Jalen Green’s 36 points helped lift the Phoenix Suns into the playoffs with a 111-96 play-in win over the visiting Golden State Warriors on Friday.

The Suns earned the Western Conference’s eighth postseason seed. They will visit the defending champion and top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday to open a first-round series.

“Sometimes the road’s not always the one that you choose and think it’s going to happen or the one that’s most traveled, sometimes it’s the least traveled,” Phoenix coach Jordan Ott said. “We found our way in, now it’s on to the next thing.”

Phoenix scored 30 points off the Warriors’ 21 turnovers.

After Phoenix let a late lead slip away against the Portland Trail Blazers in the play-in opener, the Suns held on this time.

There was some late drama, though.

With the outcome already decided, Golden State’s Draymond Green fouled out with just more than a minute remaining. Warriors coach Steve Kerr shared a moment with Draymond Green and Stephen Curry, embracing both. The three were part of four NBA championship runs.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I still love coaching but I get it. These jobs all have an expiration date,” said Kerr, whose contract is up this summer. “There’s a run that happens and when the run ends, sometimes it’s time for new blood and new ideas and all that, and if that’s the case, then I will be just nothing but grateful for the most amazing opportunity any person could have to coach this franchise.”

As action resumed, Draymond Green and the Suns’ Devin Booker began a heated discussion that carried on for several moments before the whistle blew. Both players were issued two technical fouls and were ejected.

Phoenix jumped out to a big lead with a 13-0 run after the Warriors scored the game’s first two points, then closed the quarter with eight consecutive points to lead 33-15.

Golden State’s 15 first-quarter points were their fewest in a quarter since scoring 14 in the fourth quarter March 7 against the Thunder.

The Suns, who shot 52.4% in the first quarter, struggled in the second quarter as the Warriors roared back.

Phoenix was just 5 of 20 from the field in the second, and Golden State pulled within two on Curry’s free throws with 19.6 seconds remaining in the half.

As time ran down, Jalen Green elevated for a 3-pointer from the wing and drained it for the Suns’ first field goal in more than five minutes to give Phoenix a 50-45 lead at the break.

Golden State’s Brandin Podziemski scored 10 of his team-high 23 points in the second. He also led the Warriors with 10 rebounds.

The Suns used an 11-1 run — featuring two 3-pointers from Jalen Green — to regain control in the third quarter.

Booker finished with 20 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Phoenix’s Jordan Goodwin added 19 points, nine rebounds and six steals.

“Truly that group in the locker room’s been special all year and was special again in the last three or four days, overcoming the disappointment and coming out and playing that hard against a team that has every solution in the book,” Ott said. “… Sometimes it just comes down to toughness.”

Curry recorded 17 points in the loss but was just 4 of 16 from the floor and 3 of 10 from 3-point range. De’Anthony Melton added 16 points and eight rebounds off the bench.

–Field Level Media

Paolo Banchero scored 25 points to lead five players in double figures for the host Orlando Magic, who advanced to the Eastern Conference playoffs by routing the Charlotte Hornets 121-90 in a play-in game on Friday night.

The Magic, who finished eighth during the regular season, earned the eighth seed and will face the top-seeded Pistons in a best-of-seven first-round series beginning Sunday night in Detroit.

This is the third straight trip to the playoffs for the Magic — the longest streak for the franchise since a team-record six straight appearances from 2007-12.

LaMelo Ball scored 23 points for the Hornets, who finished ninth in the East. Charlotte earned a dramatic 127-126 overtime win over the Miami Heat in the first play-in game Tuesday but missed the postseason for the 10th straight season — the NBA’s longest active drought.

Franz Wagner had 18 points while Wendell Carter Jr. finished with 16 for the Magic, who also received 13 from Desmond Bane and 12 from Jalen Suggs. Orlando shot 50% (42 of 84) from the field and 29.6% (8-for-27) from 3-point range.

“When you play with a sense of desperation and urgency, when you know you’re either going home or you’re extending your season, that’s what it looks like,” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said.

Miles Bridges scored 15 points, Brandon Miller had 14 and Kon Knueppel added 11 in Charlotte’s most lopsided loss of the season. The visitors shot just 33.7% (28 of 83) from the field and 26.7% (12 of 45) from beyond the arc.

Miller’s 3-pointer gave the Hornets their only lead at 5-4 with 9:58 left in the first quarter. The Magic scored the next 10 points, after which Bridges and Miller combined for five consecutive points.

The Magic responded by taking control with a 13-0 run as Carter and Banchero combined for 11 points to take a 27-10 lead. Goga Bitadze’s layup gave Orlando its first 20-point lead at 36-16 with 54 seconds left.

