The Quote Book from the Grizzlies is a little different and kinda cool. It is broken down into pregame and postgame quotes. Enjoy.
Pregame Grizz: GRIZZLIES HEAD COACH DAVID FIZDALE: On injury updates and lineup changes: “No lineup changes. Brandan Wright is out. We don’t know how long that will be. He did something to his groin last game and with him being a speed guy, it really impacted him so we don’t know where that is going to lead right now. Tyreke’s (Evans) shoulder is still really bothering him but he will be able to go. This is where we are at now, we just have to play, walking wounded. His injury is much more of a stinger than it was popping out I think. His whole arm went numb, basically, so he couldn’t feel it for a while and once it came to, the soreness from it lingered. He is going to play through it. Wayne (Selden) is still out and we are still waiting. They don’t know what it is, honestly. It’s continuous pain in the quad area. We don’t have any answers right now for it.” On changing some of the defensive concerns since the loss against Houston: “They understand their jobs. They just aren’t executing their jobs. A lot of things get said when you lose four in a row. This is the NBA, you go through bad streaks. Our biggest issue right now is communication and urgency. You have guys on the weak side that tend to relax. We are changing a lot of habits of guys who have never played in the system and they are being held to a high standard to defend. At the same time, we have a lot of guys in and out of the rotation trying to figure out the guy next to them. That is the perfect storm right now. We are working through it. It’s not like the wheels are falling off, we just have to keep battling through it and get better at it. I don’t think anyone expected us to be in first place. Everyone expected us to be in last place coming out. We understand we have to be a working team. We are going to go through ups and downs and keep battling through it.” On how changing the order and lineups with Mike out has affected the team: “Right now, it is Marc (Gasol), Tyreke, and Chandler (Parsons), whoever is playing the best. When you lose a guy like Mike (Conley), on a team that doesn’t have a lot of room for error in the first place, it throws you for a tailspin. Right now we are just trying to get ourselves steady at the end and get guys comfortable in a role for the time that Mike is out. I don’t want guys to be nervous or tentative out there and we have had some of that as well. Some of our mistakes have been out of uncertainty in ourselves. I am trying to rebuild our confidence and continue to coach the heck out of them.” On Marc’s postgame comments referring to ‘embarrassing’ defense: “I think that is understated but if that is how he feels, that is how he feels. I cannot get inside of Marc from that standpoint. I just think that every team goes through it, whether it is my time in Memphis or another team before this. I have seen the Grizzlies go through some dismal points, so this is not Marc’s first rodeo in a bad spot. I understand those frustrations as a competitor and wanting to get it right. My biggest thing is to have everyone contributing to the solutions and are we all owning it when it is our problem too? It is not just guys on the team, it is everyone, him included, myself, and all of those other guys who are breaking down and making mistakes. We all have to own what is going on, dive into the solutions, and work at what has been wrong and show that on the court.” On what he needs from Mario Chalmers in the starting point guard position: “I just want him to be comfortable and play and not feel like he has to do more than he needs to. Right now, he is still going through the process of making his way back. It is just the reality of it. You don’t take 18 months away from this game, there are still lingering effects of this injury. My conversations with him are strictly about taking what they give you, be solid, be organized, and when you have opportunities, take them. I think his heart is in the right place, but sometimes he tries to will things. We had a good talk today. Mario is my guy. I am not worried about him.”
Pregame Blazers: TRAIL BLAZERS HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS: On when Al-Farouq Aminu might return to practice: “He’s getting better, but there has not been a date set. I really can’t say. I’m hopeful [that he will return during this trip].” On working with Jusuf Nurkic to prevent early fouls: “Not so much early fouls, just fouls in general. He gets himself in foul trouble by, usually, [committing] reaching fouls [even] when he has good position. And then he’s not able to play with the same free mind. It’s not so much about early fouls, [but the] type of fouls that put you in that position.” On Nurkic’s defense recently: “I think if you go up and down the roster, our team defense has been good and everybody has played better. Using last year as a barometer, our defense picked up when [Nurkic] was on the court as well. He looks like he’s a 28-year-old, 10-year veteran, but he is young. He’s still learning the game.” On starting Noah Vonleh in their previous game: “I’ve always liked the way he’s played. Just like I didn’t take Noah out of the lineup because of Noah, putting him back in wasn’t anything else [that he did]. The main reason was, I liked the idea of Meyers [Leonard] and Ed [Davis] playing against [Sacramento Kings forward Willie] Cauley-Stein and [Sacramento Kings forward Kosta] Koufos. Those two guys made a big difference defensively in our game in Sacramento. I thought it was a good matchup for us, so by starting Noah, we could get to that matchup.” On flexibility in his starting lineup: “There’s always fluidity. I mean, Noah [Vonleh] is going to start tonight. I’ll be like [Golden State Warriors head coach] Steve Kerr and wait for you guys to Tweet it out. Sometimes you make changes and it has nothing to do with performance or starting lineup, but like I said, against Sacramento, I thought it would help our bench play.” On the importance of finding stability and consistency with the starters: “You guys know, my first three years here, I didn’t change the starting lineup unless I had to. I’ve always believed that players perform better when they know when they are coming in and out and there’s some stability and they can prepare that way. But unfortunately, it can’t always be that way. Injuries usually create change in some form or fashion.” On tinkering with the rotations on a greater level this year: “One of the challenges that I have is that I think we have a lot of players who, on a given night, can really contribute. Whether it’s Meyers [Leonard] or Pat [Connaughton] or Evan [Turner] or Ed [Davis] or Shabazz [Napier], they have all played important roles in some of our wins. I find that I kind of ride the hot hand a little bit longer. I shouldn’t say hot hand. If there is a lineup that is going well, I tend to stick with it a little bit.”
