Carter Bryant, Dylan Harper take over Spurs' comeback win in moment they always dreamt of

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The Blazers were putting their centers on Bryant and letting Donovan Clingan or Rob Williams pretend he didn’t exist. Spurs coach Mitch Johnson wanted to lean into this, putting the ball in Bryant’s hands and asking him to serve as the fulcrum of the offense. The ball needed to swing from side to side to open up the floor for the Spurs’ guards, and that meant Bryant had to be the initiator. But the Portland centers sagged off of him and parked in the lane, making his teammates’ lives difficult. Bryant kept thinking to himself, “Damn, these dudes are big.” Victor Wembanyama was out with a concussion. He wasn’t going to save the Spurs this time around. Bryant wouldn’t shoot the damn ball, and the game was slipping away. Then, finally, he did it. Bryant had an open 3; he passed it up, again. Then, he dribbled toward Williams, who was at the free-throw line. Bryant kept his dribble, then stepped back behind the 3-point line and hit Williams with the 3. That shot established Bryant as enough of an offensive threat to keep him on the floor. That shot gave him confidence as he locked up Blazers star Deni Avdija and allowed Dylan Harper to take over on offense and seize control of the game for San Antonio. When Bryant took the shot, the Spurs were down 10 with 3:10 left in the third quarter. By the time he checked out with 5:01 left in the fourth quarter, they were up 11. They would win 120-108 and take a 2-1 series lead. “Like, as much as I work on my game, for the other team, it’s demoralizing when I hit a shot like that,” Bryant said after the comeback win. “Just understanding what the game of basketball is. Like, they’re living with me shooting that shot. Clock is winding down, (I) look up, there’s three seconds on the shot clock. Shoot it. Let the ball fly. (I) work too hard not to trust it.” At that moment, as Bryant was reflecting on the shot that freed him and the Spurs, his fellow rookie walked by. “Stop overthinking it! F—!” Harper yelled. Bryant smiled. That little F-bomb — the half-joking exasperation of his biggest fan — meant the world. Bryant knew that years of support, admiration and friendship were behind it. This was a moment Bryant and Harper had long envisioned. Since they were high school freshmen on the AAU circuit, talking about how one day they wouldn’t be competitors, but partners. Little did they know they would be drafted together and, eventually, take over a playoff game together. “I’m the biggest Carter Bryant fan,” Harper proclaimed. “So if anyone else tells you that, that’s false.” Harper sees Bryant playing five-on-five scrimmages on game days, wearing himself out even before tipoff, just for the reps. He’s seen all the work Bryant has put in since they were just kids, hoping to one day put their stamp on the game. So Harper knew what it meant when he saw Bryant seize the moment. “I told him once he hit that stepback 3: I’m like, ‘Yo, this is time for you to turn it up a notch. You’ve been waiting for this,'” Harper said. “‘Me and you always wanted to play with each other, even in college. Now, we got the opportunity to flip this game.'” “I just kind of helped him get there.” Harper did way more than that. He finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds off the bench on 9-of-12 shooting. His scoring, paired with Bryant’s defense, changed the series. The only player in the last 55 years younger than the 20-year-old Harper to score more than 20 points off the bench in a playoff game was Kobe Bryant. Harper and Stephon Castle (33 points) joined Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as the only other duo under the age of 22 to each score 25 points in the same playoff game, per ESPN Insights. Before the season, Harper sat down with Spurs legend and fellow lefty Manu Ginobili. The Hall of Famer told the No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft to impact the game however he can. By the time Harper threw down a massive dunk after a baseline drive, he was starting to look like Ginobili’s heir apparent. “He doesn’t even have to be a mentor to me,” Harper said. “But he makes sure he talks to me, and we have conversations about my role and stuff like that. But just, if you’re lefty, you watch every lefty that plays in the NBA.” Of all the things they talk about, the biggest thing they focus on is Harper’s mentality. Next game up. If you have a bad night, hit the showers and then it’s on to the next. He’s not the only rookie hearing that message. When Bryant hit his big shot, after Harper told him this was their moment, Bryant returned to the bench during a subsequent timeout. He was met there by Harper, Keldon Johnson, Bismack Biyombo and even coach Matt Nielsen. Bryant goes to his vets every single timeout — Biyombo, Harrison Barnes, Mason Plumlee and Kelly Olynyk — picking their brains about their mindset in these moments. They’ve been there before, and he is well aware that he hasn’t. So he asks how they ride the waves of energy. He knows he was “damn near unplayable” in the first 25 games of the season. He is supremely confident, acknowledging that he was about to repeat for the “millionth time” that he thinks he’s going to be a top-five player in the league. It’s a bold claim, but that’s just where he sees himself heading. Still, he understands that playing against grown men on every possession has revealed just how much he needs to improve to reach that point. “All I’ve done is be a sponge and just listen,” Bryant said. “I think my superpower is I can grow in very short amounts of time.” It took him a few possessions in this game to grow, realizing that if he just took open shots and stopped worrying about the bigs waiting for him in the paint, he could turn the game on its head. Once Bryant opened the door, Harper slammed it shut on the Blazers. After the game, Bryant shared an Instagram post with the iconic clip of Dave Chappelle impersonating Dylan from MTV’s “Making the Band,” saying the five greatest rappers of all time are “Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan and Dylan, because I spit hot fire.” It was the perfect description of Harper in this game. In the second half, he simply spat hot fire. “We have a lot of dogs that aren’t gonna quit on our team,” Castle said. “So I feel like that’s what you saw tonight.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms