The Chicago Bulls are getting another first-round pick in the 2026 NBA draft.<\/p>\n
The Portland Trail Blazers conveyed the No. 15 pick in the draft to the Bulls after edging out the Phoenix Suns in the Nos. 7-8 seed game of the Western Conference play-in tournament on Tuesday. The pick was protected unless the Trail Blazers made the playoffs, adding extra stakes to this year\u2019s play-in tournament even though the Bulls were eliminated from postseason contention.<\/p>\n
Deni Avdija scored 41 points \u2014 including a go-ahead 3-point play with 16.1 seconds left \u2014 and the Trail Blazers clawed back from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Suns 114-110 in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Jordan Goodwin drove for a layup to give the Suns a 110-109 lead with 32 seconds left, but Avdija, who also had 12 assists, responded with a physical take to the rim, making a layup while getting fouled and making the free throw for a 112-110 lead.<\/p>\n
The Suns had a chance to go back ahead, but Jalen Green\u2019s 3-pointer was off the mark. Goodwin grabbed the offensive rebound but was stripped by Matisse Thybulle to seal the win for the Blazers.<\/p>\n
Portland earned the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and will face the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. The Suns will host the winner of the Clippers-Warriors game on Friday. Whoever wins will earn the No. 8 seed and face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the playoffs. The loser\u2019s season is over.<\/p>\n
The final few minutes were white-knuckle basketball with the lead changing several times.<\/p>\n
Jerami Grant \u2014 who returned after missing the final seven games of the regular season because of a calf injury \u2014 made a corner 3-pointer to give the Trail Blazers a 107-106 lead with 1:54 left. Devin Booker responded with a pair of free throws for a 108-107 lead, but Avdija made a finger roll at the rim for a 109-108 lead with 37.3 seconds left.<\/p>\n
Green led the Suns with 35 points. Booker had 22.<\/p>\n
The Blazers led 83-82 going into the fourth despite shooting just 1 of 11 on 3-pointers in the third quarter. Phoenix pushed to its first lead of the second half when Green made a jumper on the opening possession of the fourth.<\/p>\n
It was the start of an 11-0 run that gave the Suns a 93-83 advantage. Royce O\u2019Neale\u2019s steal and 3-pointer put Phoenix ahead 98-87 with 7:13 remaining, but that\u2019s when the Blazers started their comeback.<\/p>\n
The Suns led 33-31 after one quarter, but the Trail Blazers pushed to a 55-41 advantage by midway through the second. Phoenix bounced back to cut the deficit to 65-62 at the break after Green completed a four-point play \u2014 hitting a 3 while being fouled \u2014 with one second remaining.<\/p>\n
This pick swap between the Bulls and Trail Blazers is a final lingering mechanism from a 2021 three-team trade that sent Lauri Markkanen to the Cleveland Cavaliers. In a deep draft year, the Bulls will have a crucial additional option to add to a rebuild focused on developing young talent.<\/p>\n
The Tribune\u2019s Julia Poe contributed to this report. The Associated Press\u2019 David Brandt reported from Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bulls are getting another first-round pick in the 2026 NBA draft. The Portland Trail Blazers conveyed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":729144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[184828,960,3127,5386,1818,3526,301773,1721,3133],"class_list":["post-729143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-2026-nba-draft","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-lauri-markkanen","tag-nba-play-in-tournament","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-portland-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116407448884926797","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}