TEAM • Portland won its fourth consecutive game, marking the longest winning streak of the season. The Trail Blazers finished their longest homestand of the season with a 5-1 record. • The Trail Blazers outrebounded the Celtics, 55-42, and outscored them in the paint, 42-26. • The Trail Blazers and Celtics both made 14 three-pointers. Portland shot 14-of-36 from deep (38.9%) while the Celtics were 14-of-42 from long-distance (33.3%). • Portland’s reserves outscored their Boston counterparts, 30-22. • Both teams shot 8-of-10 from the free-throw line. • Portland held Boston to 38.7% shooting from the field (36-of-93), marking the third time this season that the Trail Blazers have held their opponent below 40.0% from the field. PLAYER • Damian Lillard scored a team-high 19 points (7-15 FG, 2-7 3-PT, 3-3 FT) to go with five rebounds and a season-high 12 assists. It was his first double-double of the season. Lillard had six assists in the first quarter alone. • Jusuf Nurkic recorded a double-double in the first half (14 points, 10 rebounds) and finished the game with 18 points (8-14 FG, 2-2 FT), 17 rebounds and three assists. It was his sixth double-double of the season. Nurkic pulled down seven of his rebounds on the offensive end. • CJ McCollum finished with 14 points (6-15 FG, 1-6 3-PT, 1-1 FT), two rebounds, one assist and one block. • Al-Farouq Aminu scored 11 points (3-8 FG, 3-7 3-PT, 2-4 FT), including a three-pointer with 1:00 left in the fourth quarter that gave the Trail Blazers a 100-94 lead. Aminu added nine rebounds and two steals. • Seth Curry scored nine points off the bench while shooting 3-of-4 from the three-point line. • Jake Layman had eight points, two rebounds, one steal and one block while shooting a perfect 3-of-3 from the field (2-2 3-PT). • Zach Collins logged six points and eight rebounds in twenty minutes off the bench. • Meyers Leonard had eight points and six rebounds in 18 minutes of action. • Jayson Tatum matched his career high with 27 points (9-18 FG, 5-9 3-PT, 4-4 FT) to go with eight rebounds and two blocks.
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “It was a really good basketball game. Both teams made their runs. We made ours in the first half, they made theirs in the second half. We made our threes in the first half, they made their threes in the second half. It came down to making plays at the end, so it was a good game and I’m glad we came out on top.” What do you like most about how the way you’ve started the year so far? “We’ve found ways to win. Different people have it going at different times. I think they’ve been team wins, we’re finding different people at different times. Obviously, the second unit, they didn’t necessarily have it tonight, but the second unit has been terrific for the first thirteen games. We’re playing with confidence and poise.” Was it nice to go through a close game and win after some double-digit wins? “Some might say that. Maybe for you… I enjoy ten-point wins. I enjoy double-digit wins. I’m glad we made big plays. I mean, Chief’s shot at the end was obviously huge. The fact that we made the pass to him, having that trust was important. Coming up with stops when we need them, that was good. So I mean, you’ve got to win close games in this league. I think a lot of times winning close games over the course of your season makes the difference of how you look back at your season. In that context, yeah, it was good.” Aminu took a deep three, what did you think when it left his hands? Were you surprised? “I was standing right behind him, I thought it looked good… I don’t know how much time was on the clock, but I mean, obviously he was aware of it. He was aware of how much time was left, I don’t know, it was certainly single digit on the shot clock, probably under five, so I thought it was good recognition on his part.” On Lillard looking to get Nurkic involved early: “He had all six of our assists I think in the first quarter, or at least when he came out, he had all six of our assists. Their pick and roll defense, their bigs were up a little bit and I thought Dame made some really good reads. Nurk was good as far as staying under control on finishing or finding the weak side. They made adjustments at halftime because those passing situations were pretty good for us in the first half, I thought they made good adjustments in the second half.”
