TEAM • The Trail Blazers won their fifth straight game, marking the longest winning streak of the season. • Portland improved to 2-2 against the Timberwolves this season and won its fourth straight home game against Minnesota. • Portland has won 12 of its last 13 games at Moda Center. • The Trail Blazers improved to 36-26 on the season. It is the first time Portland has been 10 games over .500 since finishing the 2014-15 season with a record of 51-31. • The Trail Blazers committed eight turnovers while forcing the Timberwolves into 15 turnovers. • Portland’s reserves outscored their Minnesota counterparts, 28-14. • The Trail Blazers had 12 offensive rebounds leading to 16 second chance points while the Timberwolves had nine offensive rebounds leading to nine second chance points. PLAYER • Damian Lillard scored 13 of his 35 points (9-22 FG, 4-12 3-PT, 13-16 FT) in the fourth quarter. Lillard has scored at least 35 points in five of the last seven games. • Damian Lillard has made at least one three-pointer in 44 consecutive games, matching the most consecutive games with a three-pointer (including multiple seasons) in franchise history (Batum, 3/14/13 - 1/2/14). • Damian Lillard has made at least 10 free throws in 14 games this season, matching the most such games he has had in a season in his career (14, 2016-17). • CJ McCollum finished with 19 points (7-18 FG, 3-6 3-PT, 2-3 FT), four rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. • Jusuf Nurkic scored 16 points (7-11 FG, 2-2 FT) to go with six rebounds, one steal and one block. It was his fifth straight game scoring in double figures. • Shabazz Napier registered 16 points (4-11 FG, 1-4 3-PT, 7-9 FT), three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Napier has recorded at least two steals in four straight games. • Al-Farouq Aminu had 10 points (3-7 FG, 1-4 3-PT, 3-5 FT) and 12 rebounds to record his fifth double-double of the season. • Ed Davis recorded 10 points (5-6 FG) and 11 rebounds, hauling in double digit rebounds for the second consecutive game and notching his fifth double-double of the season. • Evan Turner dished out a game-high six assists. • Karl-Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves with 34 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks. It was his sixth straight double-double.
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “I was really proud of our team tonight. Obviously, we struggled offensively most of the night and just kept hanging around, still competed defensively and put ourselves in a position to win a game once we started making some shots. Obviously, Dame’s offense was big. Ed Davis was a big boost in the second half. Shabazz came off the bench – our three guard line-up was pretty effective in making plays and creating for each other. All in all, like I said, especially the way the offense was the first half, it’s good to get one.” On McCollum: “CJ, Dame, the guys – even though they were struggling at times, they made big shots for us, big plays. When we had the three guard lineup, that put him on Wiggins for a good portion and I thought he really competed defensively.” Did you have a feeling Lillard was going to get it going? “I usually feel that way. Both he and CJ, I mean every time – honestly, when those guys are open, you think it’s going to go in no matter what they’ve done before. And the good thing is that they think that too.” What does it say about the team that you had to grind and hang in until the shots came late in the game? “That they have a lot of confidence and they understand we may not have won this game earlier in the season. We were able to fight through and hang with it defensively when things weren’t going our way offensively, and then having the belief that it was going to break at some point.” On Ed Davis playing a long stretch in the second half: “Yeah, he played a quarter and a half in the second half. He was so good defensively, rebounding, setting screens on the offensive end, I was going to go back with Nurk but Ed was just too effective.” DAMIAN LILLARD “I think we’ve been playing good basketball, playing hard, playing together. Everybody’s been locked in at shootarounds and practices. We’ve just been sharp mentally. I think tonight was another game we were sharp mentally to start the game. First two and a half, three quarters, we couldn’t buy a basket. We missed a lot of shots but we stayed with it. We kept grinding defensively and when the shots started to fall because we stayed in it, we was able to pull another one out but I think it showed the growth. We showed our growth tonight shooting under 40 percent for a long time and still being able to beat a really good team.” Coach said you might not have won this game earlier in the season: “Oh, we wouldn’t have for sure. We would have lost that game.” On struggles early in the game: “I mean, I was just missing. I was missing a lot of shots short. Kept hitting the front of the rim. I knew when it was leaving my hand, it felt good, I just knew I had to shoot the ball a little bit higher and I really wasn’t worried about it honestly. I knew I was going to keep applying pressure over the course of the game and eventually it was going to fall, and that’s exactly what happened.” Were you aware of their history of losing leads late in games and tiring? “I mean, I’ve seen them do it a couple times but we didn’t talk about what they typically do one time in our huddles. It was just like, the shot’s going to fall, keep working defensively, keep playing hard, keep playing physical and the shot’s going to fall. We kept doing that and when we continued to get stops and shots started to fall, that’s when we took over the game.” What about earlier season struggles helped for situations like tonight? “I think it was all a part of our growth. I think over the course of the season, some teams get better and some teams don’t. Some teams figure it out and some teams don’t. Historically, we’ve been a team that as the season goes on, we have ups and downs and then it clicks and we figure it out and we start playing better. I think this year, we’re at a point where things that would have happened earlier on in this season aren’t happening anymore. I think that’s a sign of a team that’s maturing, a team that’s growing and getting better, and that’s leading to us winning game.”
HEAD COACH TOM THIBODEAU Nobody made a three for a long time, they went into the third quarter, did you know it wasn’t going to last?I thought our defense for the most part was good enough. Rebounding was pretty good, and then we didn’t have a strong enough fourth quarter to win the game. Just those flurries of threes that got you there?Yeah. We made some mistakes, they made them. Karl tried to take you there. What did you think of his performance? I thought he had a terrific game. We didn’t make threes so that hurt us. They’re tough defensively. I thought we got some good looks that… you’d like to have those type of shots. At some point you knew Lillard would have it?Yeah. I’d want to take a look at the film, right? You know, I thought we had some tough calls go against us too. So, I’d like to see the film before I make a comment on it. Any news about Taj’s hip?Right hip bruise.
KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS On the Blazers three-point shooting: “It’s a double-edged sword. Our confidence defensively was great in the first half, we tried to limit the good looks that they got. Obviously they’re more than likely going to make one, but you try to play with the confidence that they won’t. They started hitting them in bunches in the fourth and that’s when they need to be their best, and they were their best. We weren’t in the fourth.” On if the game came down to three-point shooting: “You win and die by the three. It’s one of those things, it was there for us in the fourth and we just couldn’t capitalize. That’s the way the game of basketball works sometimes, so can’t hang our heads, I thought we did a lot of great things today and our coach said so (as well). Obviously it’s tough that we didn’t come out of here with a win, we would’ve loved it, but now we’ve just got to go out and focus on the next game and learn from our mistakes today.” On his determination: “I was just playing the game. My teammates are what make everything happen, so we were determined to win as a collective group and we did everything that we possibly could. We made mistakes, but that happens in the game of basketball. We just made some costly ones in the fourth.” On Damian Lillard: “I thought we did a good job of making it hard on him all night. It was one of those things, Jeff (Teague) was great on him tonight, he just started some long threes and some superstar shots and that happens. It was collective today, we didn’t play the defense we needed to play in the fourth to come out with that W.” On the intensity of the game: “We played as if it was a playoff game. We went out there and gave everything we had. Sometimes you come up short sometimes you come out on top. We need to keep this edge, keep this mentality and if we do that we’ll have a great chance of being in the playoffs and putting ourselves in a good spot.”
