The NBA bubble got a dream play-in game between Ja Morant’s Memphis Grizzlies and Damian Lillard’s Portland Trail Blazers. Here’s what we learned.
The NBA instilled a play-in format going into the bubble restart in Orlando. The Portland Trail Blazers of Damian Lillard and Ja Morant‘s Memphis Grizzlies are the first two teams to compete in this scenario, with both teams vying for the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference, finishing out the playoff bracket in the NBA bubble.
In the new play-in format, Portland needed to beat Memphis only once to advance. On the other hand, the Grizzlies needed to win two games against the Blazers in order to advance to the playoffs. The reward for both of these ball clubs is a first-round matchup against the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.
But before we look ahead to the first round of the playoffs, here’s a look at a couple of interesting trends coming into this all-important game. Coming into the restart, the Grizzlies were in the eighth spot while the Blazers were on the outside looking in.
Unfortunately for Memphis, they didn’t fare too well during the eight-game seeding tournament. Sure, they did produce a 119-106 victory in a recent outing against the Milwaukee Bucks. However, that was just the second win for the Grizzlies over the past eight games and the Bucks didn’t roll out their A-squad.
Conversely, the Trail Blazers have gone 6-2 during that same stretch, thanks in part to the outstanding play of their All-Star point guard Damian Lillard. In fact, Lillard had posted at least 40 points in four of the team’s past five outings.
Simply put, the Grizzlies were going to have to limit Lillard if they had any hopes of forcing a second game between these two teams on Sunday. The Trail Blazers lead by 12 points (31-19) after one and they extended that advantage to as many as 16 points in the first half.
With their season literally on the line, though, Memphis outscored Portland 75-58 over the next two quarters to take a 94-89 lead into the final frame. The teams treated NBA fans to a back-and-forth battle in the final 12 minutes. When it was all said and done, the Trail Blazers came away with a hard-fought 126-122 victory, nabbing the final berth in the western conference.
Here’s a look at the most notable takeaways from this play-in contest.