The field is set

Portland wins, wraps up last available spot in upcoming NBA playoffs.

A fourth consecutive down-to-the-wire finish, a fourth consecutive win for the Portland Trail Blazers.

They needed all that just to get into the playoffs.

Damian Lillard scored 31 points, CJ McCollum had 14 of his 29 in the fourth quarter — including two big jumpers over Ja Morant — and the Blazers clinched the NBA’s final playoff spot Saturya by beating the Memphis Grizzlies, 126-122.

Portland’s reward — a matchup, starting Tuesday, with the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.

“What we’ve done in these two weeks is really special,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys because we were up against it every game, nine straight games where our season was basically in the balance . ... They found a way.”

It was the start, and the end, of the Western Conference play-in series — a wrinkle the NBA added to the restarted season because the pandemic meant no team played its allotted 82 games.

Pelicans

New Orleans is looking for a new coach to oversee the still nascent Zion Williamson era. The Pelicans fired Alvin Gentry, 65, Saturday after the club missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons. New Orleans went 30-42 this season, finishing with just two victories in its final eight games despite the presence of top overall draft choice Williamson.

Heat

Forward Derrick Jones Jr. said that frightening collapse to the court Friday left him “just a little sore,” but that he was feeling fine. On the court almost motionless for several seconds in a loss to Indiana, Jones was immobilized with both a back board and neck brace, before being rolled off the court on a gurney. The diagnosis was a neck strain.