{"id":707954,"date":"2026-04-11T06:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707954\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T06:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:01:13","slug":"trail-blazers-pull-away-down-the-stretch-to-beat-clippers-116-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707954\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail Blazers pull away down the stretch to beat Clippers, 116-97"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 The Portland Trail Blazers moved up into the No. 8 spot in the West, overtaking the LA Clippers with a convincing 116-97 home win on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Portland used a 17-2 run in the first half to take quick command of the game only to see the Clippers score the first two buckets of the fourth quarter to move ahead 88-86. But the Blazers responded with a 23-5 run, sparked by a pair of driving dunks by Robert Williams III.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told the guys they are going to make runs, we have to be patient and resilient,\u201d Blazers coach Tiago Splitter said.<\/p>\n<p>Deni Avdija led the Blazers with 35 points, while Donovan Clingan added 18 points and 13 rebounds.<\/p>\n<p>Portland bench outscored the Clippers 40-21 &#8212; a 19-point advantage that matched the final margin of victory. Williams III led the bench effort with 13 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n<p>Portland (41-40) secures the No. 8 seed and a winning record for the season if they beat Sacramento on Sunday night at Moda Center. The Blazers would also be that No. 8 seed if the Clippers lose to Golden State on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>With the No. 8 seed, Portland would play at Phoenix on Tuesday night with the winner clinching a playoff berth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) \u2014 The Portland Trail Blazers moved up into the No. 8 spot in the West,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-707954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-portland","12":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","13":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","14":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116384559835860891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}