Suns Blew Near 100% Win Probability vs Trail Blazers

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns now enter win or go home territory following their Tuesday night loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, a win that felt nearly impossible to fumble before the Suns made it happen.

The Suns, leading by 11 with under seven minutes to play, held a 95.8% win probability according to ESPN before unraveling in front of their home crowd at Mortgage Matchup Center.

Phoenix slowly but surely saw their double digit advantage disappear after Portland went on a 25-10 run to close out the game and pull off the upset.

"Some of the fourth quarter offense comes down to, get your matchup on who you want, similar to how they did it. We get the space around them. I thought at times we definitely could have got space better in that moment, but it really came down to stops," Suns coach Jordan Ott told reporters following the loss.

Both teams opted for small-ball lineups in the final minutes of crunch time.

"I thought all night we really struggled to keep them out of the paint, which they're elite at. We shored up the offensive rebounding piece there for a portion of time, kept them to one shot. Our one shot defense was pretty good early. It was really the offensive rebounds or the team rebounds they kept getting there in the first half," Ott continued.

"So again, it comes down to — we talked about possession game, we lost the possession game. Two, four-point game, we lost the possession game by three. Some of those key moments we weren't able to come up with one, or we weren't able to get an offensive rebound when we mightily needed it."

The Suns failed to clinch the seventh seed and ultimately a more advantageous first round matchup against the San Antonio Spurs. Now, if they do advance on Friday, they're set for a date with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Yet Friday night's task, albeit at home, could prove to be difficult. The Suns await the winner of tonight's Los Angeles Clippers vs Golden State Warriors battle, and either side could ensure Phoenix goes 0-2 in play-in tournament festivities.

"The goal is get in, just get in any way possible," said Ott. "It's been our goal for a while. So we got to move on. Got to move on. It sucks. These are hard to take, but there's stuff to learn in here that we got to learn fast and do everything we can to get ready for Friday night."

Phoenix, if they lose, would become the first seventh seed since the inception of the play-in tournament to not make the playoffs.