Portland locks No. 7

Portland is back in the playoffs after beating Phoenix 114-110 on Tuesday night and claiming the Western Conference’s No. 7 seed. (nba.com) The Trail Blazers won the seven-versus-eight play-in game on April 14 in Phoenix, which sends the winner straight into the bracket and leaves the loser to play again for the No. 8 seed. (nba.com) Deni Avdija scored 41 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had seven assists, and his three-point play with 16.1 seconds left put Portland ahead for good. (apnews.com) Portland erased an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit, while Phoenix got 35 points from Jalen Green and 22 from Devin Booker in the loss. (espn.com) The play-in tournament is the National Basketball Association’s four-team mini-bracket for seeds seven through 10 in each conference. The No. 7 and No. 8 teams get two chances to win one game and reach the playoffs. (nba.com) That format mattered for Portland because the Trail Blazers finished the regular season 42-40, one game behind Phoenix at 45-37, but still grabbed the higher remaining playoff seed by winning head-to-head in the play-in. (nba.com) The win ended Portland’s first postseason drought since 2021, when the franchise last reached the playoffs and lost in the first round to Denver. (katu.com) (basketball-reference.com) Now the bracket sends Portland to San Antonio for a first-round series against the No. 2 seed Spurs, with Game 1 scheduled for Sunday, April 19. (sports.yahoo.com) (nba.com) Phoenix is still alive, but only for the No. 8 seed. The Suns play the Golden State Warriors on Friday, April 17, with the winner advancing to face the Oklahoma City Thunder. (nba.com) For Portland, the play-in did exactly what it was built to do: turn one April game into a playoff gate, and the Trail Blazers walked through it. (nba.com)