The Magic led by as many as 35 in the second before entering the half with a 68-37 advantage. Orlando led 102-71 at the end of the third and by as many as 33 in the fourth.

“I hope that this fuels us this offseason, because we did a ton of really good things and gave ourselves an opportunity — you’re one step away from being in the playoffs, so I don’t want to discredit that,” Hornets head coach Charles Lee said. “But this has got to, like, hurt a little bit.”

–Field Level Media

The New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks each were Cinderella stories the last time they opposed each other in the NBA playoffs.

Only the Hawks qualify for that moniker this time around.

The Knicks will begin a championship-or-bust pursuit when they host the Hawks in the first game of a best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series Saturday night.

The Knicks (53-29) earned the third seed in the East after recording their most wins since the 2012-13 season. The Hawks (46-36) finished in sixth place and clinched the final guaranteed playoff spot after racking up their most victories since the 2015-16 campaign.

But a successful regular season isn’t the goal for the Knicks, who reached the Eastern Conference finals last year for the first time since 2000 yet fired head coach Tom Thibodeau three days after being eliminated by the Indiana Pacers.

Thibodeau directed New York to four playoff berths in five years dating back to 2020-21 — or as many postseason appearances as the franchise made from 2001-02 through the 2019-20 seasons.

During a rare radio appearance in January, Knicks owner James Dolan said he believed the Knicks should “want to get to the Finals and we should win the Finals.” New York hasn’t won the NBA title since 1973 and hasn’t reached the championship round since 1999.

The Knicks did raise a trophy this season when they won the NBA Cup in December. But the team didn’t hoist a banner commemorating that championship — and any momentum generated by the title run disappeared during a 2-9 skid from Dec. 31 through Jan. 19.

The Knicks went 28-11 the rest of the way, including 15-10 against teams that either made the playoffs or participated in the play-in tournament.

“At the end of the day, we’ll be judged on what we do on this run,” Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said.

Expectations were lower for the Hawks, who never built on their deep playoff run in 2021. Led by polarizing point guard Trae Young, Atlanta beat the Knicks in five games that year on its way to reaching the conference finals for the second time since 1970.

The Hawks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2022 and 2023 before getting knocked out in the play-in tournament in 2024 and 2025. The Young era ended Jan. 7, when he was dealt to the Washington Wizards in exchange for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert.

At the time of the trade, Atlanta was 18-21 and sitting in ninth place in the East. But the Hawks won 28 of their final 43 games — including 20 of 26 following the All-Star Break, the third-best record in the NBA.

While Young played in just five games for the Wizards due to back and quad injuries, the 34-year-old McCollum averaged 18.7 points per game while Kispert collected 9.2 points per game as a key reserve over a combined 80 games.

“We’ve added stuff, we’ve taken stuff out, we’ve kind of evaluated what works, what doesn’t work and what’s going to work for this group,” McCollum said.

–Field Level Media

A pair of NBA legends will square off once more when the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets face off in a first-round series starting Saturday in Los Angeles.

Kevin Durant led the Rockets to the No. 5 seed in his first season with the team, while LeBron James has helped guide the Lakers to the No. 4 seed.

However, each team could be without significant firepower in the opener.

Durant is listed as questionable due to a bruised right knee.

Meanwhile, Lakers guards Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique) could end up missing the series entirely after both were injured in a 139-96 blowout loss at Oklahoma City on April 2. Both are officially out for Game 1.

The situation will thrust James back to the forefront at age 41, while in his record 23rd NBA season. Even while starting the season with a sciatica injury, it did not appear as if James lost a step, with averages of 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists in 60 games.

“He had not a good season, not a great (one), he had a remarkable season,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said. “All things considered, you take away the fact that he’s in his 23rd year and he’s 41 years old, he had a remarkable season.”

After three consecutive losses when Doncic and Reaves went down, the Lakers rebounded to win their final three games of the regular season to clinch the fourth seed. It was James who pulled the group together in a team meeting to make the late push.

“He’s very vocal,” the Lakers’ Rui Hachimura said. “… It’s big time for him.”

At age 37 and in his 18th season, Durant averaged 26.0 points with 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists. Perhaps most impressive of all was his 78 regular-season games played, his most since 2018-19.

“Of course, from the outside looking in, casual folks who are not in the life with us every day, yeah, the (playoff) matchup is definitely fun,” Durant said, according to The Sporting News. “Two great players who have been in the league for a long time, but everybody who’s involved in this series knows it’s much deeper than that.”

