HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well first of all, obviously it was good to get Robin [Lopez] back. You could feel his impact on the game from the very beginning. Hopefully we’ll be able to ramp up his minutes a little bit but he played the minutes that we kind of anticipated that he’d play.” “I thought our defense was kind of up and down. The fourth quarter, obviously we gave up a little bit too much but give Utah credit. They were aggressive. We didn’t give up any fast break points in the first half and we gave up a bunch in the second half and offensive rebounds – so even with Robin back, there’s room to improve. But we showed flashes of the team we can be.” On rebounding matchup: “For the most part if you look at the box score, it was alright but I thought they got offensive rebounds late. We had a nice stretch in the third quarter where they didn’t have any offensive rebounds, but then they kind of got them in bunches and they were able to convert. What did they have like ten second chance points in the second half? So I thought on the whole, we did a good job but I thought their offensive rebounding kind of kept them in the game a little bit.” On Lillard’s aggressiveness tonight: “Particularly in the second half. He scored three baskets in a row when we were down two or something like that. Him being aggressive in the second half was important. LA had it going in the first half and Dame kind of got us through a stretch in the second half.” On Gobert’s development as a defensive impact player: “He’s really grown into his own as an NBA player. For me, the turning point for him was in the World Championships against Spain. He was terrific and I think he’s built on that game. He’s continued to improve. He’s established himself as a defensive center. He plays hard, he’s long, he’s athletic, he bothers shots and he rebounds. HE’s really made big strides.” On Batum’s performance: “He looked like he had good energy. He was aggressive in his ball handling decisions and in getting out in transition looking to make plays. He flirted with a triple double. Again, I’m sure he’d like to make every shot, but I thought he played a very good all around game. He was guarding Trey Burke at the end. So it was what we need from Nic.” WESLEY MATTHEWS Was this a must-win game? “Absolutely. Every game is a must win game, especially in the west. We definitely needed this win. Ro-Lo coming back was big, coming back home was big and we still didn’t play as well as we needed to, as well as we should have, but we played well enough to win the game. We’ve got a tough game coming up Thursday.” On Lopez being back: “Just comfortable. The starting unit – not only does he help the starting unit, but he just helps the team all together because it sets rotations. Everybody is back to what they’re accustomed, where they’ve been playing for so long. He just gives us something that we don’t have. He rolls, he’s a true just grit five-man.” On what made the difference late: “Just continued to grind, continued to come up with the little plays – block outs, defensive rebounds, deflections. In the second half, we were more active defensively, and that defense kind of sparked our offense.” ROBIN LOPEZ On performance coming back from injury: “I felt okay. I had some lapses on coverages defensively. I wasn’t where I was supposed to be all of the time, but I guess it went okay.” “I felt pretty good. The training staff, strength and conditioning, they’ve done a very good job of trying to keep me up to par. Obviously you can’t really replicate basketball conditions but we do our best.” On being back out on floor: “Any basketball player would prefer to be on the floor as opposed to sitting on the bench I think. I don’t think that’s anything special.”
HEAD COACH QUIN SNYDER On the emotion of this game: “We thought it would be a really good test for us just to play against one of the best teams with a full lineup at home. I thought we played a good game and did a really good job against a very good team.” On their big shots down the stretch: “We feel like a team when we’re playing, the ball is finding open people and a lot of guys made those shots. Over the course of the game, if we hit a few more free throws, maybe it would have been closer with a few less fouls in the third quarter. Really I think the main thing is that I though we defended very well.” On Rudy Gobert’s performance on the perimeter guarding LaMarcus Aldridge: “He (Rudy) did a good job. That’s why we played him going into the second half. No match up is perfect against LaMarcus Aldridge. [LaMarcus] is such a good player. He’s so big that when he shoots a jump shot it’s like you’re not even there. With Rudy’s length at least, he’s a little bit more of a factor. There’s not too many guys who can test his shot.” On Trey Burke’s performance: “To me, he’s not a bench guy. He happens to be on the bench in the beginning of the first and third quarters, but when we go through everything…I think he’s a core guy, and as a core guy, he’s able to see what the team needs…” Gordon Hayward On fighting hard: “We competed, I think that’s for sure. We had too many turnovers there in the third quarter. I thought we fought throughout the entire game. We persevered during the end, Rudy [Gobert] did a great job on LaMarcus in the second half but like I said, missed free throws, I missed way too many. Just a little bit more and we would’ve got the win.” On the attitude of the locker room after games: “I think guys want to get better, I think guys want to win. We have a bunch of guys like that here in the locker room and I think we’re getting better each game. Even though tonight was a loss we played really well, just not enough to win so I think we try to learn from this one and we’ve got another hot team coming back home.” On Trey Burke’s starter like play off the bench: “It’s just one of those things that you look around the league and the best teams have somebody coming off the bench that can really go. It’s not a demotion, we talked about that, it’s just kind of when he gets to play. He can pick his spots and be more aggressive there in the second unit and really lead that group for us and he’s done a great job. I think he’s taking it really well.” On playing many great teams before the All-Star break: “It’s been challenging but it’s going to be fun though. Hopefully we can take it to Memphis, they’re going to be big on the inside especially with their new acquisition and I think it’s going to be a good game.” Rudy Gobert On guarding LaMarcus Aldridge: “He plays more on the perimeter so I was told to make sure he doesn’t get a bucket easily and to be physical with him off the ball.” On expecting to get wins every night: “We’ve gotten better in the last few months and we play every game to win. We beat Golden State two days ago and we know we can beat anyone in this league. We’ve just got to be focused and play like we did tonight.” On what he would like to work on: “Pretty much everything, free throws are really important in a stop of game because if we lose by one and we miss like five or six free throws that means that we could’ve won the game. Free throws are very important and keep working on our communication.”
Dame posterizes Gobert Nice having Rolo back Batum playing with some confidence. Although a close one the game is a victorious one
