HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “I thought it was a good game. Both teams really played hard. There was a lot of ebb and flow to the game. I liked the way we came back a couple times. Turnovers were an issue early in the first half, but we kind of overcame that. If we can get a shot like that for CJ to win a game, I’d take it every time. It was a great look.” On decision to foul down 3 with about 28 second left: “I told them to foul. A four second differential, that’s the gray area. You’ve got to get a stop, you’ve got to get a rebound, you’ve got to make a three to get a tie. I thought just prolonging the game was a better choice.” Was it ironic that McCollum missed the last shot after the night he had? “Yeah it was. Like I said, that was right in his sweet spot going left, uncontested, 18-foot, I mean, that’s as good a shot as you can hope for.” On McCollum’s performance: “It was outstanding. He made big shots, was able to penetrate and finish. We needed all of his points.” “I would like to say I thought our bench did a very good job of keeping us afloat. All the guys that came off the bench had a positive impact. Even you look at a guy like Ed who I thought had a good game without scoring a point. But I thought our bench really helped us out tonight.” On playing Napier: “Their second unit plays a small lineup, they spread the court and I just thought it was a chance for us to kind of match that. I thought we needed a little bit of a spark. You know, I really like Shabazz. It’s unfortunate he hasn’t been able to get a lot of time so far and I thought it was a good opportunity to get him on the court.”
DAMIAN LILLARD “They played a slow game, limited the possessions of the game and we had our opportunities. We had some turnovers and some possessions on the defense where we allowed them to take advantage of us. They just made more plays than we did in that fourth quarter. We had some fouls. Let that one slip. We had our chances.” Did you feel like you had open looks? “For the most part, in the first half I thought I started off slow. Usually in that second half when I have a slow start like that, I try to get going in the third but I mean, I think I shot 10 of those 16 attempts in the first half. I don’t know, it was just a slow night. Like I said, low possessions. We had our opportunities.” Did they do anything specifically defensively on you? “No, I mean they’re good defensively but I just didn’t make shots.” Is there anything you can take away from close games down the road? “Just valuing possession on both ends of the ball. Each time that we’ve lost one, it’s been a turnover here, a miscommunication on the defense there, or a foul here. Each game we’re one or two plays away from winning it so we’ve got to learn from that.” On McCollum’s look to win the game at the end: “I mean he got a good look, it didn’t fall. It’s a lot of things that impact the outcome of a game. The last play is always what people talk about but it’s a lot that puts you in that position.”
HEAD COACH DAVID FIZDALE On the second half defense: Yeah. I mean, the combination of the two. I though Marc was phenomenal back there patrolling our defense, quarterbacking that deal. Then, Mike really got it going there in the second half and carried us for stretches. How did you feel about Brooks defense on McCollum? Well, you know, he’s a rookie. He had one mental lapse, and you leave McCollum open for a three. Other than that, I really loved the way he competed. I thought he made him work. We’re talking about premier, elite guards in Dame and CJ so all you can do is make them work, but they’re still going to get numbers. They’re so well coached with Terry that it’s just hard to shut them down. You just want to make it difficult. Did you feel good with Brooks on McCollum for that last play? I feel good with him on anybody. We’re developing him to be a starter. He has to go through mistakes, getting the respect of the officials – all of that stuff. We can’t hide him from those guys. On the back to back steels: Yeah. He makes plays in crunch moments. That was something we noticed, our front office guys noticed when they watched the film on him. He always rose to the occasion in crunch moments. That’s something we really like about him. He finds a way to help you win when everything is on the line. Did James and Jarell bounce back the way you hoped? Absolutely. They really helped us tonight. Jarell had 8 boards I think? He really helped us tonight. I talked to him today. He was just really playing uptight and trying not to mess up. I told him free your mind and just fly around and be athletic, and if your mistakes are aggressive mistakes I’ll live with them. He took it to heart, and he played hard and competed and helped us. I thought James was instrumental in helping us win tonight. What do you think the key was on Lillard? I don’t know. Honestly, I just thought we really competed. I thought we had limited breakdowns against him and the offense – because their offense puts you in so many compromising positions. You know me, I’ve always praised Terry’s offense. He’s one of the geniuses I think, and they really put you in some compromising positions. I just thought our guards did a good job of competing, and I thought Marc did a great job of always communicating and quarterbacking everything.
