The Portland Trail Blazers may not be classically good at basketball, but they sure know how to put on a show. The Blazers walked into the 2026 NBA Playoffs as the 7th seed on Tuesday night by virtue of a 114-110 win against the Phoenix Suns in the league’s annual Play-In Tournament. Portland will now face the San Antonio Spurs in a best-of-seven first-round series beginning on Sunday evening.
The game in Phoenix was thrilling, equal parts triumph and tragedy. Most of Portland’s weaknesses got exposed
for all the world to see. Then they overcame every one of them, finishing the evening with some clutch shooting and a key defensive play that would seal the win after they trailed for much of the fourth quarter.
Here’s how the game went, complete with analysis points that might or might not come to bear as the Blazers take on the Spurs next week.
Ups and Downs
As has been their habit all season, the Blazers won and lost this game at least six times on their way to the final buzzer.
Portland started out dismally, getting roasted by a Suns team that made 9 of their first 11 shots. After falling behind by 8 early, the Blazers mounted a rally, less by accurate shooting than by volume shooting. Sheer number of shots on Portland’s side kept the game close until the ignition lit in the offensive rocket.
That happened towards the end of the first period and the beginning of the second. Portland’s threes started to fall. Phoenix wilted under the onslaught. The Blazers went ahead by double digits, looking dominant.
Nothing comes easy to Portland, though. The Suns, with every initiative blunted, suddenly came alive. The last few minutes of the first half featured a Phoenix onslaught capped by a four-point play in the final seconds, leaving the score 65-62, Portland, at the half.
In the third period the Blazers appeared to be walking uphill in a hailstorm in roller skates. Turnovers, to this point a non-factor in the game, popped up like daisies in a spring field. Portland would score only 18 in the period.
Thank goodness for them, Phoenix only managed 20. Portland’s defense remained strong…at least for a bit.
In the fourth, Dillon Brooks led the Suns to a massive comeback, putting Portland down by double digits again, by 8 with 3:30 remaining in the game. The Blazers couldn’t get a good shot to save their lives, let alone hit one.
Then, like a miracle, three-pointers and drives sprouted out of the desert. Between that and some stout defensive stands, the Blazers whittled the lead down to a point, then took the lead again. After that it was back and forth for the final two minutes until a Deni Avdija drive and a Jerami Grant strip gave Portland the win.
Suns in the Midrange
Phoenix had a pretty simple offensive game plan: hit the Blazers where they aren’t. The book on Portland’s defense is clear: big guys retreat into the lane to prevent layups, perimeter defenders cover the three-point arc. No easy threes, no layups: that’s how Portland rolls.
Unfortunately for the Blazers, the Suns have the midrange game in their back pocket. Devin Booker is a master at it. His teammates followed suit. The Suns spent most of the first half shooting short jumpers like they were running practice drills. Get Portland retreating, pull up before they can reverse course…BOOM.
It’s pretty sure San Antonio will watch tape on this. Midrange shots are not in favor in the modern game, but the Blazers may provide an exception for opponents.
Deni Foils the Plan
Phoenix also had a nice plan on defense. They played the passing lanes, all but disrespecting Portland’s scorers, daring them to toss the ball to somebody, anybody that mattered. Suns defenders were 2-3 feet off of Portland’s ball handlers, dealing with picks by going around them, completely careless about whether a shot went up as long as it wasn’t inside. It was total disrespect for Portland’s individual scoring ability.
Scoot Henderson brought the ball up and the Phoenix plan worked. Jrue Holiday brought the ball up and the Phoenix plan worked. If the Blazers even could pass—and often they couldn’t effectively with Phoenix in the middle ground—the ball went into the hands of a player already covered.
Then Deni Avdija showed up.
Beginning with the second quarter, Deni started taking over the ball, as is his wont. The first time a Phoenix defender backed off of him, he okie-doked and blew by them for a layup. After that, the Suns started sending three sagging defenders on every Avdija drive. Remember that passing-lane defense Phoenix was so proud of? It went to hell. Deni’s passes were ludicrously easy. They might as well have been straight off of the whiteboard.
