Wednesday, October 28, 2015 Final Score: POR 112, NOP 94 HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well it’s a good way to start the season. The first quarter was terrific, it actually reminded me a little bit of the Clipper preseason game in that we got off to a tremendous start offensively and defensively. Obviously, New Orleans made a good run in the second half. We had difficulty controlling the ball which opened up some things, but regardless, no matter how you cut it, it was a hell of a way to start the season.” On McCollum’s first quarter: “The first quarter, he was phenomenal – you know, 22 in the quarter and I think he was 5 for 5 on threes. That was phenomenal, It was quite an exhibition.” On team responding when lead was cut to 8 in the fourth: “I liked the way that we could have gone either way, especially thinking about, even though it was a preseason game against the Clippers, certainly that was fresh in our minds, but I liked that we got some stops and played with some poise in the last two or three minutes. NBA games are long and things can turn quickly. That’s going to happen and teams are going to make runs. Anthony Davis made his threes and Ish Smith was getting into the lane, but to finish it off the way we did was very encouraging.” On Amuni’s play coming back from hamstring injury: “You know what, I forgot he had a hamstring injury. I forgot, I think I was supposed to keep an eye on his minutes but I forgot all about it and it didn’t even occur to me. He was solid defensively, big rebounds – he just plays a kind of an understated game that’s very effective for us.” Is this the type of game you expect from Aminu and Davis? “Well what I expect is to play hard and play together and it’s from everybody. I thought Ed was terrific. He battled Davis defensively, was active in the paint, challenged shots. With Mason getting in foul trouble, we needed him and he came through in a big way.” “The first half we controlled the paint. I thought the paint, we limited their shots at the rim and when they did get to the rim, they didn’t shoot a good percentage. In the first half, we limited the stuff at the rim. The second half it was just we didn’t control the ball and that led to a lot of different problems, but the first half I thought we did a lot of good things. We communicated well. Ryan Anderson being on the court really affects the game in pick and roll coverages and things like that.” MASON PLUMLEE “It was a great start, a great way to start the season. I think we handled the lead much better than we did in the preseason with the Clippers.” On McCollum’s performance: “CJ man, unbelievable. I think the numbers is wowing, but just the way he played with composure, confidence that we’ve seen all preseason and practice and obviously you’ve seen it in the game, so we’re not as surprised in here as you are.” On defense tonight: “I thought it started very good. The first two quarters were good. Obviously, they’re an NBA team so they got some things going in the second half but we played better with the lead.” Do you feed off CJ going off? “Oh yeah, wll really we have a couple guys who can go for big numbers. I think it’s just more the way you’re playing regardless of who’s going off, the extra pass. Coach says we have to play Blazer basketball, that’s making the extra pass, helping a teammate out. There’s a good vibe with the team when you’re playing that way and I think if you watched our bench during those stretched, everybody is into it, it’s just really good.” On importance of starting off the season well: “It’s important but at the same time it’s one game. I think you could tell our guys were ready, ready for the start of the season. We’ve been together for a while now. But it’s one game but it will be even more important if we can follow it up two days from now.”
HEAD COACH ALVIN GENTRY On what he saw in tonight’s game: I was a little disappointed at the way we started the game. We gave up way too many easy baskets, transition… I think they had 44 points on transitions and second shots and drive by layups. I thought we played well in the second half, we competed. You’re down 28 or 29 points, it’s got to be a perfect storm to come back. I thought we fought like crazy and I thought we competed the we should have the first half, so I’d say that’s tone of the things we have to correct right away, we have to get off to better starts. We’ve played two games now and we’ve given up 43 and 40 points (in the first quarter). That’s way way way too many, and now you put yourself behind the 8 ball and you’re playing uphill the rest of the way, and so we’ve got to get to the point where we’re competing right from the start and we’ve got to have better ball movement. We got a little stagnant there at the start, and I think I said it after the Golden State game, what’s happening is that we’re getting ourselves down and then everyone’s trying to do it individually. That’s a recipe for disaster right there, we’ve got to trust what we’re doing and keep the ball moving and figure out a way to compete for 48 minutes.” ERIC GORDON On what happened in the first quarter: “We just got to play tougher D, we have to disrupt what they’re doing but they were just running their offense and got hot and hit a lot of threes. They just did things that they wanted to do and as a whole, as a team we have to disrupt. That’s what it’s all about at this point.” On CJ McCollum’s play: “He had an awesome game. He was hitting shots from everywhere and he was hot, he’s a pretty good player. He was hitting a lot of crazy threes and when a guy gets hot he gets hot. He hit a lot of tough ones, he hit one over AD’s (Anthony Davis) hand and we all had hands in his face but he was hitting shots.” ANTHONY DAVIS On first quarter defense the past two nights on Steph Curry and CJ McCollum: “We gave them a lot of open shots, I think his (CJ’s) first three shots were wide open. We have to do a better job at making guys feel us early defensively, impose our will.” On what they need to do to bounce back from slow starts: “We just got to fight. When you think about it we have 80 games left, it’s only been two games. We know that we need to come out early physically and have better starts. We know we can do it and we know we’re a much better defensive team than what we’re showcasing right now.” On if Portland’s roster change gave the game a different feel for him: “I’m just playing basketball, I don’t get into who’s on a team and who’s playing. I just have to play my game and do everything inside schemes, we just struggled early offensively and missed a lot of shots but our D has to get way better. I think we were under 17 or something like that but we pride ourselves on defense. We want to be a defensive team but both games we’ve given up over 100 and we’re not going to win like that.”
I really hope Plumlee getting in foul trouble isn't the only reason Davis played so much.. I realize what Leonard's shooting ability brings to our offense but in my opinion Davis is clearly our best big. He should be playing the most pretty much every game.
What a great first game of the season! Not as good as Dame's first game as a Blazer, because beating the Lakers is always better than beating the Pels on the 2nd night of a B2B. But I couldn't have asked for more. Now, a few critiques: I think CJ played about 18m before his first rest. That's ridiculous for anyone in a season-opener, let alone a guy who has never even been a rotation player. While it's nice to see that Stotts finally rode the hot hand, he's still gotta work on finding a happy medium. I think I only saw it once, but true to his words Stotts tried using Aminu the same way he used Nic in his one and only set play, where Nic/Aminu curls up from the baseline to receive a pass from Lillard. It was hot garbage. Which leads me to... Aminu. I know he's already a fan favorite, so nobody will want to hear this critique - but remember, so were Outlaw and LMA! Love the defensive intensity he plays with - he had some great close-outs (same with several of our players). But offensively he's worse than Nic. He has a more explosive first step, and is quicker overall, but surprisingly his dribbling might be even worse, and his passes aren't on point. I want to see him stick to being a 3D guy (and work on his 3!), and to pick the times that he attacks the hoop a little more wisely. That baseline dunk was a good example of what TO do, and those drives into the middle of the defense are examples of what NOT to do. Ultimately Stotts needs to draw some plays where he receives a pass on a move to the basket, rather than taking the ball to the basket on his own. I think Harkless might end up the better player by the end of the season. With that said, I think I'd still keep Aminu in the starting line-up to balance out offense/defense. Dame's shooting. Ugh. Stop it. I think we all saw this last night. On the positive side, he seems to have really improved his body control when driving to the hoop. And I even saw him make a nice little drop pass to a rolling Davis! Super encouraging - I think that needs to become a much larger part of our offense as the season progresses.
Huh - I totally missed that. Good to know. Seemed like he was out there the entire time, the way he scored on every other possession!
