HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Very disappointing loss. Griffin hit a great shot at the end. A tough way to lose a game. I was disappointed with our defense in the first half. I liked the way came back and competed and put ourselves in a position to win, but losses like this are tough.” Describing the challenge of defending Blake Griffin: “When he makes perimeter shots, it makes it tougher. He’s strong. I thought we had some better possessions later on, but he’s strong and he gets to his spot and he finishes strong with his right hand. You don’t want to overplay his right hand too much because he’s good at spinning back.” Were you thinking of doubling him? “No, not really. We got some stops one-on-one. The only time we doubled was when Dame was on him, but I thought we did a better job coming back into it. He made some shots but it’s hard to double off of Deandre because he can pass it. The one time we did double in the first half, he kicked it out for an open three. They had three good three point shooters and a guy at the basket, so you’ve got to pick your poison. I thought Moe and Chief and Nurk when he switched onto him really competed.”
DAMIAN LILLARD “It’s always tough to lose at the buzzer, you don’t get an opportunity to come back and do nothing, that’s the end of the game. We’ve been on the winning end of that, so we know how it feels and we know how much it hurt the other team. That’s pretty much the worst way to go out, especially after you put an effort like we put together to put ourselves in position to win. On last play/game winner: “I just watched it and when I first saw it, I saw him head-fake. I knew they was going to go to Blake and when he head-faked, I thought he took a step forward so I thought he might have stepped on the line, but he didn’t. That didn’t look like the play they was trying to run, it was kind of just a scramble. I was trying to see if I could have possibly switched it with Chief, but it was just like a random, he randomly kind of bumped Chief a little bit. Blake head-faked, Chief got a good contest and he made a good shot.” How did you feel about defense overall? “I thought in the first half we struggled. The fourth quarter, we could have been much better, especially with the game on the line. We put a lot of pressure on our offense in some situations where we leave them guys on an island with Blake. We could have done a much better job helping each other out. Me personally, I could have done a better job keeping Patrick Beverly off the offensive glass. I know he loves to do that. He made those plays for their team. We still had a lead, we were still in position to pull it out and he hit a tough shot.” How do you feel about offense so far? “We’ve struggled offensively. We haven’t played great offensively. That’s part of our growth, is being able to find a way to win games without going out there and exploding on the offensive end. Of course we don’t want to have it that way but we’ve got to be able to win games when it’s not going on the offensive end and to do that, you’ve got to get stops and limit other teams’ second chance opportunities. Tonight we allowed them to stay in the game by doing that.”
HEAD COACH DOC RIVERS What were your thoughts going into that last play? Did you just want Blake to get the ball? We just liked the matchup. They kept switching. What we were trying to do out of time outs was find a switch that we like the match up on. That last play Lou set a nice pick. It’s funny – Blake said, “Do you want me to shoot a three or a two?” I told him I preferred the two because we can go into overtime! I think Blake decided he didn’t want to go into overtime. That was a great shot. He had a wide open shot. It was nice. How great of a player is he that he has that 3-point shot in his game? It’s added a whole dimension to his game. Because he was driving so much, the guy guarding his was planning for the drive and he just stepped back and Blake took the shot. That’s what the three ball does for you. When you can drive too it gives you both options. Great, great win. We didn’t play well today. I love that we won because we struggled with our tempo, our spacing was bad. The first half was great. The second half we didn’t move the ball, we were stuck with the ball. Give them credit, I thought they made some great defensive adjustments, but that will be a good lesson for us. 4-0 to start the season, but this was the closest game you guys have had. What does this do in terms of building chemistry and character? It just keeps building it. Pat Beverly was great. When they overturned the call, the first thing he said was, “guys, let’s just foul. If they make two, we’ll make a three. If they make one, we’ll win the game.” That’s what he kept saying in the timeout, and that’s exactly what happened. It does calm you, it lets you know you had a chance no matter what the score is. What did the refs tell you on that play? I didn’t get a discussion on that one because it’s so late in the game I didn’t have time to argue like I usually do. I had to go draw up a play and get ready, so I just didn’t have time to do it. Austin – what happened to his finger? It was way out… They’re going to get X-rays now. I don’t know why. It was going that way so it’s definitely broken or dislocated. JP popped it back in. It’s funny because we had a tough decision to make. If it had been a foul, he would have had to shoot the free throw, and it was his right hand. That would have been better than them picking someone dry off the bench. That’s why we were trying to take as much time as possible to get his head right, but they overturned it anyway. What does a win like this say about your team? It’s just a great, gutty win. I think Terry [Stotts] would say they didn’t play great either tonight. I don’t think either team played great tonight, but it was one of those wins where you just hung in there. Especially on the road, when you win games like this, it just builds confidence. We’re a new team, you know? Nine new players, we got a big injury with Milos out. We’re just ticking along. I thought Sindarius played huge first half minutes for us, to give us a blow. You can just see it – the team growing together. I like how we play now. It’s good that you don’t really know where the ball is going. I don’t think they know half the time either, and it’s fun.
