The Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Sacramento Kings 122-110 at the Moda Center on Sunday in an uneventful regular-season finale, but the win won’t be the finale of Portland’s season.
For the first time in five years, the Trail Blazers captured a winning record (42-40) and will head into postseason play as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. Now all eyes in Portland turn to a road showdown with the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday in the NBA Play-In Tournament. The winner will secure the No. 7 seed in the NBA Playoffs
and the right to play the San Antonio Spurs in the First Round.
Whether it’s the younger players ready for a novel experience, veteran players ready to return, or fans ready to root on meaningful basketball games again after years of rebuilding, Rip City is eager to experience the long-awaited taste of postseason action.
“It’s gonna be a tough game, tough environment, but it’s going to be awesome for our guys to experience that and go through that type of match,” Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter said. “A lot of guys are craving to be in that situation, especially the young guys.”
For Portland’s younger players — guys like Toumani Camara, Donovan Clingan, Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Kris Murray and even All-Star Deni Avdija — the Play-In matchup will mark their first NBA postseason game. During the previous two seasons, Murray hit the golf course or made vacation plans in mid-April. Henderson spent these spring days watching his contemporaries battle in the Playoffs on TV, daydreaming about when it would be his turn to play on that stage. Unable to clock out this time around, both third-year pros are more than happy to prolong their offseason plans as long as possible.
“This is a little different, but I wouldn’t trade this for the world,” Murray said. “I want to play ‘til June, and I’d be fine with that. I don’t want to have offseason workouts in the first week of May. … [Golf] can wait.”
“I think it’s gonna be a good atmosphere,” Henderson added about the upcoming Phoenix matchup. “All odds against us. Young players on the team. … I think it’s a good chance to showcase who I am, who we are as a team.”
A lot is made about that Playoff atmosphere in professional sports and all that comes with it. Portland’s veteran players know what it’s like. Blazers eighth-year center Robert Williams III has played in 56 Playoff games in his career, including a trip to the NBA Finals in 2022, all with the Boston Celtics. Even though he’s more of a laid-back personality, Williams said he and fellow vets Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant have been more vocal recently, trying to prepare their uninitiated teammates for what’s to come.
“One thousand percent,” Williams told Blazer’s Edge about whether players have to experience the postseason intensity first-hand before understanding it. “Even leading up to the Playoffs, the last five games of the season, we’ve seen a big jump. It’s a very possessional game. You see it once you get there.”
“The intensity is different,” added Holiday, Portland’s most Playoff-experienced player and a two-time NBA champion. “What’s on the line is different. The refs are different — I don’t know if that’s gonna get me fined. It’s a lot more aggressive. I think the games come down to possessions a lot more and who makes more plays.”
The Blazers weren’t only talking about the postseason down the season’s stretch run, they were trying to implement the required mentality and actions on the court, too. Murray said the veterans did a good job of making the team approach each game down the stretch as “postseason-ish,” with an added emphasis on ball security and shot selection. Williams highlighted the two recent wins against the Los Angeles Clippers as games that carried a Playoff intensity. They boosted Portland’s confidence and provided a blueprint for the requisite approach to games with higher stakes.
“It’s a possession game,” Williams said. “Every possession, every turnover, every second really, really matters when it comes down to it.”
While Tuesday’s meeting in Phoenix will carry higher stakes and a more palpable intensity, Holiday made it clear this Blazers squad isn’t a Playoff team yet; they have to advance through the Play-In to earn that title.
“No, no,” said Holiday bluntly, shaking his head. “Making the Playoffs is making the Playoffs.”
So why should you have confidence in this young, unproven team to perform in their first chance under brighter lights? In response to that question, Splitter said he believes in his players because they’ve already battled through trials and tribulations all season to reach this point. From the team’s head coach getting arrested after Game 1 to a myriad of injuries making the road difficult, the Blazers have done well to reach this point of the season with a winning record and the chance for more.
The obstacles they face now are the welcomed kind.
“I think we went through everything that you can imagine, right?” Splitter said. “But of course, it’s gonna be a tough game. [There’s] a lot of pressure, pressure that we are putting on ourselves and external pressure, so it’s just part of it. You gotta enjoy that, know that that’s gonna be a part of their lives now — playing those important games, Playoff games, Play-In games. It doesn’t get better than that. You start playing basketball for meaningful basketball, and that’s what it is: the postseason.”
