Deni Avdija recorded 25 points, 10 assists and six rebounds and the Portland Trail Blazers secured the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference with a 122-110 victory over the visiting Sacramento Kings in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Jrue Holiday added 23 points and seven rebounds for Portland (42-40), which will play beyond the regular season for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign.
Toumani Camara and Scoot Henderson added 15 points apiece and Donovan Clingan had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Trail Blazers.
Portland will visit the No. 7 Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night in the play-in round. The winner goes directly to the NBA playoffs while the loser will have a second opportunity on Friday.
Precious Achiuwa registered 27 points and 11 rebounds and Nique Clifford added 24 points and seven rebounds for the Kings. Maxime Raynaud had 21 points and nine rebounds for Sacramento (22-60), which finished with the second-most losses in franchise history. The Kings went 17-65 in 2008-09.
Sacramento was without DeMar DeRozan (hamstring) for the third straight game.
Holiday’s 20-footer gave Portland a 118-104 lead with 2:51 remaining and he knocked down a driving bank shot 42 seconds later as the Trail Blazers wrapped up the No. 8 seed in style.
Portland began the day with the same record as the Los Angeles Clippers but holding the tiebreaker advantage. The Clippers finished beating the Golden State Warriors shortly after the Trail Blazers closed out their win. Los Angeles is the No. 9 seed and will host No. 10 Golden State on Wednesday.
The Trail Blazers shot 46.5% from the field, including 16 of 46 from 3-point range, while finishing 4-0 against the Kings this season.
Sacramento made 48.2% of its shots and was 7 of 21 from behind the arc.
Portland outscored the Kings 44-24 in the second quarter to hold a 77-57 halftime lead. Avdija had 17 points in the half for the Trail Blazers while Achiuwa and Clifford scored 14 apiece in the half for Sacramento.
The Kings darted out of the gates in the third quarter with eight straight points as part of a 17-4 burst. Raynaud capped it with a dunk to bring Sacramento within 81-74 with 6:43 left in the period.
Portland pushed its lead back to 13 on Henderson’s three-point play with 2:40 left in the quarter.
The Trail Blazers led 96-84 entering the final stanza. Sacramento was within single digits at 104-95 as Doug McDermott buried a 3-pointer with 8:13 to play before Portland went on a finishing kick.
–Field Level Media