Avdija became a one-man wrecking crew. When the Blazers needed a critical bucket late, down one, seconds left, Deni called for the clear out, blew past Dillon Brooks, converted the layup and the three-point play that gave Brooks his 6th foul. Damnnnn. And that was just the cherry on the sundae. Phoenix had no answer for Avdija, who finished the game with a season-high 41 points on 15-22 shooting plus 12 assists and 7 rebounds against 5 turnovers. He was everything in this one.
Two Scoots
Scoot Henderon’s progression in this game was a microcosm of his career. He started the game. His opening shift was gruesome. He got destroyed by Jalen Green, allowing the Suns youngster to get off to a burning hot start in a game the Blazers wanted him to blow. In the process, Henderson picked up two quick fouls. He looked completely overwhelmed by the moment.
After some time on the bench to reconsider, Scoot came in and played a great second period. He got aggressive on the outside, hounding passes and dribblers. He hit a couple of clutch jumpers. All of a sudden he was the promising hyper-athlete instead of the over-his-head eternal rookie.
Henderson ended up with 9 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, a block, and 2 turnovers in 17 minutes. It wasn’t a big night, but it was a hugely efficient one after that opening misstep. Like the Blazers, I guess you don’t count Scoot out.
Overcoming Adversity
Portland got bad news to start the game, as the referees called the action pretty tightly. That favored the more finesse-oriented Suns, hobbling Portland’s physicality. The opening minutes of the game sounded like a full-on Rio de Janeiro Mardis Gras parade for all the whistles, most of them against Portland.
The Blazers began to complain. That was a dangerous moment for them. Nobody wins a game against the guys in gray. But soon after they did what they needed to: buckling down, driving and drawing fouls themselves, and most importantly, shaking off the distraction and playing basketball. Calls went both ways all night. Our own Blazer’s Edge Game Day threads were boosted by 15% from complaints about the officiating. The Phoenix crowd in attendance started so many, “Refs, you suck!” chants that Kurt Angle thought about coming out of retirement.
In the end, that didn’t really matter. Hard play, execution, and keeping heads in the game did. That’s a VALUABLE lesson for the Blazers. Even if it doesn’t benefit them this year, someday when they are playing in postseason games with a ton more on the line, remembering how they broke through the perceived injustice will allow them to dispense with B.S. and succeed.
Indeed, towards the end of the game the Blazers were doing what they were supposed to. When a call went against them, they made their feelings about it known, then they turned around, shut their mouths, and got back to business. That’s the perfect way to handle it. Full marks for the maturity.
Holiday Road
Other Blazers had bigger stats, but Jrue Holiday played a huge role tonight calming down his team and leading the way. Whatever magic Avdija worked as an individual, Holiday cast in a 10-foot radius over his team.
When Phoenix wanted to hyperactivate their defense and confuse Portland into turnovers and bad shots, Holiday said, “Really? Please.” with all the world-weariness of a grandma who has been THROUGH it and isn’t in the mood to take foolishness.
Jrue had some nice individual moves and hit open shots, but mostly he duplicated the Suns’ trick of hitting where the opponent wasn’t. Gonna play that passing lane? Two dribbles and a shot. Decided to play up on the drive now? Past you we go for a pass to an open shooter! It wasn’t what Holiday did as much as how easily he did it. He re-simplified this game back to basic basketball despite the stakes, the pressure, the adversity of the refs, the crowd, youth, opponent antics, or whatever.
Though he flagged a bit in the second half, Holiday proved his worth. It came precisely in having played approximately 8000 games just like it. Whatever you think of the Blazers adopting Jrue—and there are good arguments either way—nights like this show exactly why Joe Cronin and company did it.
Holiday’s final tally was 21 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers in 38 minutes. Tiago Splitter relied on Jrue tonight through everything. It paid off.
Kris Murray Emerges from Phone Booth
The Blazers got an unexpected boost from a guy whose regular season ended in a tailspin. When Henderson went down, Kris Murray stepped up. Longer than Scoot, also somewhat calmer at that point, Murray stayed in front of his man, got his hands into the chests of shooters, and even made some heady plays on offense. He looked smooth as heck, in control of his athleticism and using every bit of it. He had 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block. His plus-minus read +10 in 12 minutes of play. Nice hidden contribution from the deeper bench.
