With a 122-126 victory over the Memphis Grizzles on Saturday morning, the Portland Trail Blazers have officially clenched the 8th seed for the Western Conference playoffs. This game marks the first time the NBA has implemented a play-in format for the final playoff berth; in this case, the 9th seed Grizzles had to win Saturday's game in order to force a winner-takes-all match-up on Sunday – if they won that, then they would have made the playoffs instead. But, that didn't happen. The Trail Blazers, behind numerous big performances, managed to pull together a fourth-quarter rally to win the game by four. Players like CJ McCollum and Carmelo Anthony were major contributors in their late-game comeback, with McCollum scoring 12 of his 29 points in the final quarter (including 8 in the final 3:08), and Carmelo hitting a big 3-pointer with under 30 seconds remaining. Additionally, Damian Lillard tallied a double-double – 31 points and 10 assists – and Jusuf Nurkic put up 22 points and grabbed 21 rebounds. For the Grizzlies, Ja Morant led the way with 35 points and 8 assists, while Jonas Valanciunas scored 22 and grabbed 17 rebounds, but it wasn't enough. The Portland Trail Blazers will face the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs starting Tuesday.
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