Damian Lillard scored a team-high 31 points and added 10 assists, and CJ McCollum finished with 29 points to lead the Blazers to victory. Jusuf Nurkic, playing with a heavy heart after announcing his grandmother had died, finished with 22 points, 21 rebounds and six assists.
The Blazers trailed by five points entering the fourth quarter and were down 109-108 with 3:40 to play. But CJ McCollum hit a three-pointer and Jusuf Nurkic converted a three-point play to put the Blazers up 114-111 with 2:39 left. The Blazers held on to win from there.
As the No. 8 seed, the Blazers needed only to beat the Grizzlies once in the play-in round, while the Grizzlies would have needed to beat Portland twice to advance to the playoffs.
Now, the Blazers advance to take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs starting Tuesday night.