DAMIAN LILLARD On season so far: “I liked the way we’ve done it. I think it’s been by committee, everybody’s been pretty consistent and we’ve been sharp. I think down the stretch, we usually in the past, we were a lot more up and down. I think this year, we’re just getting it done. We’re doing the things we need to do to win games and we’re doing it consistently.” On Aminu’s shot at the end: “I mean, the first one – they were really attacking from the weak side, they was leaving that weak side wide open, coming and making sure we weren’t hitting the big, so the first one, I threw it out to him and he rose up with confidence and once I saw the quality of that make, I was like he’s feeling good about his shot tonight. So the next one, they shrunk again, he was the play and he was a little deeper than usual but when he rose up with that confidence, I felt good about it just watching him take the shot and he knocked down another one.” Was it nice to finally get a close win after some big wins and close losses? “Yeah, I think some of the games we ended up winning by double digits, they were closer at some point. I think our discipline, the things that we were doing over and over down the stretch kind of allowed us to create that gap. But like the Wizards game, we let that one slip, but we had opportunities in that one. I had two chances to win the game at the end but didn’t do it. But I think tonight, the way we did it, we got stops, we made big plays, the ball was moving, guys made shots. That’s how you want to win those games, by making those kind of plays.” On making winning plays: “When we can win games how we are, we’ve got our second group coming in and they’re giving us good minutes. We have our bench coming in and doing that and then we get down the stretch and we’re winning by making the right plays. I’m not having to come off and hit a crazy three or score 15 points in a row, stuff like that. We’re getting stops, we’re coming down and we’re executing. Chief was open, he hit the shot. CJ came off a screen, he hit a shot. Nurk is rolling. We’re really leaning on each other regardless of what the situation is. That makes a huge difference.”
HEAD COACH BRAD STEVENS On falling behind in the past three games: “Just thoroughly outplayed, I don’t know what else to say. When we’re desperate and urgent, we’re pretty good…we’ve gotta do a better job, I’ve gotta do a better job of making sure we start off the right way.” On the slow offensive starts the past three games: “We were up 10-2 in Utah, so that was not…everything’s different…we’re just not as, we just don’t hunt great on offense until it’s desperation time, and we’re spending a lot of time in desperation time on this trip, and it’s been a disappointing trip.” On integrating new pieces and finding offensive flow: “You find your flow by making the next right play and playing hard, that’s it. When you’re in the game, you’ve got a job to do on that possession, and if you do it really well over and over again, you have a good team. We’re not there yet, and so that, to me…well-coached teams get there, and we’re not a well-coached team, that’s pretty obvious.” On recovering from this loss and moving forward: “Play hard and play well when your opportunity arises. Play with more purpose early in the games, play with more purpose for 48 minutes…just be better. The one thing that I need to take the time to say is that we got beat by a really good team at their place…and I shouldn’t take away from their play, they deserve credit more so than we deserve blame…but ultimately, we have to play better, and there’s a lot that we can improve upon.” On a possible change in rotation: “Yeah, I think that I’d like to see us find some consistency at some point. We started some games, we started the Denver game off great, [the] Utah game we started off great, Phoenix and tonight were disasters. So I think that it’s not consistent, whatever our issues are, we’ve talked about the offensive struggles in the first six games, the defensive struggles in the last six…we were a little bit better tonight, and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game…to Aminu’s credit, he was 1-5 going into those last two threes, and the one was from about 28 feet, and so you have to tip your cap off to him, but we just can’t keep putting ourselves in this position.” On Jayson Tatum’s career high in points tonight: “[He] made shots in the third quarter. I thought he played better against Utah, and it probably got him feeling good…when you do those things, it’s funny how the game rewards you back.” On the team’s struggles possibly being related to poor shooting: “No, we gotta play better. It has nothing to do with shooting. Coach better, play better.”
AL HORFORD On not closing out the game with a win “We had our chances, we had our opportunities and the Blazers made some key plays and key shots. There was a possession when we couldn’t get a rebound and [Al-Farouq] Aminu hit two big threes and a lot of credit to him for that.” On the Celtics’ record this road trip [1-4] “We’ve been addressing it. I felt like the first half tonight wasn’t good. The second half was much better. There’s no excuse, we need to play better. I need to play better. We need to get back to the way that we play.” KYRIE IRVING On avoiding getting into slumps “We can control our attitude and effort. It takes a collective effort, until we all get on the same page with that, then we’re going to have lulls like this.” On getting everyone on the same page “It will take experience. We needed this [bad road trip]. We’re not as good as we think we are. That’s what it comes down to. I said in the beginning of the season, the excitement is done. It’s real basketball now, so it’s not just about the potential of the team or where we’ll be at the end of the season. It’s about right now and taking care of what’s in front of us.”
JAYSON TATUM On the second half of the game “Brad [Stevens] didn’t have to show us anything at halftime, it was an effort thing. We often put ourselves in those positions where we’re down a lot, then we have to play the right way and faster, and it looks good, but we have to do that the whole game.”
Chief on everyone's mind. Those two 3s were SOO clutch. Love how balanced things have been. Is this the third game out of 13 that no Blazer has even reached 20 points--and all of them wins? Incredible. Meyers Collins put up 14 and 14 in 38 minutes. That dude's pretty solid.
This is terrific. I really hope the role players can build some confidence now so they contribute during the playoffs. And serious props to Dame for trusting his teammates.
