Spurs lack of postseason experience has little impact as they advance in first playoffs since 2019

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The San Antonio Spurs' lack of postseason experience was not much of a factor in their first playoff series since 2019.

San Antonio held Portland under 100 points three times in capturing its Western Conference first-round playoff series in five games.

Victor Wembanyama had 17 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks, De'Aaron Fox added 21 points and San Antonio never trailed in eliminating Portland 114-95 on Tuesday night in Game 5.

“This is a great basketball team,” Trail Blazers coach Tiago Splitter said. "They’ve got a superstar (in Wembanyama) that changed the game. They deserved it. They played better.”

It was the first playoff series for Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper and more than half of the team's youthful core.

The Spurs were constantly reminded about their lack of postseason experience even while earning the West's second seed. Most saw this as a detriment, but San Antonio viewed it as a progressive step after finishing 62-20 in the regular season.

“We don’t care about that,” Castle said. “We’ve seen these teams throughout the regular season multiple times. We know what other teams like to do against us. We have nothing but confidence in each other.”

San Antonio advances to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2017 and will face the winner of the Denver-Minnesota series. The Timberwolves lead the series 3-2, with Game 6 scheduled for Thursday night.

“We gain experience all the time,” Wembanyama said. “And that was just one example of how a series can go. And that’s a good way to start the playoffs. But, yeah, we gain experience and I’m still hungry for even better matchups.”

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, himself in his first postseason, stressed that while the intensity increases in the playoffs, they needed to remain who they are. San Antonio finished third in both offensive and defensive efficiency during the regular season and is led by the Defensive Player of the Year in Wembanyama.

The Spurs averaged 112.4 points while holding the Trail Blazers to 100 points. Wembanyama averaged 21 points, 8.8 rebounds and four blocks in 28.3 minutes and San Antonio averaged five players in double figures in each game.

“We did discuss about not changing what we do, just correcting little things and doing everything the same but better,” Wembanyama said. “And we kept trusting the game plan. And what I like is we resorted to going back to the game plan and going back to trusting each other in moments where it was hard. So that’s the statement of how much we trust each other and how much we trust the process.”

The Spurs were prepared for it all, but rookie forward Carter Bryant was among those hoping for some “oomph” as well.

“I grew up watching Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant absolutely duking it out, elbows to the throat, elbows to the rib cage, all that stuff,” Bryant said. “Dudes head-butted each other and like those guys played on the Olympic team together to represent our country, but they knew when it was time to get to the nitty-gritty and to win some basketball games. Like, they didn’t care who was across the line from.”

The Spurs prepared for and embraced greater physicality.

Castle and Fox received technical fouls after being involved in skirmishes with Portland's Deni Avdija. Harper received one after he and Scoot Henderson taunted each other.

“Yeah, I think all the things that are discussed regarding the playoffs are real, obviously,” Johnson said. “The physicality, the competitiveness, every single possession is survival. And I think when you play a team every single day that you play a game, it comes a lot less of a cute strategy. ”

San Antonio also had to fight through losing Wembanyama in the first half of Game 2. Wembanyama fell, his right cheek and jaw hitting the court squarely after he was fouled by Jrue Holiday with 8:57 remaining in the second quarter.

Wembanyama did not return, and Portland rallied from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat San Antonio 106-103 in Game 2.

Wembanyama was immediately placed in the league's concussion protocol and was not cleared to return until Game 4, although he took exception to how the NBA handled his absence in Game 3.

Without Wembanyama, the Spurs rallied from a 15-point deficit to win Game 3 on Saturday.

“I feel like it brought the best out of us, especially after Game 2 being to where they won that game just being more physical than us, getting more offensive rebounds than us," Julian Champagnie said. "I felt like it was a wake-up call that we needed, especially this early on in the playoffs. So I felt like it brought the best out of everybody.”

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Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija, left, walks by as San Antonio Spurs forward/center Victor Wembanyama, right, smiles after a play during the second half in Game 5 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series in San Antonio, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

San Antonio Spurs forward/guard Keldon Johnson (3) celebrates after Game 5 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series against the Portland Trail Blazers in San Antonio, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

San Antonio Spurs forward/center Victor Wembanyama (1) reacts with guard/forward Devin Vassell (24) after a play during the second half in Game 5 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series in San Antonio, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

San Antonio Spurs forward/guard Keldon Johnson (3) celebrates with teammates after Game 5 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series against the Portland Trail Blazers in San Antonio, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide will march in May Day rallies Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.

The day is a public holiday in many countries, and demonstrations, some of which have turned violent in the past, are expected in many of the world's major cities.

“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”

In the United States, activists opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies are planning marches and boycotts.

Here’s what to know about May Day.

Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East are expected to be a key theme in Friday's rallies.

In the Philippines' capital of Manila, protest organizers said they expect big crowds of workers. “There will be a louder call for higher wages and economic relief because of the unprecedented spikes in fuel prices,” Renato Reyes, a leader of the left-wing political group Bayan, told The Associated Press.

“Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis,” said Josua Mata, leader of SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations.

In Indonesia, labor unions have warned against worsening economic pressures at home. “Workers are already living paycheck to paycheck,” said Said Iqbal, president of the Indonesian Trade Union Confederation.

In Pakistan, May Day is a public holiday marked by rallies, but many daily wage earners cannot afford to take time off.

“How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home if I don’t work?” said Mohammad Maskeen, a 55-year-old construction worker near Islamabad.

Rising oil prices have fueled inflation, which the government estimates at about 16%, in a country heavily reliant on financial support from the International Monetary Fund and allied nations.

Workers' unions traditionally use May Day to rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues.

Protests are planned from Seoul, Jakarta and Istanbul to most European Union capitals and cities across the United States.

In France, unions called for demonstrations in Paris and elsewhere under the slogan “bread, peace and freedom,” linking workers’ daily concerns to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In Italy, the government approved nearly 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in job incentives this week, aiming to promote stable employment and curb labor abuses ahead of May Day. The measures extend tax breaks to encourage hiring young people and disadvantaged women, and seek to address exploitation tied to platform-based work. Opposition parties dismissed the package as “pure propaganda.”

In Portugal, proposed labor law changes by the center-right government sparked a general strike and street protests last year. There is still no deal after nine months of negotiations with unions and employers. Unions say the proposals would weaken workers’ rights, including by expanding overtime limits and reducing some benefits.

May Day carries special meaning this year in France after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.

Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.

A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-wing politicians.

“Don’t touch May Day,” workers' unions said in a joint statement.

Faced with the controversy, the government this week introduced a bill meant to expand May Day work to people staffing bakeries and florists. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.

“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”

Activists and labor unions are organizing street protests and boycotts across the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday.

May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, has called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires.”

Voicing strong opposition to Trump's policies, organizers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and are seeking an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”

Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,

While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would’ve made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.

May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.

In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday through strikes and demonstrations. In May 1886, a Chicago rally turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.

Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”

May Day is now observed in much of the world from Europe to Latin America, Africa and Asia.

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AP journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this story.

Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)

Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)