Game Thread 2022-23 Game #80 - BLAZERS @ SPURS - APRIL 6, 2023 - THURSDAY - 5:00 PM (PDT) ROOT

I think they'd run the risk of falling to the play in?

 

TRAIL BLAZERS POSTGAME QUOTES


Trail Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups

(On Drew Eubanks performance…)

“I knew Drew was going to have a good game tonight. It’s kind of like a home game for him with him playing in Austin for a while in the G League and with the Spurs. He’s well liked around here. He loves coming back here to play them. Zach Collins had a heck of a battle with him, and it was fun to watch.”


(On Portland’s overall performance…)

“Very good. 34 assists, and these guys don’t even know each other. Playing with two new point guards who aren’t even familiar with our stuff. They all just played so well. I thought everyone that played in the game played well and contributed in a positive way. “


(On Kevin Knox II performance…)

“I love him. He has a great size and has versatility with his shooting. One of his best skills is driving and playing against close outs. Once he gets his shoulders on you, he’s tough to handle. He’s done a really good job at taking advantage of his opportunities and his minuets late in the season.”



Trail Blazers Forward Drew Eubanks

(On the performance of the team overall…)

“I thought we competed. Last couple of games, we’ve been competitive. It didn’t go our way tonight, but I thought we played hard.”


(On the Moody Center environment…)

“I thought it was awesome. I’ve been looking forward to this game all year. I started my pro career in Austin. A lot of the fans in the stands watched me at Cedar Park as well as in San Antonio. I think it’s cool that they’re doing this to try and get the Austin fans to support the big team. I think this is awesome. They need to do it more than twice a year.”


(On his own performance…)

“I think it’s about knowing the personnel and their tendencies. I strive to build my confidence by trying to do different things that I usually don’t do. I’m trying to be a leader and trying to be vocal. It’s really fun. I think I’m the oldest guy with the most years out there, so I try to help guys who haven’t been there before.”

 

SPURS POSTGAME QUOTES


Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich

(On the Moody Center…)

“I think it’s a great arena. I said that earlier in the shoot around this morning, it’s really situated well up on top of the fans. Great venue.”



(On Keita Bates-Diop…)

“He’s carving out an NBA career. In the beginning, it didn’t look like that. But he’s worked on his skills, his confidence, his aggressiveness, everything. I’m really proud of him.”



(On Julian Champagnie…)

“He hasn’t been here very long. But he obviously has a noise for the game. He understands spatial relationships out there and for a young guy he’s pretty impressive and he can shoot and that’s a pretty good thing these days in the league everywhere.”


(On the keys to the Spurs win tonight…)

“Made threes, made Stops, followed them up with threes. That’s how you win basketball games. No matter how you slice it, fourth quarter down the stretch, teams that make stops do pretty well and if you make threes on top of it, you're probably going to win.”



Spurs Forward Keita Bates-Diop



(On the shots he and Tre Jones made that energized the crowd…)

“You can kind of feel the crowd get more and more into it after Tre [Jones] made the three and then I hit mine. You could kind of feel that moment coming, so I just wanted to knock it down to regain the energy. We needed it as a team.”



(On Zach Collins' passing game…)

“He’s really good from that top spot. He knows the angles, knows how to lead guys. We had a good connection.”





Spurs Forward Keldon Johnson

(On what they did to pull out the win in the fourth quarter…)

“Defense. We had to get stops. We knew that throughout the game, we weren’t playing to our standards. We just locked in, just counted on everybody in the huddle, just really had to lock in as a group, got stops. Just made some great plays.”



(On the season overall…)

“There’s definitely been some ups and downs. We had some injuries, we had some really good times, we had some really poor times throughout the season. We won some games and lost some games, but I feel like every single person on the roster and every person that came through got better by being here. We have amazing player development, amazing coaches, amazing medical staff. Throughout the season, they kept us in the best shape we can be in. I feel like everybody that came through got better and just have to look at the silver lining. Obviously, we didn’t win thirty games, forty games, fifty games, but we got better as the year went through, and stayed together the whole time.”