{"id":578212,"date":"2026-04-11T16:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/578212\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:34:08","slug":"avdija-erupts-for-35-as-trail-blazers-pull-away-from-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/578212\/","title":{"rendered":"Avdija erupts for 35 as Trail Blazers pull away from Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/HFD3IDHZKVHLTN3OOK5I6N5ZDM.jpg\" alt=\"Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, left, shoots over Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija (8) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, April 10, 2026, in Portland, Ore.\" class=\"width_full\" style=\"aspect-ratio:8640 \/ 5760;width:100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, left, shoots over Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija (8) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, April 10, 2026, in Portland, Ore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__image-by color_dgray f_s_xxs m-none\">Jenny Kane \/ AP<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Deni Avdija scored 35 points, Donovan Clingan had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Clippers 116-97 on Friday night to take the inside track for the eighth seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">If Portland beats the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, the Blazers will secure their spot in the 7-8 play-in game on Tuesday in Phoenix against the Suns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Robert Williams 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<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 24 points and eight rebounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">After Portland took a 55-35 first-half lead, the Clippers stormed back. Jordan Miller\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 tied it at 82 on Portland\u2019s next possession.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">After the Clippers took an 88-86 lead with 11:06 left, Jrue Holiday tied the game at 88 with free throws and Williams gave Portland a 90-88 lead with 10:31 left.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">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<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Avdija made two foul shots to make it 99-90 with 4:51 left. Brook Lopez\u2019s 3-pointer with 4:36 left made it 99-93. Portland\u2019s Toumani Camara 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<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Avdija hit a 3-pointer with 2:41 left to make it 109-93 and Portland never looked back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Portland\u2019s Shaedon Sharpe returned after missing the last 28 games and finished with eight points in 15 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Up next<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Clippers: Host the Warriors on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Trail Blazers: Host the Kings on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">AP NBA: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, left, shoots over Portland Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija (8) during the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,227456,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-578212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-portland-trail-blazers-trail-blazers-basketball-nba-sports","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}