HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well, two things come to mind – one is we didn’t defend the way you need to defend in the fourth quarter to win a close game. The start of the fourth quarter with a ten point lead, they came out and scored and made their run then and it was a game. It’s tough to lose it. I thought we had good energy for most of the game. Their bench was obviously the difference. They had 46 off the bench and all their bench players contributed to the win. Even though Carmelo had a very good offensive night, he didn’t have a field goal in the fourth quarter. He made six free throws, four of them were intentional free throws, but their bench guys made the difference.” How did you like Vonleh matching up with Porzingis “I thought Noah had a very good game. I thought it was a good matchup for him. I think he liked the challenge of it. He made some good hustle plays getting rebounds. I thought it was a very good night for him. I don’t necessarily say it was the matchup with Porzingis but I thought Noah had a good game.” Did anything change with Knicks offensively in the fourth? “They were pushing the ball. They had a lot of energy. Galloway really pushed it, O’Quinn had a lot of energy, Lance Thomas made his shots – so they didn’t really necessarily run their offense, it was more their energy, their transition, their tempo, all those things.” How did you feel about shots you had late in the game? “I’d have to look at them but I thought we had some makeable shots. I think in general, we find ways to score. You have to make shots, we missed shots. That happens but during that stretch at the beginning of the fourth quarter where they made their run, I thought we took a couple tough ones but in general for the whole quarter, I thought we had looks that we can make.” DAMIAN LILLARD On what happened in fourth quarter? “In the fourth quarter, we just didn’t defend really well. They got some looks at the rim. We just didn’t defend well enough.” Did you think the shot at the buzzer was going in? “It felt good and it looked good. It’s always tough when you don’t really have an idea of how much time is on the clock but I put it up there and it had a chance. From where I was standing, I thought it was going in. We could have done a lot of things better to not even be in that position.” Have you had a situation like that where you have to miss and hope for rebound? “Not where the game was basically over – we didn’t have any timeouts and it wasn’t like we could fould them and then advance the ball so I had to miss. I tried to hit it off back rim and let it go in the air so guys could go after it. We got the perfect bound, it went straight to the three point line and from there it was a foot race and I knew I didn’t have much time.” Do you look at it like you are a team that nobody expected to compete but you’ve been in a lot of games, or do you look at it like you’ve blown a lot of leads? “Well nobody expected us to compete. That doesn’t really matter because we expected ourselves to compete. That has nothing to do with the situations that we’ve been in. It doesn’t take a talented team to defense. You can throw five guys out there that play hard and care to get it done. I don’t think it was us not caring, I just think we weren’t on top of things like we need to be to win games.” What happened defensively in the fourth? “Their offense, it was constant movement. Melo got it going. They got us rotating a little bit, we started to over-help a little bit. I know one time I came completely over and my man ended up getting a wide open three, he didn’t make it but we had a lot of situations like that. Outside of that, we let them get in transition and score. When they made their run, they were pushing it up and we weren’t ready to guard and that resulted in fouls and layups and a couple times it was threes. Especially in the fourth quarter, that can’t happen.”
HEAD COACH DEREK FISHER On his team’s 4th quarter performance and getting the win: “Yeah, that’s a very difficult thing to do, what the guys just did. To be down in the 4th quarter, third game in four nights, things haven’t been going well… Very easy to pack up and say we’ll get them next time and feel sorry for yourself, but they decided they wanted to win the game and that’s what they went out there and did.” On whether he was more satisfied with Carmelo Anthony’s offensive or defensive production: “Both. I think just his overall activity level really led our group. It’s really what we’ve been talking to all our guys about, that regardless of your statistics, every time people look at you play, they should see that you want to win so bad that you’re flying around everywhere on both ends of the court. I thought his activity really held us together and helped us get separation at the end.” On Damian Lillard’s shot to win the game: “I didn’t really want to look up at the basket when the ball left his hands. He’s definitely very capable of making that shot and it would’ve been extremely deflating to lose a game in that way. But the ball bounces your way sometime is this league, and it bounced our way tonight.” ROBIN LOPEZ On if he is more satisfied with the team’s defense or offense to close the game: “I think defensively, I think we came with a great energy in reaction to the first quarter on that end of the floor and I think that energy if it flows to the other end of the floor, it’s contagious.” On his offense: “My teammates did a good job of putting me in good situations. I got some nice step-up pick and rolls, guys found me and I was able to score.” On Damian Lillard’s shot to win the game: “I definitely did have a little flashback when Dame caught the ball, he was going to turn around and put the shot up. Obviously I’m pleased for my team that that didn’t go in. I’ve been on the receiving end of that in New Orleans his rookie year when he hit that 3 to win the game so I’m glad it turned out differently tonight.” On being back in Portland: “I kind of feel like it’s the best of both worlds, it’s a special thing when you’re able to make a connection with the fan base. I’m grateful for all the support I ever received even now that I’m on a different team, that doesn’t happen a lot.” CARMELO ANTHONY On his offensive rhythm: “I came to the game feeling really game, it’s just one of those games where the shots were falling for me tonight. I got a rhythm early and I maintained it throughout the course of the game.” On finishing the game through his free throws and not missing any: “It felt good, [missing] those [free throws] in Sacramento made me not sleep, knowing that I missed five or six free throws. Really it was the emphasis to make those free throws and close the game.” On if he felt like he had to put the team on his back to win: “Yeah I had to do whatever I could to win the basketball game tonight. That rhythm came at the right time but it was a must win for us and a must win for me from the standpoint of me going out there and kind of doing it all amd making sure we left with a win.”
My working theory is that the league wants us to get a good draft pick so the fix is in to help us lose close games. HailBlazers
Meyers Leonard was worthless at making the inbound pass, so he quickly called the last timeout at :19 left, only 10 seconds after the full timeout at :29. The game was very close, so I knew that would hurt us badly.
