HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Toronto is a good team, I think that’s pretty obviously. Lowry and DeRozan score 59. They’re a very good team and there’s a reason why they’re the second best team or have the second best record in the East. I thought we were close, obviously the first quarter getting behind, but they shot the ball extremely well. I think they were 6 for 7 from threes in the first quarter and 4 for 5 in the fourth quarter. They shot the ball extremely well from distance. It was a close game and I think we could have played better but I don’t think we were that far off either.” Was this indicative of matchups upcoming with intensity and quality of opponent? “I don’t know, I mean every game is tough in this league. Certainly, Toronto is a good team and we’ve got some challenges coming up.” On starting Harkless: “I like keeping the rotation the same off the bench. Our bench has been pretty effective. I liked the matchups defensively. Chief at the four, I thought would create a problem offensively, at least create some more spacing and he’s an excellent post defender. They went to Scola a couple times and didn’t score. So for a couple reasons – I thought it would be a good starting lineup and I thought it would keep the bench intact.” On Lillard’s struggles early “Like usual, you have to give credit to the defense. I thought he had some shots that he missed. It’s usually not just one thing.”
DAMIAN LILLARD On trouble digging out of early hole “Our first quarter defense wasn’t even close to being good enough, especially against a playoff team, a really good team like them. I thought our team did a great job of still competing. We still fought, we gave ourselves a chance to win the game in the second half. They shot the ball really well and we made a few mistakes that allowed them to get themselves going and start believing. You have to take your hat off to them, they’re a really good team and they brought a real challenge for us. Hopefully the next time we play them, we’ll come out and have a better start.” Did you notice better level of talent of opponent tonight? “I think the biggest difference was just the level of the team. There’s talent on every team but they play well together. You can see it, you can hear it in how they communicate with each other. They’re a group, they’re a unit. They’ve been together for some time now, they’ve had some back to back years in the playoffs together. They’ve got experience and two really good All Star guards. They’re a tough team to play against and they outplayed us tonight.” On struggles offensively early: “They played good defense. I thought I had a few looks there that I’m more than capable of knocking down that didn’t go in and when the ones that you should make don’t go in, it makes the ones that are contested and in traffic, it makes those a little bit harder. I just wanted to stay with it. Our team was still in the game, we competed and gave ourselves a chance. When it got down the stretch, I knew it would come to a point in the game where I had to just push through it and kind of force the issue and that’s pretty much what it came down to.”
HEAD COACH DWANE CASEY On the Blazers catching up in the fourth quarter: “This is the NBA. Every team is gonna make a run. Our guys, I think, are getting used to teams giving us their best shot. Is it perfect? No but I like the battle. I like the fight our guys are showing and finding ways. Not picture perfect but the effort is picture perfect.” On maintaining offensive discipline when Blazers cut down the lead: “We had some crucial turnovers there, and then I think in the beginning of the fourth there was a stress there that we were giving it back to them. Overall, that was one of their best shots in Portland. Terry’s doing a heck of a job with that team. They’re playing hard. They’re shooting the heck out of the ball, and we were trying to take away some of the penetration, get back out to the shooters and I thought we did that for the most part. Again, at the end. I thought they were just running right at us in transition…We couldn’t get back and get organized.” On Damian Lillard: “He’s a great player. I mean you’re not going to stop a kid like that. It’s a five man job. I thought Kyle and Cory did a good job tag teaming. He and McCollum I think they are one of the top tandums along with our guys in the league. I thought Cory and Kyle did a good job.” On their offense: “Our thing is to continue to grow as a defensive unit., as a defensive team. We want to keep that in the back of our mind. Not get excited about scoring…We just got to keep focus, discipline, and cohesion, defensively.”
KYLE LOWRY On being aided by DeMar DeRozan’s play: “Demar was aggressive, he stayed aggressive throughout the game. Some of the shots didn’t fall, but his aggressiveness really helped set the tempo and set the standard during the game.” On Patrick Patterson’s contributions: “Yeah Pat’s been playing great and Biz (Bismack Biyombo) has been down there protecting the rim and Cory (Joseph) and T (Terrence Ross) have been what they’ve been the last couple of months, so everybody’s been playing good and we’ve just got to keep growing and keep getting better.” On his team playing well despite injury problems: “We’re just a complete team, 15 deep. We always say that and we really mean that because you never know who’s time it’s going to be and you know, next man up. We’ve got guys stepping up, Norm (Norman Powell) didn’t play as much, but with his minutes out there her did what he’s supposed to do and I like the aggressiveness from the kid.” On his play after Portland cut it to 3 in the 4th quarter: “It was just the moments, and the shots came and coach called a couple plays for me to get open and Pat got me the ball one time and Cory got me the ball and it’s just those times and situations you’ve got to understand what your team needs.”
