Trail Blazers’ Donovan Clingan solid on defense, struggles on offense during summer league loss

Portland Trail Blazers rookie Donovan Clingan made his summer league debut Saturday night during an 83-77 loss to the San Antonio Spurs at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 7-foot-2 center, chosen seventh overall during the NBA’s June draft, delivered the type of defensive performance expected from the former Connecticut star. But his much-talked-about shooting touch didn’t materialize.

Clingan, in 27 minutes, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked five shots while using his size to make his presence felt.

But he scored just four points on 1-of-8 (0 of 3 on three-point shots) shooting and committed five personal fouls. The shot came early on a jump hook in the paint.

“I just wasn’t able to find my shot today,” Clingan told reporters.

Clingan, however, was concerned more with the loss than his performance.

“I thought we kind of came out a little slow in the first half,” Clingan said. “Didn’t really guard. We were kind of lazy with the ball, and kind of had some turnovers. I didn’t do a great job rebounding the ball to start the game. And then, really when we kicked it up in the second half, we were able to find a groove get some stops, get some baskets. We just came up short.”

Alex Reese led the Blazers (0-1) with 16 points. Second-year forward Rayan Rupert scored 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting and added six rebounds and five assists with six turnovers.

Second-year forward Kris Murray scored nine points with two assists and two rebounds.

Forward Justin Minaya scored 12 points and had four steals.

Spurs guard Stephon Castle, selected No. 4 in the draft, led all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-21 shooting while committing five turnovers.

WHAT IT MEANS (Box score); they

The Blazers got out to a slow start and never truly recovered.

“I thought a tale of two halves,” Blazers summer league coach Jonah Herscu told reporters following the game. “I thought we came out; they were the aggressor in the first half. I thought we’ve started to play in the right way in the third quarter.”

The Blazers trailed 28-18 at the end of the first quarter and 51-31 at halftime.

Portland won the second half 46-32. Rupert scored 11 in the second half after committing six turnovers in the first half, and Justin Minaya added eight points.

“I think we fought our way back,” Herscu said. “Obviously, in the fourth quarter, we gave ourselves a chance. So, I really liked the fight. We got to clean up, obviously, the turnovers and their offensive rebounds. But I liked a lot of what we did.”

The Blazers committed 18 turnovers, 11 in the first half when they shot 31.6% from the field. The Spurs committed 24 turnovers and had 15 offensive rebounds, which led to 17 second-chance points. The Blazers had nine offensive rebounds that led to two second-chance points.

CLINGAN

The Blazers believe that Clingan could develop into a greater offensive force than he showed during his two seasons at Connecticut. He averaged 13 points last season on 63.9% shooting.

Clearly, the rookie did not measure up on Saturday, but it’s just one summer league game.

More opportunities await.

Clingan missed three shots in the first quarter and didn’t make his first, and only field goal until the second quarter.

At halftime, Clingan had two points on 1-of-7 shooting with seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

He didn’t attempt a shot in the third quarter and got up just one in the fourth quarter, but he blocked two more shots.

NEXT UP

The Blazers play at 5:30 p.m., Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Thomas & Mack Center. NBATV will televise the game.

-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook)