It will be the Portland Trail Blazers against the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the NBA playoffs, courtesy of Deni Avdija, after a wild first night of NBA play-in action.
The first game of the play-in tournament saw the Charlotte Hornets beat the Miami Heat 127-126 in an overtime thriller, but not without controversy or technical difficulties. The second game was also a back-and-forth affair, which wound up as a 114-110 Blazers win.
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Avdija posted 41 points on 15-of-22 shooting, 12 assists and 7 rebounds in one of the best nights of his career, which included the final go-ahead shot.
With Portland playoff-bound, the Suns will now face the winner of the other West play-in game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors, for the privilege of facing the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It wasn’t without drama, though. The game got more contentious as it progressed, with much of the chippy action centered around Suns star Dillon Brooks and Avdija. The Mortgage Matchup Center crowd knew which side it was on, and wasn’t thrilled with some of the calls in the second half.
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The Blazers led by as many as 14 points and were up by double digits midway through the third quarter. Then the Suns ripped off a 24-4 run to take control of the game.
The Suns were making their shots, while the Portland offense completely fell apart. The Blazers began the game on fire from 3-point range, then missed 14 of their first 15 shots from deep to open the second half.
And then Avdija led the Blazers on their own 17-5 run, into the playoffs. He is the fifth player to post at least 40 points in the short history of the play-in tourney, joining Jayson Tatum, Coby White, Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis.
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Jrue Holiday (21 points), Jerami Grant (16) and Shaeddon Sharpe (12) were the only other Blazers to score in double figures, the latter two doing so off the bench. Jalen Green led the Suns with 35 points on 14-of-29 shooting.
Here’s how everything went down at Yahoo Sports on the first night of NBA play-in tournament action:
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Jack Baer
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Jason Owens
The Trail Blazers are playoff bound. Deni Avdija’s late and-1 layup proved to be the game-winner as Jalen Green’s 3 on the other end missed the mark. A great win by Portland to send Phoenix to a must-win game in the second round of the play-in.
Avdija finished with 41 points, 12 assists and 7 rebounds to lead the way. The Blazers clinch the No. 7 seed in the West and advance to a tough first-round matchup against the No. 2 seed San Antonio Spurs.
The Suns will face the winner of Wednesday’s game between the Clippers and Warriors with the No. 8 seed at stake.
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Jason Owens
Deni Avdija just muscled through a foul for an and-1 layup, then hit the free throw for a 112-110 Portland lead with 16.1 seconds remaining. He’s up to 41 points.
Damian Lillard applauded from the Blazers bench in approval.
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Jason Owens
This one’s coming down to the wire. Jerami Grant hit back to-back 3s to give Portland a 107-106 lead.
Devin Booker answered with free throws, and Phoenix leads, 108-107 in the final two minutes.
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Jason Owens
After a Deni Avdija 3 cut the Phoenix lead to 3, Portland’s Donovan Clingan was immediately called for a flagrant foul.
He grabbed Dillon Brooks by the neck and pulled him backward while fighting for rebounding position. Officials saw it, and Brooks was granted and hit two free throws to extend the Suns lead to 102-97.
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Jason Owens
An 8-0 run capped by consecutive 3s from Jrue Holiday and Deni Avdija has Portland back within 100-97 with 4:14 remaining.
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Jason Owens
The Blazers stopped the bleeding with a four-point possession aided by a Dillon Brooks technical foul after a 24-4 Suns run to cut the Phoenix lead to 93-87.
Can they mount a rally after surrendering control of the game on the road?
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Jack Baer
Devin Booker makes a 3-pointer with Deni Avdija in his face to cap off a 24-4 run for the Suns, which ends with a jumper from Avdija. And then a tech on Booker. Suns lead by 8 with 8:05 to go.
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Jack Baer
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Jack Baer
Phoenix opens the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run and is suddenly in control. Portland calls timeout after going turnover-blocked shot-turnover on offense out of the break.
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Jack Baer
A 13-4 run brings the Suns within a point as we enter the fourth quarter. Jalen Green is up to 24 points, Devin Booker at 19.
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Jack Baer
The refs were already getting pretty unpopular, then they let a shot clock violation go through despite a blocked shot hitting the rim. This Suns crowd is getting frustrated, but enjoyed watching Deni Avdija miss a pair of free throws.
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Jack Baer
The Blazers All-Star has 23 points and 9 assists with a quarter and a half to play. Some nice shooting has kept the Suns in it, though, and it looks like Devin Booker’s about to come back in with four fouls.
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Jack Baer
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Jack Baer
The Blazers star appeared to put his team up 13 with a transition lay-up, but the refs caught him clocking Dillon Brooks with an (inadvertent) elbow on his way up. This game is starting to get chippy.
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Jack Baer
Collin Gillespie enters for Booker and this is starting to look like a dangerous spot for Phoenix.
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Jack Baer
The Suns are down 6 and just had star Devin Booker pick up his fourth foul early in the third quarter. They’re challenging the call.
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Jack Baer
The rim isn’t level at Mortgage Matchup Center, so we’ve got a brief delay out of halftime.
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Jack Baer
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Jack Baer
Jalen Green: 22 points on 8-of- 14 shooting
Devin Booker: 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, 3 assists
Deni Avdija: 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting, 7 assists, 2 blocks
Donovan Clingan: 2 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists
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Jack Baer
Jalen Green ends with an and-1 3-pointer to pull the Suns within three and cap off a 14-5 run. You definitely take that when you had a half like the Suns just did.
The Blazers outshot the Suns across the board, outrebounded them and committed the same number of turnovers, and yet it could be a tie game 30 seconds into the second half. The Suns can thank an 18-7 free throw discrepancy for that.