BLAKE GRIFFIN On taking a three pointer the last possession: I just didn’t think I could get to the rim in time. After we in bounded it I saw Al-Farouq Aminu and somebody back up, both kind of hesitated, so I just pump faked and let it go.” On what a win like this means for his team: “It’s big for our confidence. Going on our first road game, especially at a place like this, where the fans are into the game. They’re a great team, especially at home. We just fought, we just stayed in the game. Probably had a chance to feel sorry for ourselves and hang our heads when the Austin (Rivers) call got overturned, but you never know. That’s why we work on those end of game situations in practice, just like that, because you never know what’s going to happen.” On his confidence taking the three point shot: “I don’t think about it in terms of, like a daunting thing. I take them every day, with Sam Cassel every day. You work on something every day it gives you the confidence, that preparation. I thought we just did a good job executing down the stretch.”
AUSTIN RIVERS On if the trainer had to pull his finger back out: “Yeah, it took him awhile because it was a weird dislocation. They said it wasn’t like a typical one, it was to the side and then on top of my bone, so it was like a staircase kind of. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, I started clapping my hands and I felt something painful, so I looked at my hand and started screaming. I just started screaming. You look at your finger like that, but who am I to complain after some of the things we’ve seen early on in the season and some of the guys that have gotten hurt. So that’s nothing.” On if he needs an MRI: “No they just x-rayed it. They said it’s just, you know, yucky.”
TEAM • All five Portland starters reached double figure scoring for the first time this season. • The Trail Blazers made 14 three-pointers (of 31), a new season high. • Portland bested the Clippers on the offensive glass, 16-14. • The Trail Blazers starters outscored their Clippers counterparts, 92-87. • The Clippers are one of two NBA teams that remain undefeated (San Antonio).
PLAYER • Damian Lillard scored 25 points (7-19 FG, 4-9 3-PT, 7-7 FT) and dished out six assists. Lillard has scored 25+ points in three of the first five games. • CJ McCollum had 23 points (8-18 FG, 2-3 3-PT, 5-7 FT), five rebounds and four assists. McCollum has shot 50.0% or better from the three-point line in all four games he has played this season. • Al-Farouq Aminu had 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting (5-8 3-PT). Aminu’s five three-pointers were one shy of his career high (6, 3/31/16 vs. Boston). • Ed Davis had 10 rebounds (seven offensive) and has hauled in double-digit rebounds in three straight games. It was the 15th time in his career that Davis has had at least seven offensive boards. • Pat Connaughton has made at least one three-pointer in seven consecutive games dating back to last season, the longest streak of his career. • Blake Griffin finished with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Griffin has scored 20+ in all four games this season. • DeAndre Jordan had seven points and 18 rebounds. Jordan has had 18+ rebounds in three of the Clippers’ first four games.
Omg, I met those kids last night at the pool at my hotel. They were telling me about getting his shoes. I wonder if they know they're on Twitter.
