Blazers vs Lakers 1/5/2015 - Quote Book

HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“It was a good win to get. I thought the Lakers played very well. They played pretty loose and confident and got a rhythm to their shots. Obviously, Damian got it going and got us back into the game. We made plays and got some stops when we needed to.”

“There are no easy ones in this league so it was good to get it.”


On Lillard’s performance late:

“He just makes tough shots when you need them. He’s a special player. Some of the shots that he can make… and he’s very driven. He’s a great competitor and I think he’s able to will himself to do some things.”


Thoughts when Matthews went down with apparent knee injury:

“I thought he was hurt. It didn’t look good on the reply. I was shocked to see him come back. I’m no doctor, but it didn’t look good.”


Reaction when Matthews returning to game after injury:

“He came back and said that he was ready to go. And I said, ‘What are you doing here?’” … Obviously he was checked out before he went back out on the court. We’ll keep tabs on him.”



On decision to start Kaman:

“They have a big lineup. I thought it would help Chris to play with the starters. I think it’s easier playing with the starters. I thought the rotation would kind of work out where we’d get him two runs instead of one long run in the middle of the half. It was something that we had to look at. Obviously we hadn’t looked at it up until now, but it was something that we had to look at.”



DAMIAN LILLARD

On last 6 minutes:

“I just wanted to get a little aggressive. When it got to the four and a half minute mark, LA was just like, ‘We’ve got to get it going, we’ve got to take over the rest of this game.’ He said, ‘I’m with you, let’s do it.’ And I said, ‘I’m with you.’ He got aggressive, I got aggressive. We really rebounded the ball well to close the game. We got some stops, executed well and were able to get some shots to fall. It was definitely a team effort.”


Do you live for moments like that to give team spark?

“I don’t live for it because I would like for us to play with the type of urgency that we played with the last eight minutes for the entire game, but when it’s needed, I’m definitely not going to shy away from it. I’m willing to accept that if I get a little more aggressive and if shots don’t go in or I’m not able to change the game, I’m willing to accept that. I can carry that weight. I can deal with not being successful in those situations. Tonight was another time that it just worked out.”



What do you like about those moments?

“Just being able to be there for my teammates. We obviously didn’t really have it going. We weren’t getting as many stops as we would have liked, so I felt like why not get aggressive? LA, who we want to go into, they were making it hard for him to get clean looks on the block. They were sending a lot of guys at him and I’m the next option, so I just got aggressive.”


On getting to the paint early:

“In the film I saw that they play free. Guys getting to the rim and taking isolation shots. On the film that I saw, they weren’t doing a great job of getting back on defense, so I knew that I would be able to push it, push it up with the big mans back and kind of get lost in that traffic and get to the rim, get in the paint and make some plays. That’s how I started the game off.”


Thoughts when Matthews went down with knee injury:

“I was real nervous. When I saw him do it, at first I thought he just slipped and maybe hurt his knee falling on the ground, then I saw the replay and it looked like he hyperextended it a little bit. Then I got real nervous because we haven’t had the greatest luck with some of the injuries that we’ve been dealing with this season. I’m glad to see that he’s healthy.

Reaction when seeing Matthews come back to the bench:

“I took a deep breath. I just started at him and I told him that he scared me, because he did. It was great to see that he was alright”

 

Hey Coach...

"Why would you think that you could shift Kaman to the starting lineup, where in the first quarter he had more shots than LMA/Wes/Dame combined? And then leave the second unit to the heretofore-unheard of heroics of Meyers Leonard? Now that you've "looked at it", can you go back to your plan of having whoever you think of Leonard/Robinson/(Claver?) start and Kaman do his Black Hole thing for the second unit?"

"why is it that you want to have Kaman because they're a "big lineup" when they started Davis (6'10, 225) and Hill (6'10, 235), but not against ATL (a better team, with all-star bigs) who go 6'10, 245 and 6'9, 245?"

"do you agree with Rice that 'you have to get LMA his 20 shots a game, no matter what he's doing with them'?"

 

I fail to see the connection.

 

If that's how you see it, I get it.

it's not calling out a mistake for me, it's trying to understand his reasoning. Coaches aren't infallible, and fans don't see everything, and sometimes there's a disconnect. Maybe he'd say something like "Millsap draws out PFs and Cs, and I didn't want Kaman on the perimeter with LMA guarding Horford." Fair enough, makes sense. Maybe he says "today I had a gut feel to stick Kaman in the lineup." Fine. But "playing him b/c they're a 'big lineup" doesn't make sense when a) they're not, really and b) we played a bigger lineup last game.

But yeah, some coaches (not saying Stotts is) are not as intelligent as others. Same with GMs. Same with reporters. Same with fans. Same with players.

 

I'm guessing after Atlanta abused us he thought it might be better to go bigger. Sounds like he was making an adjustment after a loss.

 

What am I missing here? Would it wreck his world for him to say that (reasonable, btw--though you could've upped Kaman's minutes from 15 against ATL without starting him, but whatever)? Or for someone to ask the followup?

 

Brian, I believe that these are quotes from questions that Casey asks in an open room full of other journalists asking questions. Someone might have asked the follow up question you are wanting. It would be wrong for the Blazers to distribute another journalist's work product.

 

Also these are not a transcript, the questions and answers are paraphrased and edited down.

 

Cool beans. I didn't know that news conference questions/answers were not public, since I'm used to seeing them all over the TV and radio. Another lesson to learn.

So does that mean, if you were in there, and asked one of those, no one else could write about (or broadcast) Stotts' answer lighting you up unless you gave permission?

Edit; your second post makes sense too.

 

I'm not really sure.