DILLON BROOKS His thoughts on the last possession guarding CJ McCollum: “Don’t score. He likes going left and he was going left but then he got me on a little push off and he had an open shot. I feel like I contested pretty good and I was just hoping that he’d miss and he missed and then he got the rebound and I just ran back to try and defend it again.” On his steal to and-1 play near the end of regulation: “Tyreke [Evans] he held the ball a little so they committed a little bit and then I had an open lane. I’ve been practicing finishes when I first got here so I finished pretty easy.” On having some of his Oregon teammates at the game: “It was great. I invited them to come and they ended practice early for me so it’s just a blessing. I’m glad that those guys came and Coach Altman came because it gave me more confidence.”
MARC GASOL On how they were able to control the game defensively: “I think communication for the most part, defense has a lot to do with communication. It allows you to see a little bit for what’s going to happen, maybe half a second or a second early and it brings also trust, the guy on the ball knows where you’re going to be at and then you get a little bit higher and more into it and you just trust the next guy behind you and that’s what defense does for you.” On defending Damian Lillard well: “Couldn’t tell you right now, I think guys have been disciplined. Forcing them to be physical with them, forcing them to take tough shots, being up on screens in the pick and roll, not letting him get his looks and he even got through a couple times and made some tough layups but for the most part I thought we did a decent job.” On the team early in the season: “It’s very early, we’re now 10, 11 games in? 11 games I think. We still don’t have that entity, I mean everything is still brand new, everything is up for grabs. We need more consistency and more discipline to figure out people’s spacing and people rolling through. Right now it’s a little bit chaotic sometimes but that’s what we’re shooting for.”
TEAM • The Trail Blazers shot 19-of-20 (95.0%) from the free-throw line, the team’s best free throw percentage of the season. • The Trail Blazers scored 11 second chance points off of 10 offensive rebounds, while the Grizzlies had four second chance points on five offensive rebounds. • Portland outrebounded Memphis, 42-34. • The Trail Blazers had nine steals to the Grizzlies eight steals.
PLAYER • CJ McCollum scored a season-high 36 points (14-26 FG, 4-10 3-PT, 4-5 FT) to go along with a season-high three steals. McCollum has scored 20+ points in three consecutive games. • CJ McCollum has made at least four three pointers in three consecutive games (4-of-10 tonight). It is the second-longest streak of his career (4, 12/5/16 - 12/10/16). McCollum’s fourth three-pointer was the 500th of his career. • Evan Turner recorded 16 points (4-10 FG, 8-8 FT), two rebounds and three assists. It was the sixth game this season that Turner has reached double figures in scoring. Turner’s eight free throws were a season high. • Damian Lillard had 12 points (4-16 FG, 4-4 FT) and six assists. Lillard has made 47 consecutive free throws over the last five games. The franchise record for consecutive free throws made is 57 (Damon Stoudamire, Jan. 14 – Feb. 16, 2005) while Lillard’s career-best is 54 (March 8-24, 2016). • Shabazz Napier scored a season-high 12 points (5-8 FG, 1-1 3-PT, 1-1 FT). • Noah Vonleh (six points, 10 rebounds) set a new season high for rebounds. • Ed Davis pulled down 10 boards, finishing with double digit rebounds for the fifth time this season. • Tyreke Evans scored 21 points (8-15 FG, 1-4 3-PT, 4-6 FT) off the bench to lead the Grizzlies. Evans has scored 20+ points in four consecutive games, the second longest streak of 20-point performances in his career (5, 3/1/14-3/9/14).
I thought Lillard did a better job of accepting some responsibility and admitting there were things they could do better, than Stotts did. Stotts acted like we played great and somehow we happened to lose.
Great game....enjoyed the hell out of it even though we lost by a point....we match up well with these top teams so far....this would be a good playoff matchup
