{"id":709968,"date":"2026-04-14T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709968\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T00:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:00:42","slug":"blazers-out-to-end-playoff-drought-face-suns-in-play-in-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709968\/","title":{"rendered":"Blazers out to end playoff drought, face Suns in play-in round"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phoenix coach Jordan Ott is confident regarding the host Suns<\/a>‘ mindset entering their play-in tournament game against the visiting Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be juiced and ready to rock,” Ott said as the Suns look to return to the postseason after missing out last year.<\/p>\n

Trail Blazers interim coach Tiago Splitter’s advice to his players comes from his seven seasons of NBA experience as a player, including five in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Portland has not made the playoffs since 2021, and it has not won a playoff series since 2019, when it fell to Golden State in the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

“Play free,” said Splitter, who won an NBA title with San Antonio in 2014.<\/p>\n

“You know, you can play that game super tense. It’s a balance between playing hard and playing free a little bit. You cannot be in fear. You just have to play hard and enjoy that.”<\/p>\n

The seventh-seeded Suns and eighth-seeded Trail Blazers begin the two-for-one round of the NBA extra season Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The winner advances to the eight-team playoffs, with Game 1 set for Sunday at the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

The loser has another chance — it will host a second play-in game Friday against the winner of the Los Angeles Clippers-Golden State Warriors contest Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Phoenix won two of three in the season series, winning twice in Portland but losing at home in the most recent meeting Feb. 22, a 92-77 win for the Blazers with both teams missing key pieces.<\/p>\n

Suns leading scorers Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks did not play, while Blazers leading scorer Deni Avdija left 59 seconds in after suffering a recurrence of a back injury.<\/p>\n

Ott held out Booker, Brooks and his other starters in the regular-season finale, a 135-103 win at Oklahoma City on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Booker and Brooks were rested, but questions surround the availability of Jalen Green (knee) and Jordan Goodwin (ankle), who left the Wednesday victory over Dallas with injuries.<\/p>\n

“Whoever’s available, we’ll make it work,” Ott said. “We know we are a competitive group. We have more than enough to go out there and play and play as hard as we possibly can.”<\/p>\n

Avdija had 25 points and 10 assists in the Blazers’ 122-120 victory over Sacramento that clinched the eighth seed Sunday, and 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan had his fourth straight double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Clingan had 23 points and 13 rebounds in the Feb. 22 game.<\/p>\n

The Blazers have won five of seven and seven of 10. The Suns have won six of the last 16, many of those without Brooks (fractured hand).<\/p>\n

“They’ve been playing well lately,” Ott said of Portland. “It’s a really good defense. They’re in a different coverage, where they just funnel everything to the big (Clingan).<\/p>\n

“They are super active, long on the wings, play super physical. Offensively they play fast in transition and they drive the basketball. It’ll be a challenge, the same challenge that we’ve seen with them before.”<\/p>\n

Splitter took over when Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups was placed on administrative leave after being arrested in October in a federal illegal gambling investigation.<\/p>\n

“Stuff happens,” Splitter said. “I think we went through everything you can imagine. Of course it is going to be a tough game. Jordan Ott is a great coach. A lot of pressure. You just have to enjoy that, knowing it is going to be part of their lives now, playing these important games.”<\/p>\n

–Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Field Level Media. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Field Level Media is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phoenix coach Jordan Ott is confident regarding the host Suns‘ mindset entering their play-in tournament game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,6,472,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-709968","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-phoenix-suns","12":"tag-portland","13":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","14":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","15":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116400123522054894","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709968","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=709968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}