The rebounding total was Durant’s lowest since he was a rookie with the Seattle SuperSonics in 2007-08, but staying out of the fray inside likely helped to keep him fresh. The Rockets had plenty of rebounding, leading the NBA at 48.1 per game and 15.0 on the offensive end.

“It’s the best rebounding team in the last 25 years,” James said, anticipating the challenge ahead.

And it might have been even better had Steven Adams not gone down with an ankle injury in January.

While scoring can be a challenge for the Rockets at times, the focus on extending possession with offensive rebounds has served them well. While the Lakers led the NBA at 50.2% shooting from the floor, the Rockets were 10th at 47.9% and 18th at 115.2 points per game.

Alperen Sengun was as much of an all-around threat as Durant with 20.4 points, to go along with team bests in rebounding (8.9) and assists (6.2). Sengun’s passing ability helped to make up for the loss of Fred VanVleet, who tore his ACL in the preseason.

Amen Thompson added 18.3 points with 7.8 rebounds and Jabari Smith Jr. had 15.8 points with 6.9 rebounds.

Houston closed out the regular season by winning nine of its last 10 games, but it lost twice to the Minnesota Timberwolves since March 25 and dropped consecutive games to the Lakers in March at home.

–Field Level Media

Success came quickly for Toronto Raptors power forward Scottie Barnes, who won the Rookie of the Year award and got a taste of the playoffs four years ago.

Two All-Star selections followed, but a return to the postseason proved elusive until now.

The fifth-seeded Raptors will challenge the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in an Eastern Conference first-round series. Game 1 is Saturday in Cleveland.

“We knew from when we talked in training camp, that was our goal,” said Barnes, the only player in the league with 600 rebounds, 400 assists and 100 blocked shots in a single season. “I think we were all confident then that we could get it done. It’s just great that we went out and did it.”

Toronto (46-36) moved past the Atlanta Hawks on the final day of the regular season, locking it into a matchup with Donovan Mitchell, James Harden, Evan Mobley and the Cavaliers. Cleveland (52-30) is making its fourth consecutive playoff appearance.

The Raptors went 3-0 against the Cavaliers this season with Barnes averaging 20.0 points and team-highs of 10.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.0 blocks. Brandon Ingram scored 37 points in their final meeting on Nov. 24 and averaged 22.7 points in the set.

All three games occurred long before Cleveland acquired Harden in a trade-deadline deal with the Los Angeles Clippers. The Cavaliers were 19-7 with the future Hall of Famer in the lineup and won 35 of their final 49 contests.

“We’re a lot different team now,” said reigning Defensive Player of the Year Mobley, who was chosen one spot ahead of Barnes in the 2021 draft at No. 3. “We’ll have to adjust accordingly on how they play, but it’s a good matchup. Toronto has a lot of great players like Scottie and Brandon Ingram.”

Mobley and Barnes will always be linked because of their draft order and the low-key rivalry that developed with both playing the same position. Injuries limited Mobley to 65 games this season, but he still averaged 18.2 points, 9.0 rebounds and a career-high 1.7 blocks.

Their head-to-head battle was the main talking point in Toronto going into the series, while most in Cleveland remain focused on Harden’s elusive quest for a first championship in his 17th season. He has made the playoffs every year.

“It’s like a spin cycle, a lot of up and downs, once you get here,” Harden said. “A lot of different things happen in a game and in a series. Toronto is a really good team, but we’re prepared. We know what we need to do.”

Harden’s ability to execute in half-court sets gives the Cavaliers a dynamic they didn’t have in the last three postseasons. The ninth-leading scorer in NBA history also figures to attack Raptors point guard Immanuel Quickley, who is nursing a hamstring injury.

The shooting guard matchup pits Cleveland’s top scorer and face of the franchise, seven-time All-Star Mitchell, against RJ Barrett. Raptors center Jakob Poeltl said he will be “as physical as possible” against Cavaliers big man Jarrett Allen.

“You’re playing the same team over and over, so the deeper you go, the sets and plays have less value because everyone can scout,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said. “It’s more about the tendencies of the players and are you playing to their strengths or your strengths.”

Quickley was again limited to individual workouts Friday in Toronto. Cleveland’s only question mark is backup center Thomas Bryant (left calf strain), who last played on April 5 and appears unlikely to suit up.

This is the fourth time the teams will square off in the playoffs, where the Cavaliers eliminated the Raptors in the 2016 conference finals, and the 2017 and 2018 semifinals. Toronto was swept in the latter two series and is 0-7 all-time in playoff games in Cleveland.

“This is when we earn our money,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “The flowers are blooming, it’s warm and you just feel the energy. It’s like a renewal. Truly the best time of the year.”

–Field Level Media