HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS What did you like best? “I liked our demeanor. After being disappointed last night and struggling with the offense, to come back and probably the way we set the tone – I think our first five baskets were assisted and I thought that set a good tone for the rest of the night. Defensively, we were solid until late in the fourth quarter which has kind of become what we do. After last night’s struggles offensively, to come back and have this type of game was encouraging.” Have you seen Leonard progress in practice – he had a good practice recently: “That day that you were watching him, he had a really good day. He played well, I don’t know if it was four-on-four or five-on-five, but he played really well and then he had a good session of one-on-one. What was that Thursday? Anyway, he had a really good practice. Is that what led to more playing time? “That was part of it. Last night, Ed had his ankle issue. But tonight, after last night and having trouble scoring and creating some spacing and the way they played their two bigs with Koufos and Cauley-Stein out there together, I thought it was a good matchup for us because they really packed it in. I thought he would give us some spacing.” What did you like about Leonard’s play? “He was just solid. He made his shots. Competed on the boards. He’s always vocal. It was just a good performance. And again, so many times you talk about if he had gone 2 for 8 instead of 4 for 8, does that change the opinion of how he played? I thought he was good in general but it’s good when you make your threes and it stands out a little bit more.” What did you think of CJ’s performance and tonight’s play after disappointing performance last night: “He shot the ball better. I don’t know what that scoop shot was, you can ask him about that. That hit the shot clock. But anyway, again, for struggling offensively last night, I thought it was just good by everybody. I thought Damian did a nice job of managing the game. The third quarter, I thought he showed a lot of leadership even beyond his scoring. You can go up and down – when the bench, when you look at the plus-minus and you look at what Pat and Meyers and Ed and Shabazz did, our bench struggled last night and they were a difference tonight.”
DAMIAN LILLARD Thoughts on the win: “It was a great win for us. Obviously a tough loss last night on the road. We knew that we had to have this one even more so than we had to last night, especially going on a long road trip. So it was a great win. I thought we had a little bit of a fight on our hands to start the game. They had a lot of confidence, I think that to do with how the game went last night. They competed. They’re a team that always plays hard regardless of what their record is. We did what we needed to do and pulled away and got the win.” On setting the tone with five assisted baskets to start the game: “Naturally when you’re not having success on the offensive end, guys try to take it upon themselves. I know I’ve done it in the past where I just try to shoulder the load, but those are the situations where I’ve learned over time you’ve got to lean on each other and have even better possessions and move the ball even more. I think us starting the game that way, I think it helped us get off to a better start offensively.” On offense overall: “Obviously I think it could be better, but it’s growing. It’s getting there. We made some shots, we still missed some shots we feel like we should make and we usually do, but I thought it was a decent offensive night. But more importantly, it was another really good defensive night.” Is this team capable of being a better fast break team? “I think we are. I think in the past we’ve always just addressed the fact that we’re not a big transition team. This year it’s been much more of a topic. I feel like we’ll take it kind of as a challenge and when we have those opportunities, try to take advantage of them and also push the pace when we get opportunities – especially against teams with slower bigs, bigs that don’t run and jump and chase down blocks and stuff like that. We’ve got to put pressure on people in transition. I think we’ll improve as the season goes on.”
HEAD COACH DAVE JOERGER Opening statement: “I’m really, really proud of our team because last night was an emotional game for us. After coming off of a tough road trip for us, we played really, really hard last night. We played with some extra emotion that you only get at certain times throughout the course of an 82 game season and they’re a good team, I have so much respect for them. I’ve played against them for years and years in the playoffs in Memphis, had a lot of battles and tonight we played hard again. We didn’t miss left or right or long, we missed short and those guys made some tough shots, hats off to them. Damian [Lillard] and CJ [McCollum] are just a tough guard, their bigs got involved with [Jusuf] Nurkic and then Meyers Leonard was a big X-factor in the game, stepping out and hitting a couple 3’s. What happens is you get a little gun shy about how much you can press up on Lillard and McCollum and so he got away from us and then they got a little more space and they do what they do, which is they make shots. I’ve got so much respect for them and I’m proud of our guys and we’ll take a well-deserved day off tomorrow.” On if he liked his teams’ offensive shot selection: “Yes and no, I think it’s a great learning tool. I think we were like 6-23 in the paint in the first half and then in the second half we were much better, we were 13-21 so that’s positive, just trying to get by people clean, make somebody help. We felt like they did a great job collapsing in the first half and that we had some opportunities to get some kick outs, we only attempted I think seven 3’s in the first half. But there’s some guys open and that’s just part of the process of learning, sometimes you can get in too deep to get it moving but guys are seeing some things and they’re recognizing things that they didn’t realize in the first 10 games. Guys grabbing each other and going ‘hey you can do this’, ‘I’ll help you get that’, ‘we can cover this’ and they’re a tough team to play against. Not a lot of teams run as much movement and flares and re-screens and those kinds of things so it’s good for our guys.” On Skal Labissiere’s offensive struggles: “I think he’s doing good. Right now it’s tough going straight up against front line guys. We’ve rotated some guys in there and sometimes you can take some hits for the team, in taking those minutes trying to hold it down, coming in with a different groove and get some different energy. I thought he got good looks, I think all five of his shots, four of his first five shots were all within five feet. You know, good solid jump hooks, strong moves, he also did a great job getting two blocks coming over from the weak side in the first half so I thought that was very encouraging. We’ll continue to play that hard for longer periods of time.”
