HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS What did you think of Lillard in fourth quarter: “He was clutch. Obviously he made his free throws. We were struggling without him, but it seemed like he made every big play that he had to.” On CJ’s performance “He really had it going in the first quarter. I left him in to see if he could build on the quarter, so I kind of messed with the rotation a little bit. He really had it going. I thought not only for him, but the way he was getting it was in the flow. We had 12 assists because there was some movement involved, not just him playing one on one, I thought it was team oriented. And then Dame in the second half. We rely on those two guys to score for us. We can’t necessarily rely on them to get 71, I don’t know if we can get 71 between them every night.” On Harkless: “[Harkless] just keeps doing what he does. I think he’s very comfortable out there doing a little bit of everything. He’s floating on the perimeter, driving to the basket, offensive rebounds, good around the basket – as I said before the game, it just seems like he picked up where he left off last year and he has a lot of good momentum going.” Were 20 turnovers due to fast pace game, or? “Obviously you give Phoenix some credit because they’re an aggressive team. They’re like their coach, they get into guys and play hard and play physical and see what they can get away with. Some of it was their defense and some it was our poor decision making and then throw in a couple offensive fouls.” DAMIAN LILLARD What clicked late after the game was tied? “I think it was - we had a little bit of a letdown, started giving up some offense rebounds, had a few turnovers. They got it going a little bit. They’ve done it in almost every game they’ve played in, they’ve competed really hard. They compete really hard. They’re a tough team to play against. Once it got to that point, player’s got to play. You’ve got to just get it done, and that’s what I did. We went out there, I thought we started playing a little bit harder. Sometimes they made shots, sometimes we got called for fouls, but we made plays offensively and we challenged them on the other end as well and we were able to pull it out.” Do you look at this as a positive or a negative that you let go of an 18 point lead? “It’s something that we need to work on. We’ve talked about it, just being able to play the way that we want to play for longer spans of time. We’ll play really well for seven minutes and then in four minutes, we’ll give up a 15-2 run, kind of give up everything we just worked for. We’ve got to continue to work at that. The good thing is we’re able to find a way to win games while we work on that, so I think that’s much better than losing games and saying we’re working on ourselves. You go to film, you continue to watch and learn and figure out what’s going on and see what’s necessary so we don’t put ourselves in those positions. Tonight they made some tough shots, we got called for fouls, we fouled a lot, but most importantly we got the win. Now we’ve got to go into this game tomorrow and lock in and try to get another one on the road.” What did you think of CJ’s first quarter? “I mean, he was CJ. He looked special out there. He was scoring, it was tough layups, pull up jumpers, threes, making plays, rebounding the ball, he played another great game. Once again in the first half, when you see a guy going like that, it’s my job to continue to feed him, and let him just let him continue it. We rode that out, built up a pretty good lead, had a big first quarter. Once he kind of cooled off a little bit, that’s when I started to get a little more aggressive and try to find my way, and fortunate for me, I was able to do that.”
HEAD COACH EARL WATSON On the Suns bench play: “The bench played well. Defensively they had a presence. I thought Dragan (Bender) was a big spark, PJ Tucker was an x-factor and Jared Dudley quarterbacked it. Everyone played well, B had a big spark for us and got us back into the game. Our young core came out and struggled in the beginning… defensively didn’t have a presence, but eventually brought it back in the second half and stepped it up.” On the defense seeming slow reacting in the beginning. “I think it could just be too many guys inserted into the starting lineup; that could be a big reason. At same time, the offensive flow is pretty much going to be dominant. Those three guards pretty much dominate the offense, so other guys have just come in and be x-factors and play hard on both ends of the court and not worry about scoring.” On how hard it is to come from behind: “It’s not tough for us to come back. We come back a lot, that’s what we do. Our team is really close, we have a lot of belief. I think our average age in the starting lineup is 22 and in the first quarter they kind of played like it. That’ll give them an opportunity to grow.”
