Deni Avdija scored 41 points, and his three-point play with 16.1 seconds remaining capped the Portland Trail Blazers’ comeback from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit for a 114-110 victory over the host Phoenix Suns in a play-in game Tuesday.
The Trail Blazers ended a four-year playoff drought and will open a best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series against the No. 2 seed San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
“They are a great team,” Avdija said of the Spurs on Prime Video’s postgame show. “Very talented. They’re young, too, so they don’t have a lot of playoff experience as well. … It’s gonna be tough. It’s gonna be a fight. We’re gonna bring everything we’ve got. … We’ll be ready to play.”
The Suns will have another chance to make the playoffs on Friday, when they will host the winner of the Wednesday play-in game between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers.
That winner of the Friday contest will be the No. 8 seed and will meet the defending league champion and No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder in the first game of a seven-game set on Sunday.
Jordan Goodwin sank a reserve layup with 32.5 seconds left to put the Suns up 110-109, but he missed a free throw after being fouled on the play. The Blazers rebounded and called timeout to set up Avdija’s drive through the lane.
Phoenix’s Jalen Green missed a 3-point attempt with 8.9 seconds remaining. On the rebound, Portland’s Matisse Thybulle stole the ball from Goodwin and found Jerami Grant alone for a dunk with six-tenths of a second remaining.
Avdija had 14 points in the fourth quarter, and he finished with 12 assists and seven rebounds.
Jrue Holiday added 21 points and Grant had 16, including two late 3-pointers as the Blazers finished the game on a 17-5 run.
Green scored 35 points, Devin Booker had 22 and Dillon Brooks added 20 for the Suns.
“It really came down to stops,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said. “I thought all night we really struggled to keep them out of the paint, which they are elite at. We shored up the offensive rebounding piece there for a portion of time, kept them to one shot. … Some of those key moments, we weren’t able to come up with (possession) or weren’t able to get an offensive rebound when we needed it.”
The Suns trailed 83-82 entering the fourth quarter but scored the first 11 points for a 10-point edge, extending a longer 24-4 run that began after Avdija made a layup to give the Blazers a 79-69 lead midway through the third quarter.
Holiday and Avdija hit 3-pointers as the Blazers closed the deficit to 100-97 with 4:15 left before Donovan Clingan was called for a flagrant-1 foul for pulling Brooks down on Avdija’s make.
Grant made a 3-pointer and Shaedon Sharpe hit two free throws with 2:29 left, bringing the Trail Blazers within 105-104 with 2:29 left.
Grant’s next trey put the Blazers in front 107-106 before Booker’s free throws gave the Suns a 108-107 lead with 1:34 to go. After a Portland turnover and a Booker miss, Avdija hit a driving lap for a 109-108 lead with 37.3 seconds remaining prior to Goodwin’s layup.
–Field Level Media
