Victor Wembanyama cleared the NBA's concussion protocol and started Game 4 against the Portland Trail Blazers Sunday afternoon, five days after his face-first fall in the second quarter of Game 2. [1] The Spurs lead the series 2-1, having won Game 3 at Moda Center 120-108 without him, behind 33 points from Stephon Castle and 27 from rookie Dylan Harper. [2] Friday's paper read the protocol entry as the league's safety regime overruling its marketing economy. Sunday's clearance reopens the title window the Spurs built around a single 22-year-old French center.

The protocol clock the league wrote is the only fact that mattered. After 24 hours of inactivity Wembanyama did cardio work; he increased activities Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; he passed neurological tests benchmarked against his preseason baseline; he received the Spurs' medical sign-off and the league's protocol-director clearance Sunday morning. [1][3] The median NBA concussion absence is seven days; Wembanyama returned at five. The Spurs have always managed his body cautiously — they went 12-6 without him during the regular season behind the league's second-best record — and the franchise is the first stress test of the protocol against an active first-round series. [3]

Game 4 is a health-risk decision as much as a basketball decision. The 7-foot-4 Defensive Player of the Year averaging 25 points, 11.5 rebounds, and a league-leading 3.1 blocks is the Spurs' offense, defense, and gate. He is also a 22-year-old returning from a concussion in a postseason game with the home team trailing the series. The clearance is unconditional but the body is not, and the next four days of the series — Game 5 Tuesday in San Antonio, Game 6 Thursday in Portland — are now the actual test of the protocol's design.

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Lagos