{"id":596568,"date":"2026-04-11T07:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T07:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596568\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T07:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T07:40:07","slug":"deni-avdija-erupts-for-35-as-portland-trail-blazers-pull-away-from-los-angeles-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596568\/","title":{"rendered":"Deni Avdija erupts for 35 as Portland Trail Blazers pull away from Los Angeles Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 Deni Avdija<\/a> scored 35 points, Donovan Clingan<\/a> had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> beat the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> 116-97 on Friday night to take the inside track for the eighth seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

If Portland beats the Sacramento Kings<\/a> on Sunday, the Blazers will secure their spot in the 7-8 play-in game on Tuesday in Phoenix against the Suns.<\/p>\n

Robert Williams<\/a> III had 13 points and 10 rebounds as Portland outrebounded the Clippers 46-35 and won the turnover battle despite leading the league in turnovers.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard<\/a> led the Clippers with 24 points and eight rebounds.<\/p>\n

After Portland took a 55-35 first-half lead, the Clippers stormed back. Jordan Miller<\/a>\u2019s 3-pointer gave the Clippers their first lead since the first quarter at 82-79 with 2:05 left in the third. But the lead was short-lived as Matisse Thybulle<\/a> tied it at 82 on Portland\u2019s next possession.<\/p>\n

After the Clippers took an 88-86 lead with 11:06 left, Jrue Holiday<\/a> tied the game at 88 with free throws and Williams gave Portland a 90-88 lead with 10:31 left.<\/p>\n

Williams scored on a dunk with 8:22 left to make it 92-88, forcing a timeout. Leonard missed a jumper out of the timeout and Avdija\u2019s 3-point play made it 95-88 with 7:41 left.<\/p>\n

Avdija made two foul shots to make it 99-90 with 4:51 left. Brook Lopez<\/a>\u2019s 3-pointer with 4:36 left made it 99-93. Portland\u2019s Toumani Camara<\/a> made it 101-93 on Portland\u2019s next possession. Lopez was called for a technical foul with 3:26 left and Avdija made the shot to make it 104-93.<\/p>\n

Avdija hit a 3-pointer with 2:41 left to make it 109-93 and Portland never looked back.<\/p>\n

Portland\u2019s Shaedon Sharpe<\/a> returned after missing the last 28 games and finished with eight points in 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Clippers: Host the Warriors on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Trail Blazers: Host the Kings on Saturday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n

Erik Garc\u00eda Gundersen, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 Deni Avdija scored 35 points, Donovan Clingan had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-596568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}