DEVIN BOOKER On fighting back from being down so early in the game: “It’s tough, they start out really hot. CJ [McCollum] started out really hot which is mostly my fault but we kept fighting. The second unit played really well tonight, I think we’re going to be good once our second unit and our first unit get on the same page and I feel like we’re going to be really good. Some games they have it going and some game we have it going but once we get it together I think we’re going to be alright.” On if he feels they could’ve won had they taken the lead: “It’s a good team over there, a good team in the west. We know we’re going to match up with them a lot to make it to the playoffs and every time we play against them it’s going to be a war. They got the edge tonight but next time we play them we’re going to be ready.” On the difference in Portland’s defense from the past few teams they’ve played: “I don’t know if it was anything. Portland, like I said they’re a good team, defensive team with really good bigs and guards. Credit them, they got it tonight but like I said once we match up with them again we’re going to be ready.” On not being able to close out close games: “It’s tough for us, not frustrating because I like to see our fight, we never give up throughout games. I think we were down 20 in the first quarter and we fought back to lose by three so that says a lot about our team says a lot about our character and I think that’s going to translate to the rest of the season, it’s a long season and there’s going to be games like that but once we get over that hump, learn how to finish games we’ll be in good shape.” JARED DUDLEY On the different roles players have: “My role is the same, starter or backup. I do the same things it doesn’t really change just I’m getting ball movement, what I’m trying to do is set a precedent of how basketball should be played when you’re out there. Ball movement, screens, side to side, open looks, look to pass a little more than shoot, defensively talking, calling out coverages, being more vocal, communicating. Usually on a young team, those teams don’t want to communicate but the better communicating team you are the better team you are so for me it’s just helping these guys grow so by the second half of the year we can start winning these close games.” On how hard it is to defend Lillard and McCollum: “They’re kind of like two Blue Devils back in the day, two guys who shoot the ball and everyone just gives them the ball so overall they’ve got guys with their body to the wall. If you look at them I don’t know if their ceiling can get higher just because you have two guys doing everything. Can [Mason] Plumlee take it next level? Can these other guys? Ed Davis? They are who they are, kind of like myself, I am who I am. What I like about us is the ceiling’s so big when it comes to Devin Booker, how good can Marquese [Chriss] be? How good can some of these young guys be? And that’s why we’ll be a threat for them in the next couple years but for them they’re all sound in what they do and I think they’ve got their system down pat now.”
• Damian Lillard scored 38 points, and has now totaled 262 points in eight games this season. That is the most points scored by a Trail Blazer through the first eight games of any season in franchise history (229- Vandeweghe, 1984). • Damian Lillard’s 262 points (38 tonight) are the most by an NBA player in his team’s first eight games since Kobe Bryant scored 264 in 2009-10. • Damian Lillard (38 points) and CJ McCollum (33 points) both scored at least 30 points in the same game for the first time this season (fourth time overall). Portland is 4-0 when both players score at least 30 points. • Damian Lillard scored 22 points in the fourth quarter on 5-of-9 shooting (2-4 3-PT, 10-10 FT), and is now averaging 10.1 points in eight fourth quarters this season (55.0% FG). Lillard has scored at least 10 points in the fourth quarters of four of his eight games played this season. • With 33 points tonight, CJ McCollum has now scored at least 30 points in back-to-back games for the second time in his NBA career (2/21/16 to 2/23/16). • Maurice Harkless scored 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, marking the second time in eight games this season that he has scored at least 20 points (23, 10/27 vs. LAC). • Maurice Harkless notched his second game of 20+ points in his first eight games this season, after recording just one such game in 78 played in 2015-16 (20, 4/5/16 at Sac.). • CJ McCollum has totaled 70 points over his past two games, his most points scored in any twogame stretch in his NBA career. • Portland scored 124 points, and has now scored at least 100 points in each of its first eight games for the fifth time in team history and the first time since 1987-88 (nine straight games with 100+ points). • The Trail Blazers made 14 three-point field goals (of 31) to extend their streak to six consecutive games with at least 10 three-pointers. That is the third longest streak in franchise history (record: 8 games, Feb. 28 to March 12, 2016). • The Trail Blazers opened the game shooting 14-of-15 from the field (4-4 3-PT) through the first 7:23 of the first quarter. Portland shot a season-high 55.6% from the field. • Portland connected on 14 three-point field goals to match its season-high for threes in a game (three times, most recent at Mem. on 11/6/16). • Portland has won a season-high three consecutive games. • The Trail Blazers improve to 11-3 at home against the Suns dating back to the start of the 2008-09 season.
