HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “I’m really proud in back to back games to win our division and have back to back 50-win seasons. It’s something to be very proud of, which we are, but we’re not done. We’ve got to continue to get better and prepare for the playoffs, but this was a good night for the Trail Blazers.” On contributions from Kaman and the bench: “Chris was terrific. Our whole bench was terrific, the first half in particular, but Chris – I’m not one for superlatives, but it might have been his best game. It could have been, he had a lot of good games early in the season, but I thought he passed the ball well, he took advantage of a post matchup that was advantageous for us, rebounded the ball, made a great play on a lob toward the end to Davis. So he did a nice job at both ends.” On fourth quarter “Our fourth quarter defense was very good. Nic did a really good job on Evans and as I said, Chris and LA did a nice tag-team as far as whether they had two bigs in or whether Ryan Anderson was at the four. We did a better job of controlling penetration. When you get stops and you’re able to get the ball out, it makes your offense better. Obviously, Damian made a lot of good plays at the end at the offensive end. Usually when you do things like that, it’s a combination of offense and defense.” On McCollum’s contributions/play last night and tonight: “Obviously last night in LA, he had an outstanding offensive game. He’s playing in flow, I thought he had an excellent floor game, not just his scoring but he’s making good reads on his penetration and his passing. We need that scoring off the bench. The first half tonight, getting 10, he kind of picked up where he left off. With Wes and Dorrell gone, we need his scoring punch when he comes in and it looks like he’s kind of latched on to that responsibility.” On outrebounding Pelicans 51-35: “Rebounding is important, particularly defensive rebounding for us. They get second chance points, they have a big front line. I think our offensive rebounding has been not as good as it probably can be. With Robin being out for 23 games, he’s obviously been our best offensive rebounder and we’ve missed that. He got his hands on a lot of ball on the offensive end and that was important. It didn’t seem like we were able to convert on a lot of our offensive rebounds, but it’s the effort that matters on that.” DAMIAN LILLARD What was key to finishing game after losing lead? “We just tightened things up. We started to defend a lot better and play more physical. We executed really well.” On getting aggressive offensively late in the game: “At the end of the third, I had a lot of good looks and the ball felt good coming out of my hand. I finally made one, then I came out and went over to the bench, I could tell what kind of game it was turning into with them being right there, having a chance to get in the playoffs tonight. In my head, I made the decision to come in and be aggressive for the rest of the game and I was able to hit some shots. Nico hit some shots, but I think the biggest thing was us defending and getting out and running.” On getting 50 wins for second straight year: “It’s going in the right direction. A lot of the elite teams are consistently going over 50 wins and I think it’s great for us to have back to back seasons with that.” Thoughts on bench heading to the playoffs compared with last year: “I think we’re more comfortable with our bench, I guess you could say. Last year, we liked what we had but we didn’t know it would get this good. We’ve had a lot of guys that have had to step in because of injury this year that we didn’t have to deal with last year, so they’re more comfortable, more confident and jumping out there any time they’re called on and being able to produce. I think that’s going to be huge for us.”
HEAD COACH MONTY WILLIAMS On his team’s play in the fourth quarter: “We got ourselves back into it, went up by 4 and just couldn’t sustain it. Even when it was 85-85, we gave up a tough 3 to Nicolas (Batum) and then fouled the next time down and gave up 3 free throws… Just couldn’t regroup after that. We’ve had games like that before, where we’ve been able to close it out, but tonight we just didn’t have enough on the offensive end. I mean, we only scored 90 points and we got to the free throw line 10 times. In a physical game like that they only had 9 fouls called against them, so that’s a story for another day, but it was a tough offensive night for us.” On free throws and rebounding: “We there offensive rebounding… I think they had 18, and their bench had 31 points in the first half, so those two things really hurt us. We kept giving up extra possessions to a team that doesn’t need any. They didn’t shoot the ball great tonight, but they had so many opportunities, I felt like if we had gotten some of those rebounds like we did in the first quarter… That’s where scored a little bit early in the game, but after that we just couldn’t score in the second and fourth quarter.” On his team’s play in the third quarter: “We were getting stops and rebounds in the third. Then Tyreke (Evans) and Eric (Gordon) got it going a little bit and we were playing in transition, where our offense was clicking a little bit, but the stops were what helped us. For whatever reason, when we made the shift to our bench, we just couldn’t get the same effectiveness on offense. Our defense wasn’t terribly bad tonight, we just could offensively keep it up.” RYAN ANDERSON On what he thinks was the difference down the stretch between the teams: “I think we battled and wanted to make a run of our own but this is a tough team, tough place to play. We had a chance to definitely win this game tonight but they just made a big run, big push at the end. [Damian] Lillard and [LaMarcus] Aldridge did a great job playing off of each other and getting easy buckets. This is just a tough loss.” On what he feels about the road trip: “If this was in the middle of the season it would be positive, having a winning record on this road trip coming home but every game is precious at this point for us. A loss it tough, we just need to come home and be ready for the next game and get a win. Overall going 2 and 1 is pretty god but we can continue to get better. We need to get some wins in this last stretch.” On being in the playoff hunt: “Like I said, every game is a grind, every game matters. Right now we need to be playing playoff style basketball and I think though some stretches we do and we showed that tonight. We just need to continue battling and fighting and get wins, that’s all it’s about right now. We need to focus one game at a time, we can’t look too far ahead and chase after a certain team or whatever. We just need to play our game and focus on the next game ahead and get that win. That’s the kind of mentality we need, just go one game at a time.” ANTHONY DAVIS On what happened from the third quarter to the fourth: “They made shots and we missed shots. They also got to the free throw line, we didn’t take many free throws. Nicolas [Batum] came and hit a big 3 and they got some big stops.” On if tonight felt like a playoff atmosphere: “Every game we’re in feels like a playoff game for us. Every time we play on the road the atmosphere is like the playoffs. They’re fighting and we’re playing for the eighth spot in a packed house. We came out shorthanded this time.” On if it’s hard knowing that a win tonight would’ve made them the eighth seed: “No, honestly I don’t think we want the eighth spot. With seven games left and knowing that we own the tie breaker with OKC you just have to win game. We just need to go back home and get ready.”