Sharpe Crushes It, Grant Picks It Up
Shaedon Sharpe had the highlight of the game: an early alley-oop from Avdija that had Suns fans holding their cheeks like the Home Alone kid. He also had a critical assist, a nice running play, and a REALLY good defensive stand against Devin Booker in crunch time. Throughout the game he commanded respect from the Suns’ defense. It was a compact effort but a good one. 12 points on 4-7 shooting in 21 minutes.
Portland’s other recently-returned bench player, Jerami Grant, didn’t fare as well for most of the night. He had trouble defending and shooting, looking slow and ground-bound, begging for whistles. He didn’t get them. What he did get was a couple of super-clutch three-pointers late in the game to save his team’s chances. Literally everybody else was missing at that point, so Grant proved extra valuable despite the generally tough outing. Then, to top things off, Grant stripped Jordan Goodwin to prevent Phoenix from tying the game with an offensive rebound put-back at the last second of regulation. Jerami hit 4-8 threes on his way to 16 points in 19 minutes of play. If Sharpe was efficient, Grant was doubly so…all thanks to that late rally.
Brooks and Done
Devin Booker had 22 points. None of them were devastating. The Blazers kept Toumani Camara on him, with an occasional dose of Shaedon Sharpe on the switch. It worked pretty well. Avdija outpacing Booker 41-22 in scoring was a big determining factor in the outcome.
Jalen Green had a great game: 35 points in 39 minutes on 14-29 shooting. At the end of the day, that’s going to cause weeping and gnashing of teeth in Phoenix. The Suns are supposed to win when Green does that.
But the real hero of the game for Phoenix was Dillon Brooks. When Phoenix started to falter, Brooks put on his Angry Muppet act, whaling and flailing his way across the court, driving with flair and authority, igniting the crowd and teammates alike. He had a critical layup in the final minute when the Blazers were focused on Booker. It was almost his game. No such luck in the end though. As mentioned above, he fouled out defending Avdija and had to watch his team lose from the bench.
Brooks reminds me of Danny Ainge a little bit: the player you HATE when he’s on someone else’s team but love when he plays for your side. Brooks had 20 points on 6-10 shooting with 7 rebounds and 4 steals.
Live By It, Die By It
The Blazers were rolling with three-pointers in this game right up until the point they weren’t. There was no magic to it. They passed for open shots that fell in the first half. Those same shots were off in the second. Unsurprisingly, the game got a lot harder when the misses started. Even worse, Portland got tunnel vision from the arc in the second half. The long shots were relieved only by the occasional Avdija drive. It wasn’t the right look when they needed to match Phoenix’s energy instead of just their point production.
As we relayed, the touch returned when it needed to. Praise be. Portland ended up shooting 17-47, 36%, beyond the arc for the evening. If you can’t make ‘em all, at least make a lot, right? Compare this to Phoenix at 9-25 and you see why. That’s also a 36% success rate, but one 36 is not like the other, especially in a game decided by 4 points at the end.
Almost Disintegration
Towards the end of the game Portland’s defense let them down. Remember the opening paragraph of this post, the one about the midrange? The Blazers remained vulnerable to those shots throughout, but as the game wound on their feet slowed. By the fourth quarter, the Suns were no longer shooting in the middle regions because they didn’t have to. They got layups and threes. They made both.
I think you have to credit Portland’s inexperience for some of their struggles as well. With 4:00 left they had the margin down to 2. With the very shot that closed the gap—an Avdija three—Donovan Clingan committed a senseless flagrant foul to give two points back. Then Sharpe got the ball at the top of the arc with a clear shot, but he hesitated, passed it up, drove into traffic, and committed an ugly turnover. Much of the late game was like that for the Blazers: shooting when they should have dribbled, dribbling when they should have passed, stalling when they should have shot. It was like watching someone learn to dance, somewhat endearing in the right light, but also awkward.
Thank all the stars and a few planets too for Avdija and Grant at the close, for Toumani Camara and Grant on the defensive end too. The Blazers put themselves in a position to take the game. After all the set-up from all the others, the backbone players and a timely veteran took it home.
On to the next.
Up Next
Game 1 of the First Round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs for the Trail Blazers will commence on Sunday, April 19th at 6:00 PM, Pacific, to be televised on NBC. Join us all week long as we preview that series and the matchups involved. One miracle down. Four wins to the next.
