NBA Play-In Tournament winners and losers: Deni Avdija drives Blazers to playoffs, Kon Knueppel gets benched

Here are the biggest winners and losers from the first night of action in the 2026 NBA postseason

Sam Quinn

Apr 15, 2026

1:41 am ET

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10 min read

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Welcome to the 2026 NBA postseason. As the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat reminded us in the opener, this is when the NBA starts to turn wild. The Heat and Hornets gave us an instant classic, that was, in true Play-In Tournament fashion, filled with as many completely inexplicable moments as it had incredible plays. The Suns and Blazers gave us something a bit more conventional, but no less exciting. The Blazers overcame an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to steal a road win and make it the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

Now the Hornets will advance to Friday's final Eastern Conference play-in game, where they will see the loser of tomorrow's bout between Philadelphia and Orlando. The Heat will go home, but tonight's other loser, the Suns, will have one more shot at the playoffs when they face the winner of tomorrow's Warriors vs. Clippers game. Only one team, the the Blazers, punched a ticket to the playoffs officially tonight. We have three more spots to dole out over the course of the week.

Those games will come on Wednesday and Friday. For now, let's focus on our first batch of Play-In Games and pick some winners and losers from the first night of the postseason.

Winner: Both the Hornets and the Heat

The Charlotte side of the equation needs no explanation. This is a signature win for a young team that hopes to have a whole lot more of them in their future. LaMelo Ball played in a couple of Play-In blowouts early in his career. He finally got the monkey off of his back with his first postseason win. Several core players were in the postseason for the first time. Even if the Hornets lose on Friday, or get swept in the first round, a win like this can be a turning point, a chunk of badly-needed experience that matters in a year or two when expectations are higher. Sort of like they usually are for Miami.

Look, the Heat were never going to tank a postseason game, or any game for that matter, but we know what their incentives are. They've been in the Play-In Tournament four years in a row. Being here is a cause for celebration for the Hornets. It's a hamster wheel the Heat are very much trying to escape. The Heat play for championships. They don't need moral victories. They need assets they can use to escape the middle.

The LaMelo Ball Experience was on full display as Hornets somehow survive play-in thriller vs. Heat

Brad Botkin

Now they get what they need. They'll have a slot in May's NBA Draft lottery. Notably, the last two lottery winners, the Mavericks and Hawks, were Play-In Tournament losers. The Heat couldn't get a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade across the finish line in February. A lucky lottery might change that in May, and eventually get them back to playing in June. That's the standard in Miami. The current roster isn't capable of getting them there, but the right draft pick is far likelier to change all of that than an inevitable first-round loss to the Pistons.

Loser: Kon Knueppel('s Rookie of the Year chances)

It doesn't feel fair to call Kon Knueppel a loser. He had a bad game. It happens, especially to shooters. He'll have a chance to redeem himself on Friday. And potentially in the first round of the playoffs. And even if he didn't, he's a rookie star with an enormously bright career ahead of him. He's going to be fine.

You know what might not be fine? His Rookie of the Year chances. Typically, the window for voters to submit their ballots for NBA awards is closed by the time the Play-In Tournament arrives. That isn't the case this year because of appeals to the NBA's 65-game minimum for major awards. Voters haven't even received their ballots yet. While major awards are meant to be determined solely based on the regular season, voters are human. Anyone who was on the fence entering Tuesday likely wasn't thrilled with Knueppel's performance.

After all, a big part of Knueppel's case is that he was an essential component of a winning team. The Hornets didn't even let him close the game, as he checked out for the final time with 1:42 remaining and did not appear in overtime. They didn't even bring him back when they called timeout trailing by three with 12.9 seconds remaining, about as close to a "we need a 3" moment as you'll see late in a game. It's hard to imagine Dallas ever closing a meaningful game without Cooper Flagg on the floor. ESPN's Tim Bontemps conducted a straw poll of likely Rookie of the Year voters that was published on April 3. Knueppel won 80-20. Now, he'll have to hope that voters don't let one game outside of the official voting window swing one of the closer races in the award's history.

Winner: Coby White

Coby White is no stranger to the Play-In Tournament. He