Jalen Green’s huge night
Jalen Green scored 36 points on 14‑of‑20 shooting, including eight 3s, in Phoenix’s play‑in win — he’s now one of only two players with back‑to‑back 35+ point games in play‑in history, joining Stephen Curry. (x.com) That victory sends the Suns into a first‑round date with Oklahoma City on Sunday. (x.com)
Phoenix is in the playoffs after Jalen Green put up 36 points in a 111-96 play-in win over Golden State on Friday night. (nba.com) Green shot 14-for-20 from the field and 8-for-14 from 3-point range, while Devin Booker added 20 points for the Suns in the West’s No. 8 seed game. (apnews.com) The win ended Golden State’s season and sent Phoenix into a first-round series against Oklahoma City, with Game 1 set for Sunday, April 19. (nba.com) Green had already scored 35 points in Phoenix’s first play-in game against Portland on April 14, giving him back-to-back 35-point play-in games in the same week. (nba.com) That put him alongside Stephen Curry as the only players with consecutive 35-point games in play-in tournament history, according to the league’s live play-in roundup. (nba.com) Phoenix needed both performances. The Suns finished the play-in by beating Portland and then Golden State, turning a two-game sprint into the franchise’s path back into the Western Conference bracket. (nba.com) The matchup also underscored how different Phoenix looks now. Green arrived from Houston in the Kevin Durant trade, and on Friday he delivered the highest-scoring game of his Suns tenure in the season’s biggest spot. (sports.yahoo.com) Now the reward is Oklahoma City, the defending NBA champion, less than 48 hours after Green shot Phoenix into the field. (apnews.com)
