HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS On McCollum being held out as inactive: “First, I’ll open up by addressing the thing with CJ. There was a clerical error. Every game we fill out an active-inactive list. CJ was mistakenly put inactive instead of Luis. I signed the paper without really noticing it but it’s my fault for not looking at it. Although we caught the error, we thought that we caught it in time, apparently we did not. CJ was ruled inactive and that was that.” On impact of playing without McCollum: “CJ is a really important part of the team. We missed him, just like we missed Dame when Dame was out. I feel bad for CJ. I feel bad for the team that he wasn’t a part of the game tonight. We missed his playmaking ability, we missed him as a backup point guard, we missed everything that he does.” Was first half an emotional letdown? “I thought the first quarter especially was a little lackluster and I don’t know if that contributed to that or not.” On making a run in the second half: “I thought we really picked up our aggressiveness defensively. Offensively, it was a challenge because of their switching, but we found some things that worked. I really liked the way the team responded after halftime. We really set the tone with our activity and aggressiveness defensively.” DAMIAN LILLARD What does it do to the team when you find out last minute a player can’t play like that? “I mean, we get up this morning and prepare assuming we’re going to have one of our better players on the floor, then in the starting lineup, somebody else’s name gets called. Then we just have to go on the fly after that. So it’s a weird situation but it happened and we just had to go with it.” When did you find out? “When they was about to do starting lineups and I was sitting next to CJ and he just leaned over and told me ’I might not be able to play tonight.’ So I thought at least he’d probably have to sit out the start of the game and then eventually he would get in, but I didn’t see him on the bench and I assumed they probably wouldn’t let him play tonight.” Did you feel any extra pressure? “I wouldn’t say pressure. I knew that I would have to do more, have more responsibility making plays and scoring the ball. I thought other guys did a great job of stepping up. Mase had a great game, Ed, Mo, AC, guys picked up the slack when they trapped me throughout the game and just made it hard for me. I think everybody kind of picked their effort up and played with energy in the second half. Had we done that in the first half, it probably would have been a different result.” MASON PLUMLEE “The second half, I thought we came to play, but we aren’t good enough to wait until halftime. I don’t know what we were down at half but we didn’t give ourselves a good first half.”
HEAD COACH DOC RIVERS On responding to the 23 to 9 point deficit: “We made some big shots. Paul’s three was huge for us. Give them credit. (The Trail Blazers) kept playing. They played hard, stayed in the game. I hated the way we came out in the beginning of the third quarter. You can see it right away. I usually call a quick time out. I kind of trusted them and probably got burned. I probably should have called a time out within a minute of the third because you can just see the energy—we didn’t have it. And give them credit. They kept fighting and got back in the game.” On hitting their shots in the fourth quarter: “I’ll tell you we’re shooting the ball really well. We’re making shots. We’re executing well. CP is being more than just a player right now. He’s calling the right play and the right time without me calling it. That’s huge for us. When you have a guy on your team that can recognize something we should run without having to look back, it’s fantastic. He called four in a row that were like the perfect calls. And that’s all CP.” On the team finding the hot hands: “JJ is always hot. That’s the way it feels. The second unit did it again today. Beginning of it, it was all Jamal. Then Austin got in, and he found the ball. I love how unselfish that group has been playing.” CHRIS PAUL On recording his most assists in a Clippers uniform: “I didn’t know that but I always say ‘get assists.’ I mean I’ve got the easy part, all I have to do is pass and the others guys have the hard part of making the shot. JJ (Redick) made shots, DJ (DeAndre Jordan), Paul (Pierce), Wes (Wesley Johnson), all those guys.” On his decision making down the stretch with only a 6 point lead: “We do such a good job at communicating, me and Doc (Rivers), there’s times where I’ll see different things and then there’s a lot of times where I’ll ask him for help for things like what play should we call. I think the three that Wes (Wesley Johnson) hit in the corner was probably the biggest shot because they (the Trail Blazers) had cut it to six and he put it back up to nine and then he got an offensive foul call and then from there we were good.” On if he thinks they’re a different team from the first time they were in Portland this season: “Yeah we’re not second guessing things. I think for a while there, I know for myself that I was passing up shots and Jamal (Crawford) might have been passing up shots but we’re just playing a lot smoother. Like we keep saying we’re just trying to hold it down until big fella (Blake Griffin) gets back.” On if he feels that the team is more composed with the game on the line: “Yeah that’s the thing that we always try to talk about, especially Paul (Pierce). Paul jumped up in the huddle one time and just told everybody to ‘calm down, we got the lead.’ We have the tendency as a team that everybody gets excited and a little rattled but we just have to be cool like we’ve been there before.” AUSTIN RIVERS On the last time he felt this good playing basketball: “I don’t know, high school really. It’s been back to confidence and that doesn’t just mean scoring, just be comfortable. Out there playing and having fun. I know what I need to do every night and I try and go in and be aggressive and again I can’t credit our team right now, our chemistry of us trusting each other, our communication on both ends that’s all a huge part of it.” On the oddity of playing a game where CJ McCollum could not play: “We’ll take it, he’s a hell of a player.”
