HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well I thought we played a pretty solid game at both ends of the court. Obviously, Minnesota is undermanned and has a lot of young guys out there, but I liked our approach from the beginning, coming out in the third quarter taking care of business and allowing our bench to get on the court.” What did you like out of the defense? “I thought there were things we could have done better, but for the most part, what we did well – we didn’t give up a lot of second chance points, even though they did drive the ball to the basket more than I would have liked, I thought in general our one on one defense was pretty good. With all their players out, they really didn’t have a post game, so it was a lot of Wiggins and a lot of Kevin Martin. Other than a couple turnovers, we didn’t give up a lot in transition. They didn’t shoot a good percentage, so in general, I think there were a lot of good things.” On breaking franchise record for threes in a season tonight: “I thought we had a lot of good threes, especially the first half. We took 19 threes in the first half, I thought almost all of them were good looks and I was surprised we didn’t make more. We did a good job of moving the ball when they double teamed LA, we played in flow and got the ball moving. It was disappointing we didn’t make more threes because they were good looks, then to break the franchise record, that’s great.” On facing Golden State tomorrow: “They’re the best team in the league and they’re the best team in the league at both ends of the court. I think they’ve lost a couple in a row, they’re playing their guys, it’s going to be a challenge. They’re going to play to win it, we’re going to play to win it, so it’s going to be a good test for both of us.” DAMIAN LILLARD On importance of coming out early and securing win: “It was really important. We know that the more games we win, we give ourselves a better chance of having home court, so we wanted to come out and attack the game. I thought we did a great job of that. They kept fighting but I think we found a way to put them away in the third quarter On defense tonight: “I thought it was consistent. At times, we had little slip ups but for the most part, I thought we had a pretty good defensive game.” On opportunity to see other guys play in the fourth quarter: “We played a good enough game to not have to play in the fourth quarter, but guys are playing with a lot of confidence right now. CJ, Meyers, Joel – every time somebody gets out there – because of what we had to deal with with injuries, guys have had opportunities to play – so now it’s fun to watch situations like that because guys are out there playing confident and playing like they should be out there.” On opportunity to get rest before tomorrow’s at Golden State: “It’s going to be a fast paced game tomorrow. They play probably faster at home, with more intensity and they’re the best in the league, so it’s going to be a fun game. It was good to rest tonight going into something like that.” How much do you watch scores from other games? “At first, I was watching it a lot, but now it’s at the point where the season is coming to an end, and we just focus on ourselves and playing the right type of basketball that we want to play going into the playoffs.” LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE On focus coming into game: “I thought guys came into the game locked in. We understand that we want to win every game from here on out and I thought guys came in locked in.” On game at Golden State tomorrow: “It’ll be fun. We’ve played them well all season and I think this will be a good test for us going into the playoffs, so I’m looking forward to it.”
HEAD COACH FLIP SAUNDERS On why his team couldn’t get it going tonight: “Tired, men… You know they’ve got a lot of depth, so it was a combination of things and we couldn’t withstand their runs.” On his team’s rebounding at the beginning of the game: We didn’t pursue some of them, they made shots early, and I was more concerned the there weren’t rebounds to be had. You don’t expect to get offensive rebounds, most teams that are good offensive rebounding teams in this league are bad teams. That means you’re missing a lot of shots and that means and that means you’re trying to find a way to score some points. The good teams are notoriously your worst offensive rebounding teams, whether it’s Chicago, whether it’s San Antonio, Golden State… Because what they do is send people back, so you can’t get any fast break points.” On Wiggins getting to the free throw line: “I think he’s getting stronger, posting up, he’s getting the ball when he wants it. He just had some empty minutes over the course of the game, that third and fourth quarter, but we called some play to get him the ball and he went to work and got the ball and put them at a disadvantage.” ANDREW WIGGINS On how he analyzes a game that is so one sided: “Just try to compete. They’re a great team. They’re one of the favorites in the playoffs…We got to try and come up, try to compete, play hard. They got the lead early and we tried to come back.” On what it’s like playing a team that is effective on the inside and the three: “Difficult. That’s why we just got to compete. It all comes down to defense. Coming in the weak side, I could have unlocked better. I missed a lot of early chips.” On fighting through so much travel: Day by day. That’s where treatment comes in, eating right treating your body well, and preparing yourself for each game.” On their upcoming back-to-back: “Some say it’s difficult. I’m going to wake up the same—ready to compete and play another game.” On where his aggressiveness comes from: “I think it’s part of my game coming natural to me…It’s just one of my strong points of my game—getting to the rim.” ZACH LAVINE On the hardest part of travel and fatigue: “One day we got off the plane at four o’clock in the morning in New Orleans and then played the next morning and had shoot around at 10:30 a.m. and it’s just like “Wow.” And then we flew out to Mexico. It’s just a grind and you can’t understand it unless you go through it. I definitely did not understand it.” On their upcoming, final back-to-back of the season: “You got to do it. It’s the NBA. We just got to get ready and try to take some ice baths or something like that…It’s my rookie season. I enjoy doing this. I don’t want to hear that [it’s our last back-to-back].” On what he has learned from playing the Blazers and similar games throughout the season during his rookie season: “We want to get where they are. I feel like when you step on the court you respect who you’re playing, but you don’t give them too much respect because you got to go at them at the same time. We know they got two all-stars on their team. They’re some of the best in the league and we got to go at them. If we don’t go at them and earn their respect, they’re just going to keep trying to kill you so that’s what we have to take away from it.”
CJ averaging over 15ppg on 56% shooting in April is awesome. It's exactly what we need heading into playoffs.
Blazer fans expected this result and got their gift. It was like a Rob Lowe Cable commerical. A loss at home against "them" would have been like "Don't be like this Rob Lowe (Blazer team)." Lets take this as the momentum signature win into GS and pummel their asses.
