HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well it was a win we needed to get. I liked the way we came out in the first half and set the tone defensively. Give Orlando credit for coming back from 19 down to take the lead. They played with a lot of energy, got into us defensively, created some turnovers. Vucevic had a terrific game. I think he showed why he’s one of the of the up and coming big men in the league. We made a lot of plays in the last five minutes to secure the win. Wes came up with some big steals, a transition basket, the three that he hit kind of clinched the game in some ways. I liked the way that we finished the game. It was a little disappointing to give up the lead but in the end, we did what we needed to do.” “I don’t know if we let up or not. They were the more aggressive team at both ends of the court. Offensively, they were driving the ball to the basket. We gave up offensive rebounds, mostly because of the penetration we were giving up. I don’t think we were as aggressive as we needed to be at the offensive end either. But give them credit. They’re a hard playing team and a lot of young talented players. I think those things happen. On Aldridge providing some offense while offense struggled in middle quarters: “He’s usually a stabilizing influence and he was that when he was on the court. We had to play him at the 5 a little bit tonight to give a different look and he was effective with that. He made a couple big plays at the offensive end to get baskets when we needed them. He does that every night.” On Matthews defense in fourth quarter and down stretch: “His defense on Oladipo was good in general and then I think he got a couple steals. He came up with those and those are big momentum plays, big fourth quarter plays. No matter who you’re playing, when you’re able to make plays like that in the fourth quarter, it’s a way to secure wins. Those I thought turned the tide in the fourth quarter.” DAMIAN LILLARD On losing lead after going up by 19: “It was a great start for us. We came out with the kind of energy that we needed and then we pretty much had a drop off. They got more aggressive and more confident, and we relaxed. We thought that it was going to be easy because of the way that the game was going, but really it was going that way because we played hard, we were locked in. We took what we did for granted and they took advantage of that and made it a dog fight pretty much.” On turnovers tonight: “I know I made a couple bad plays myself, lazy plays I guess. Just not paying enough attention to detail, just bad plays. We were that way as a team for a little bit. I wouldn’t say in a funk, but just stagnant and just bad passes and things like that. We did it to ourselves, but as we’ve done so many times already this season, when it came down to it, we got stops and we made plays and we won the game.” On fourth quarter: “We just won the game. They’re an NBA team. When they get going, they’re capable just like everybody else. They made some shots and made some plays on both ends of the court. They competed, they made it a game. We were able to get it done.” On Matthews getting stops and making big three down the stretch: “We’ve got a lot of guys that we can depend on. Even guys off the bench – Meyers was huge again tonight. D-Wright was hug tonight. Steve, Chris, we had guys come in and contribute. But at the end, Wes got his hands on three different balls and knocked down a big three. That’s what he does for us. He does it every night. He plays hard, he’s a soldier, and that’s what we’re used to. Tonight was him doing that once again.”