WILLIE CAULEY-STEIN On how Sacramento came out tonight compared to last night: “It’s always tough to play on a back to back. I feel like we gave everything that we had left over from last night, we played four quarters for the most part. In our case, I think turnovers played a big part for them getting ahead of us, and then us being tired. A lot of us shot short, but we had some really damn good looks. The ball just falling tonight for us. I like where we’re headed, I like our energy levels and effort’s high, so it’s going to be fun moving on from here.” On back to back strong performances: “There’s a lot of variables to it. I think I’m just figuring it out for one. Each game I was, kind of, getting a little more comfortable putting the ball on the ground. Tonight I shot a lot of jumpers and I was getting a lot more comfortable. And then just making the game slow down and read what’s going on… driving, kicking, rolling and screening. For me, that was the biggest thing, just playing and not thinking about it and just playing. Each game gets a little more subconscious of what’s going on.” On if he realized he made his first three pointer tonight: “Oh yeah. Yeah, I definitely did. It felt good. I should’ve let the second one go too, but I decided to hold on to it.”
SKAL LABISSIERE On how happy he is with his progress: “So far so good. I’ve been putting the time in, so I’m growing as a player. Starting to see things a lot better. For me it’s all about putting it together right now.” On how it helps to have a veteran presence like Zach Randolph: “It helps a lot. Just watching him, being with him, around him… he’s a really good vet. He’s very encouraging even when we’re on the court. He’s a very unselfish person and I Love playing with Z-Bo.” On how tough it is to play against bigger players: “It’s good for me. Just more experience. Eventually I want to add that size and that strength. The player that I envision myself becoming is going to happen, so it’s good for me to go through that right now and get beat up a bit here and there. It’s all about fighting, and that’s what I’ve been doing and I’m going to continue to fight.”
TEAM • Portland has won nine consecutive home games against Sacramento. • The Trail Blazers held their opponent under 100 points for the fourth consecutive game and for the sixth time in the last seven games. • Portland shot a season-best 54.3% (38-70) from the field. • The Trail Blazers have won three consecutive home games for the first time this season. • Portland shot 47.6% (10-21) from the 3-PT line, while the Kings shot 47.1% (8-17) from deep. • The Trail Blazers outrebounded the Kings, 44-36. • Portland’s 32 points in the second quarter tied the most points the team has scored in a second period this season (Oct. 28 vs. Phoenix). • The Trail Blazers had 35 bench points, while the Sacramento reserves scored 50 points. • Portland outscored the Kings on fast breaks, 7-5.
PLAYER • CJ McCollum scored a game-high 25 points (9-16 FG, 4-7 3-PT, 3-3 FT) to go along with three rebounds and four assists. It was the fourth time this season that McCollum has scored 25+ points. McCollum has made at least three 3-pointers in seven of the last eight games. • Damian Lillard had 22 points (8-18 FG, 1-7 3-PT, 5-6 FT), two rebounds and six assists. Lillard has scored 20+ points in three straight games. • Jusuf Nurkic logged 14 points (6-12 FG, 2-4 FT), seven rebounds, two assists and a season-high four blocked shots. • Shabazz Napier recorded 11 points (5-6 FG, 1-1 3-PT, 0-2 FT) and four rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench. Napier has scored in double figures in four of the last six games • Meyers Leonard finished with season highs of 11 points (4-8 FG, 3-5 3-PT) and seven rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench. • Ed Davis led the Trail Blazers with eight rebounds to go along with two points and one block. • Pat Connaughton had a career-high two blocks while also registering five points, two rebounds and one assist. • Willie Cauley-Stein had 18 points and nine rebounds in a reserve role to lead the Kings. • Zach Randolph scored 17 points (6-11 FG, 1-2 3-PT, 4-5 FT) to go with five rebounds in 22 minutes of action.
