Trail Blazers' Season Ends in San Antonio, and Now the Real Questions Begin

📍SAN ANTONIO — The 2025-26 Trail Blazers died as they lived: with plenty of fight and not enough shooting.

Portland found itself facing elimination on Tuesday after blowing two consecutive double-digit second-half leads to the Spurs at home. They never had the luxury in Game 5, where they played from behind practically from the opening tip.

Scoot Henderson shot 2-of-6 from the field. Jrue Holiday, 3-of-14. Toumani Camara, 2-of-10. Donovan Clingan, 4-of-11. Matisse Thybulle, 1-of-6. Jerami Grant, 2-of-6.

"It's hard to win with 35 percent from the field and 23 [percent] from three," Deni Avdija said afterwards.

That kind of shooting performance was never going to be enough to take down a San Antonio team that showed exactly why they're a 62-win second seed. Victor Wembanyama dominated the game at both ends despite only taking seven shots, and this time it was De'Aaron Fox's turn to overwhelm the Blazers late.

But they never stopped fighting. Trailing by 20 at halftime, Tiago Splitter tried every lineup combination he could (except for any involving Shaedon Sharpe, who played just six minutes, all in the first half) and finally hit on one with the little-used Vít Krejčí and Sidy Cissoko, which cut the lead to single digits in the fourth quarter before the Spurs put them away. Early on, the Blazers' season looked like it was going to end with a complete surrender. That never happened.

These five games, Portland's first time in the playoffs since 2021, exposed a lot of the shortcomings about their roster and set up what may be the most transformational summer in the franchise's 56-year history.

The questions that will be answered this summer span pretty much every area, from the roster to the coaching staff to the front office to the potentially seismic business-side changes that could be in store as Tom Dundon's ownership group continues to reshape the organization to their liking.