounds insane, but hear me out. The Blazers should try putting one of their smallest and oldest guys on the Spurs’ 22-year old, 7’4” center.
Yes, senior citizen (by NBA standards) Jrue Holiday, who will turn 36 during June’s NBA Finals and is officially listed at 6’4”, should guard Wembanyama.
Go back and watch the beginning of each half of the Blazers’ 137-132 overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets on April 6th. Yes, the Blazers lost. And yes, Nikola Jokic finished the game with a triple-double. But when the Blazers were able to set their defense after made baskets or dead balls, they often put Holiday on the Nuggets’ three-time MVP center.
Holiday wasn’t just guarding Jokic on the occasional ill-advised switch or when the defense had to scramble. It was the game plan. Here’s the first play of the game. Holiday picks up Jokic while Clingan waits near the basket.
The Blazers used this alignment to start the game and went back to it at after halftime. When the Blazers could set their defense, Holiday picked Jokic up at the top of the key. Jokic is a magician, but it’s hard for him to beat a player like Holiday off the dribble. Jokic can theoretically shoot over the top of a player seven or eight inches shorter, but Holiday didn’t give him any space. Of course, the big man could simply take the smaller defender under the basket, right? Well, the Blazers had counters for that.
Here, Clingan sags back to help when Jokic cuts.
And when Jokic backs Holiday down a few minutes later in this play, Clingan is waiting on the back line.
In this third quarter play, Jokic tries to get even deeper post position on Holiday, but Clingan is lurking to take away the pass. Gordon flashes to the free throw line and Clingan doesn’t contest him on the catch. Instead, he stays back and does what he does best.
On this play, Holiday and Clingan switch when the Nuggets try to clear out the lane and draw Clingan away from the basket. Jokic is able to rebound his own miss and score, but the strategy was well-executed by the Blazers.
There are downsides, of course. But against great teams, you have to pick your poison. To start overtime, Gordon burns the Blazers with a corner three-pointer. On the play, Jokic backs Holiday into the lane and Clingan is forced to help. This time Gordon drifts all the way out to the corner. With the entire side of the court cleared out, he gets a wide open look.
The Blazers knew that Gordon would get some of those open three-pointers. He made a few, but Splitter and the coaching staff were willing to live with that over the alternative. Jokic and Jamal Murray comprise one of the deadliest two-man partnerships in the NBA, but the Blazers slowed it down significantly and gave themselves a chance to win. With Holiday defending Jokic at the top of the key, he could simply switch on to Murray when he and Jokic got into their pick-and-roll and hand-off actions. Murray’s man (usually Toumani Camara) could switch on to Jokic. The Blazers are fine with that outcome.
Jokic and the Nuggets are the best offensive problem-solvers in the league and eventually found enough scoring to win a close game, but when the Blazers employed the Holiday-on-Jokic strategy, the Nuggets offense had a little less juice.
What About the Spurs Series?
Obviously, the Blazers will need to show Wembanyama and the Spurs a number of different looks over the course of Game 1 and as the series progresses. Robert Williams III will have opportunities to play him straight up, Toumani Camara will take a turn, and Kris Murray seems to have earned the trust of the coaching staff. But don’t be surprised if the Blazers try the Holiday-on-Wembanyama approach in at least one of the first two games in San Antonio.
If they use this strategy, it will only be in spurts. But what would it look like and how would it differ from what they tried against Denver a few weeks ago?
Jokic and Wembanyama obviously have different games. Wembanyama is nowhere near as good of a passer as Jokic, but he’s a much better lob-finisher around the rim. But with Clingan around the basket and Holiday harassing every dribble, the Blazers may be able to coax him into some lower percentage mid-range shots and contested three-pointers.
With Clingan hovering near the basket and preparing to help, the Blazers would likely surrender some open three-pointers like they did against Gordon. The Spurs would like those to come from Devin Vassell (38.4% on 6.4 attempts per game), Julian Champagnie (38.1% on 6.2 attempts per game) and Harrison Barnes (38.8% on 4.6 attempts per game). All are good shooters, but two of the three will be suiting up in the playoffs for the first time.
The Blazers’ preference would probably be to dare second-year guard Stephon Castle, Clingan’s former college teammate, to beat them from behind the arc. The knock on Castle is that he isn’t a reliable three-point shooter. He shot just 28.5% from distance as a rookie last season, but improved to 33.2% this season. He got hot after the All-Star break, making 41.7% of his threes. Is that real? Or just a hot streak? We’ll find out soon.
The Blazers are in the playoffs for the first time since 2021. They are big underdogs in the series. They have nothing to lose. What do you think? Should they try the Holiday-on-Wembanyama approach for a few stretches in San Antonio?
