dailyloe.com – PORTLAND, Ore. — Carter Bryant extended his right arm, offering a helping hand. Victor Wembanyama, dazed on the floor, was not yet ready to accept it. The postseason is young, though. The kid still has time to pick him up.
This wasn’t Plan A. If the Spurs had their druthers, a 20-year-old rookie who came off the bench during his one year in college would hold no sway over their first playoff series of the decade. But ready or not, Bryant holds sway now. He has learned something already about that responsibility.
“If you go in there not ready to throw haymakers,” Bryant said, “you’re going to be in a lot of trouble.” So far in a first-round series tied 1-1 heading into Friday’s Game 3 against the Trail Blazers, the Spurs’ baby-faced forward has absorbed more haymakers than he has landed.
Bryant’s four minutes in the opener netted him three fouls. His 12 minutes on Tuesday were more productive, but at a cost. While he was on the floor, often as the nominal big man in a small lineup, the Spurs were outscored by 13 points. In a game they lost by three.
The loss was not Bryant’s fault, though. Starters De’Aaron Fox and Julian Champagnie posted similar plus-minus numbers. Multiple offensive possessions that disintegrated down the stretch came while Bryant was watching from the sideline. With Wembanyama unlikely to be cleared from concussion protocol before Game 3, more is going to be asked of everybody.
That includes the 6-foot-6 neophyte who a mere four months ago was in danger of losing his hair to rookie mistakes. During a particularly perplexing December stretch, the high-flying Bryant misfired on so many dunk attempts that his teammates threatened to shave his head if he missed two more. He called that the good kind of peer pressure.
Now, as he looks for the biggest reason to believe he can handle a share of the burden Gregg Popovich used to be loath to assign to rookies, Bryant said: “My teammates are empowering.” It would be helpful, of course, if those teammates empowered themselves, too. If Wembanyama stays sidelined, the Spurs need Fox to be a lot better than he was in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. They need Stephon Castle to recalibrate his approach to some of the drives.
