The Portland Trail Blazers booked their ticket to the playoffs by beating the Phoenix Suns 114-110 at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Tuesday in the play-in tournament. The Suns stunningly blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead to lose this one, and superstar guard Devin Booker was asked what went wrong for his team in his postgame press conference.
“I think defensively letting Deni [Avdija] get downhill and make plays and score and get in our paint,” Booker said, via the Suns. “And me missing five free throws.”
Booker shot 87.3% for the free-throw line this season, but went 8-13 (61.5%) here against the Trail Blazers. The five-time All-Star notably missed one with 2:12 left in the fourth quarter as the Suns’ lead was dwindling.
Booker also went 0-3 from the field in the fourth to finish with 22 points (7-17 FG), one rebound, four assists, and one steal on the night. While the 29-year-old was far from his best, Trail Blazers star Deni Avdija was on an absolute roll.
Avdija had 41 points (15-22 FG), seven rebounds, 12 assists, and two blocks to power the Trail Blazers to victory. The 25-year-old came up big when it mattered most, scoring 14 points and dishing out three assists in the fourth quarter.
Avdija and the Trail Blazers will now take on the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. As for Booker and the Suns, they’ll be involved in a do-or-die contest with either the ninth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers or the 10th-seeded Golden State Warriors. The winner will face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder, while the loser will go home.
The Suns should never have been in this position after building up that double-digit lead in the fourth quarter. They did have some trouble in the fourth in the latter stages of this season, and Booker highlighted that issue here.
“That’s been the story of the end of our season so far, and I think we just need to remain aggressive,” Booker said. “Think we get a little lead and kind of slow down a little bit, and that’s not what got us the lead in the first place. So just continue to play to the next action and continue to play faster.”
That’s a mistake the Suns have to avoid next time around, or else this feel-good season will end on a pretty bad note. They were expected to be one of the worst teams in the league this season after trading Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets in the offseason, but became one of the biggest surprises instead.
The Suns posted a respectable 45-38 record to finish seventh in the Western Conference. They would have finished higher, too, if not for the injury bug. Booker played 64 games, while Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, who they got in return for Durant, played 56 and 32, respectively.
Green was the Suns’ best player against the Trail Blazers with 35 points (14-29 FG), five rebounds, two assists, and one block. He had a chance to give the hosts the lead in the closing stages, but his potential game-winning three-pointer was off the mark.
