Wednesday, January 14, 2015 Final Score: POR 94, LAC 100 POR POR HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Both teams played pretty good defense. It was a tough played game. It was a little unusual that usually in the fourth quarter when we have the lead with five minutes to go, we’re pretty good in those situations. Give the Clippers credit, they made plays. Crawford made a big shot. They got stops when they needed to. They beat us.” What was difference in last five minutes: “Converting shots is important. We looked at a little bit of everything. They did a good job of trapping Dame all night in pick and rolls. We went to LA on the block. I don’t think there was much difference. I give them credit, they played good defense. Getting stops, getting out in transition, we missed some threes. Three point shot is important and we didn’t shoot the three really well. One possession, I don’t know how much time was left, but Wes had two looks at a three, got a steal and got another one. Those momentum plays are often times things that we come up with.” Did game have playoff feel with short rotations? “It’s hard for a January game to feel like Playoffs, but I think both teams obviously shortened their rotations. Certainly, both teams knew that two good teams were going at it. Both teams competed pretty hard. Is this the type of game you might expect moving forward: “We’re almost halfway through and we’re going to be playing more Western Conference teams that are in the playoff hunt in the second half of the season, so there will be more and more of these type of games going forward.” On Clippers scoring only 24 points in the paint but winning the game: “10 of those points in the paint were in the first six minutes. The rest of the 18 minutes in the first half, they only got 4 and obviously only 10 in the second half. So look, they made a lot of midrange shots. Crawford made tough midrange shots. Sometimes you’ve got to live with that.” DAMIAN LILLARD On Clippers defense: “They just trapped me and blitzed every pick and roll. When I didn’t have the ball, they were topping me and trying to keep me from getting the ball. Pretty much, that was it. I tried to make plays and do other things, but that’s what type of game it was. It seemed like their focus was to take me out of it.” On last five minutes of the game: “We didn’t make shots. I thought we waited until late in the game to finally just say get it and just start attacking and getting aggressive. A couple bounces didn’t go our way, shots didn’t fall. They have been all the way up until this point, so it balances out.” On intensity of game as an indication of what’s to come against San Antonio and Memphis: “We’ve got some tough games coming up. Tonight was just the first of what’s to come. It’s probably going to be like this the next few games and we’ve just got to be ready for that.” On Aldridge’s game: “He carried us. They really didn’t have an answer for him. When we executed, he made the shots that he got that were good looks. When we didn’t execute, we were able to throw it down to him and he would make a tough shot for us and keep us in the game. It’s bittersweet that we couldn’t come through and win the game, especially with an effort like that from him.” On Crawford’s game: “I mean, we want to force midrange shots and we want to contest them. In the first half, we contested all of them. They were all over him, contesting the shots. He was leaning and floating and he still made tough shots. We’ll live with those. At the end of the game, it’s a tie game and end of the shot clock and he fired one up there it seemed like it was in the air for five seconds. Pretty much, that was it. We never got the lead back after that. He was huge for them.
