Portland beating Brooklyn, 134-133, Thursday night ended Phoenix’s season and magical run in Orlando Bubble.

Brooklyn Nets guard Tyler Johnson wasn’t an ideal basketball fit with Phoenix, but blended very well with with the Suns players.

It showed when he interrupted Ricky Rubio’s Zoom media interview Thursday talking Spanish like he used to when they were teammates that left them both laughing.

“Ricky, that’s one my favorite teammates I ever had,” Johnson said. “He’s just a really good dude and that’s one of those things where sometimes in situations maybe it wasn’t a good basketball situation for me, but I did meet some incredible people.”

“Ricky. Little Ty Jerome.” 

“Dario. D-Book. Kells. DA.”.

“I met a lot good guys when I was there,” Johnson said.   

Rubio and the Suns had just beaten Dallas while Johnson was preparing to face Portland at AdventHealth Arena. As Johnson was leaving, Rubio told him to get a win as they both knew the Suns needed Brooklyn to defeat to Trail Blazers to advance to the play-in tournament.

Didn’t happen.

The Blazers survived Caris LeVert’s last-second shot to prevail, 134-133, and eliminate the Suns from playoff contention. Johnson scored 16 points off the bench, but the Nets fell just short, leaving Phoenix out of an opportunity to continue its magical run in the Orlando Bubble despite going 8-0 in the seeding games.

What a shame.

“I thought that those guys played their hearts out and deserved to have that opportunity to fight for a playoff spot,” Johnson said after the game. “It’s unfortunate that they’re not going to be able to do that moving forward. I know I took the game seriously and I feel for those guys and all the work that they put in.”

The Suns released Johnson on Feb. 9 after acquiring him nearly a year earlier in a trade with Miami. He signed with Brooklyn in June and has been a welcomed addition as he’s averaging 12 points in the Nets’ eight seeding games.

“Tyler’s been great,” Brooklyn guard Joe Harris said. “Before he even came here, that’s all you’d hear about him is how great he is. He’s a team guy, first and foremost and then on the court, he’s the same thing. He’s not a guy caring about his stats. He’s trying to win, he’s trying to compete and trying to play the right way. He plays hard and he’s one of those guys you love playing with.”

Johnson had a rough ending with Phoenix as he averaged career lows in points (5.7) and minutes played (16.6) this season.

He’s moved forward, but has no ill will toward Phoenix.

In fact, he believes the youthful Suns are on the come up.

“They’re building something really good over there regardless of what happened with me and my situation over there,” Johnson said. “They are building a culture. They’re building a program that’s going to be able to compete moving forward.” 

Had Portland lost, Phoenix would’ve needed to beat Memphis twice to earn the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. The Grizzlies went 3-1 against Phoenix in the regular season, but aren’t the same team with Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee), Tyus Jones (knee) and Justise Winslow (hip) out with injuries.

In turn, Phoenix (34-39) didn’t play like the same team that entered the bubble 13 games under .500.

The Suns beat six playoff teams with two wins coming against Dallas.

“I think here we changed the narrative, we changed how people think of us from the NBA, from the refs, from different teams to everybody,” Suns All-Star Devin Booker said.  

Memphis (34-39) beat Milwaukee minus Giannis Antetokounmpo as the reigning league MVP served his one-game suspension Thursday for headbutting Mo Wagner in Tuesday’s win over Washington.

The top-seeded Bucks (56-16) shot 39.4% from the field and only played All-Star Khris Middleton and starting point guard Eric Bledsoe, who also played for Phoenix, a little more than 20 minutes each.

The Grizzlies won, 119-106, and advanced to the play-in despite going 2-6 in seeding games. They entered the bubble with a six-game cushion on Phoenix.

So Memphis only needed two wins to keep Phoenix at bay because it owned the tiebreaker over the Suns.

Phoenix didn’t face Kristaps Porzi??is as Dallas (43-32) sat him with a heel injury Thursday. The Suns’ two previous opponents, Oklahoma City and Philadelphia, were without five key players when facing them.

So the Suns benefited from facing short-handed teams, too.

Brooklyn (35-37) came into the bubble without seven players as three of them tested positive for COVID-19. The Nets haven’t had Kevin Durant (achilles) all season and Kyrie Irving (shoulder) wasn’t expected to play in the NBA restart.

With an interim coach, Jacque Vaughn, Brooklyn, like Phoenix, has been one of the surprise teams in the bubble. The Nets, a seventh seed in the East, went into Thursday’s game 5-2 in seeding games.

Had they won one more, Phoenix would be preparing to face the Grizzlies right now.

Brooklyn nearly did.

The Nets had Portland (35-39) down seven early in the fourth, but Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic each scored 12 points in the quarter. Lillard, who finished with 42 points, forced a huge turnover on LeVert with Portland leading by two with 1:12.

C.J. McCollum followed that up with a basket to put the Blazers ahead, 134-130, with 53.4 seconds left. 

They would hang on to deny Phoenix a play-in possibility, but like many others, Johnson saw the Suns grow in the bubble, and believe they have a brighter future ahead.   

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

Support local journalism. Start your online subscription.