HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well it was good to have one of those games. I thought everybody played well. It was good to have a good offensive night. Defensively, we were very good in the first half. The second half, I thought Detroit did a nice job offensively moving the ball and making some shots, we could have defended better. It was good to have one of those, to have everybody play under 30 minutes, you need one of those every once in a while.” On playing starters in fourth quarter and bench contributions: “In the fourth quarter when it got down to 12 or 14, I brought Dame back in, I was prepared to bring LA back in. I wanted to see how the game went, but certainly with 5 or 6 minutes to go in the game, the game wasn’t over. Head coaches are a little paranoid about conceding a little too early, but our bench was very good. Up and down the line, you look at the assists off the bench. We shot the ball well, Meyers, Chris – I mean Steve’s line, I’ve never seen a line like that. They all contributed and it was good that the starters were able to play fewer minutes especially with a road trip coming up.” On Leonard: “He’s playing with a lot of confidence more than anything else. Obviously it shows more on the offensive end, and that’s good but again, his contribution is – I know what he can do offensively and I’m glad he’s making shots and it’s good for his confidence – but again, the important thing with him is defending and rebounding. When he does that, he makes us a better team.” On Afflalo’s performance: “I think he’s feeling more and more comfortable. The shots are there. I think he has a better idea of where shots are going to be moving without the ball. I was glad to see him post up some, particularly in the first half. He took four threes and they were all good looks. He’s going to be fine.” ARRON AFFLALO On success offense tonight: “Just trying to be patient, learning from each game where it would be best for me to fit in and find my shots and find my offensive rhythm. Still playing with great teammates who are encouraging me and looking for me along the way, so it was good. You make your first few shots and if it had been a more competitive game, probably would have had a more explosive game, but I felt good tonight.” On offensive repertoire: “All of the mid-range game, posting up, shooting threes off of LA and Dame, just being a threat all over the court is the idea for me in terms of helping the team. It felt good. It felt good to get in a little bit of a rhythm. The idea is to not try and do too much and just build and build and build so that hopefully I can peak at the right time.” Did you want to show offense after a good defensive performance last game? “Just relax man. Just wanted to relax and take what’s there. I’ve been in so many different roles over the past year, I’m trying to find my way. The idea was just to relax, let the game come to me a little bit, take advantage of the things that are there and as I start taking advantage of those, start putting my will on the game a little bit.” Was that the most comfortable you’ve been so far starting for Portland? “No question, just in terms of being relaxed. A little more in tune where I’m supposed to be offensively, but still a little bit of slippage mentally there in terms of where I’m supposed to be and picking it up at the snap of a finger offensively, but the more I get just really, really in tune with the offensive plays and learning guys’ tendencies and how to play off of them, the better. So it’s good that we have still 19, 20 games left for me to really lock into that.; On importance of getting win before 5 game road trip: “It was real important. It was one of those games where you start looking forward to a trip, against a team that had been struggling a little bit and you can lose these sometimes. We actually experienced that in Minnesota a little bit, so I thought for the most part, we were locked in.”
HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY On the Blazers shooting a high field goal percentage: “They’re really good.” On the lack of paint protection when (Damian) Lillard drove the ball: “They didn’t have too many points in the paint… 40 points in the paint, you can win with that. They were getting everything on the perimeter… I thought both Lillard and (LaMarcus) Aldridge mad shot even when they were well defended, those guys are great players. I’m not saying our defense on them was great, but I didn’t think it was awful on either one of them. There concerning thing is Meyers Leonard got going and Chris Kaman, like he did before… And then we gave Robin Lopez jump hooks… Those are the things that are disappointing. The other two guys, I thought just played tremendous basketball. I thought their whole team did.” On only shaving 1 point in the third quarter despite scoring 32 points: “I thought we made offensive improvement tonight against a good defensive team. I thought our pace was better, I thought our ball movement was better. There was some offensive improvement, but we couldn’t find a way to stop them at all.” On the altercation at the end of the game and if it showed that the team cares: “I don’t care… The thing that makes me think guys care is watching them play defense. I don’t really care about fighting or not fighting or anything else. I’m not mad at him, but so what?” GREG MONROE On the Blazers: “They were just making shots. They were doing what they were doing. They didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. They moved the ball well and they made their shots.” On their third quarter: “I think we were just moving the ball. We had a good flow. We need to get stops. I don’t think the offense is as big of a problem as everybody’s trying to make it. I think we have to fight to get stops.” On how important it is to bounce back from tonight’s game before tomorrow’s game: “It’s very important. You have to be ready to win the next game. No matter what happens, win or lose, you have to be ready to win the next game. There can’t be any carry over. You can’t let anything linger. You just have to be ready to refocus and be ready for tomorrow.” REGGIE JACKSON On the difficulties of stumping Portland: “Very difficult, especially when we’re not necessarily doing great in our coverages. I thought we were competing on our offensive end and were trying on our defensive end, but we just got to do a better job to get all five guys communicating.” On Portland’s Leonard and Kaman: “When they took the lid off, everyone started to feel comfortable. It’s easier for guys to make shots with a lead. They definitely have great players, but it’s always a little bit more comfortable when you have a bigger lead…” On their defense: “I think we could be better. Of course if we want to defense to get you something, you got to take advantage of it and they did. They also made it more difficult later
POSTGAME NOTES Portland Trail Blazers (118) vs. Detroit Pistons (99) March 13, 2015 TRENDS - Portland shot 46-of-80 from the floor (57.5%), marking its highest shooting percentage of the season (Previous: 53.3% at New Orleans on Dec. 20). - The Trail Blazers finished with seven more rebounds than the Pistons (43-36) and have now out rebounded the opposition in 11 of 15 games since Robin Lopez returned to the lineup (+73 advantage). - The Trail Blazers are now 28-6 at the Moda Center this season (T-1st in WC with Golden State) and have won five straight home games. - Portland is 11-2 against Detroit dating back to the start of the 2008-09 season (Current streak: W-5). - The Trail Blazers have won seven consecutive home games against Detroit since Mar. 14, 2007. - Portland is 26-5 in games separated by 10+ points. - Portland is 5-1 since the beginning of March. - Portland’s average margin of victory over the past three wins (DAL, HOU, DET) is 14.3 points. - The Trail Blazers snapped a three-game losing streak against the Eastern Conference and are now 19-6 against the East this season (23-7 last season). - Portland is 29-4 when leading after three quarters (11-2 at home). - Portland is 33-6 when scoring 100 points this season and 33-7 when limiting opponents to less than 100 points. - The Trail Blazers are 22-4 when shooting at least 45% from the floor. - Portland finished with 28 assists, marking the 49th time this season that the Trail Blazers have dished out 20+ assists. - The Trail Blazers made 11 three-pointers and are now 24-12 when making 10+ threes in a game. PLAYERS - LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting, marking the seventh time in the past eight games that Aldridge has scored 20+ points. Aldridge is tied for fourth in the NBA with 40 games of 20+ points this season. - Damian Lillard is the fourth player in the NBA this season to score 28+ points on 12 or fewer shot attempts (R. Gay, P. Millsap, P. Pierce). - Damian Lillard made five three-pointers on seven attempts, his highest total since Dec. 23 at Oklahoma City (8-12 3-PT). - Meyers Leonard scored a season-high 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting (2-3 3-PT). His previous season-high was 13 at Houston on Dec. 22. - Arron Afflalo scored 15 points, marking the fifth time in his past six games against Detroit that he has registered double-digit scoring. Portland is now 2-1 when Afflalo scores 10+ points. - Arron Afflalo is averaging 12.6 points in three starts for the Trail Blazers.