Postgame Blazers: TRAIL BLAZERS HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS: On the game: “It’s always good to grind one out. It’s always difficult, it seems like, to play here. Seems like the games here are always a grind it out, low possession, low field goal percentage game. In some ways it’s similar to our first game, except we made some big plays down the end.” On what closing the game does for the team’s psyche: “I hope so, I don’t know where our psyche was before. I think we were fine. Obviously both losses were disappointing but I don’t think it affected us much. Just knowing that when it comes time we have to make those plays but CJ [McCollum] hit a big shot this time, last time he missed it. I was probably more surprised that he missed the one at our home game than the fact that he made this one.” On getting contribution from many players: “We did, we did. [Jusuf] Nurkic struggled a little bit offensively, but as I said our bench production was really good. I thought the whole team was good defensively. Again, there’s always things you can do better but again to win a game shooting less than 40 percent speaks to obviously our defense and our character.” On Damian Lillard: “Well it’s just like Dame, I knew if there was some way he could play he’s going to play and what he does doesn’t surprise me. I never take it for granted but I have also come to expect it.” On the call after Lillard’s injury: “Yeah, I told Tony Brothers it’s the right call. It was a no call, he stepped on his foot, so it was the correct call. Or correct no call. Yeah, well I didn’t see your replays I just saw the high angle so I did see the actual close up of it.” On Noah’s [Vonleh] performance: “He was. Offensively he played along the baseline really well and was able to finish, especially in the second half. His defensive rebounding was really important for us. He went after it. He got some man-sized rebounds for us.” On Noah starting: “He started two games in a row, so he’s our starter right now. You know me, I’m not going to go out into the future. Look I’ll give you a heads up, he’s going to start the next game. How’s that?” On bench performance: “Well, the whole second unit. Even Evan [Turner], he doesn’t make a shot but he has the biggest plus-minus. I thought he really competed defensively. Obviously Shabazz had his offense going. Meyers [Leonard] made his shots and played within the flow and rhythm. It’s good to see him have a game without necessarily making a three. Last time we played them our bench was really effective as well.”
TRAIL BLAZERS NOAH VONLEH (11 POINTS, 18 REBOUNDS) On Damian Lillard in-game ankle injury: “It was tough when he went down. It looked pretty bad but he’s a tough guy. He’s a warrior. He bounced back from it. He did a couple exercises at halftime, and he came back and led us to a victory.” On bouncing back and forth from the starting line-up: “Just staying a pro. Just being ready whenever my name’s called. When I came off the bench in the second unit, I just tried to basically play my same role. Play with energy. Go out there defend. Go out there and talk, help everyone out on the defensive end. I feel like sometimes that’s someone we’re missing so that’s what I try to do. When I’m in the starting line-up or coming off the bench, I just go out there and try to play with energy, and give it my all.” On his number of rebounds: “The other team was just missing a lot of shots, and I was just happening to make it to the ball and boxing my guy out. Just going after it. That was the mindset I went in there with. I know Memphis, they like to make the game tough and real physical and guys like to crash {the boards} so I knew I was going to have to go in there and have that mindset and be real active on the boards.”
TRAIL BLAZERS cJ MCCOLLUM (24 POINTS, 8 REBOUNDS) On the game: “It was unconventional. Damian {Lillard} gets hurt and misses a lot of time and then comes back, not himself. Obviously not a hundred percent. Defensively, we were able to get some stops down the stretch. I know I had some big baskets, some big rebounds. Different guys stepped up. Meyers {Leonard} was great in the first half for us, brought a lot of energy, made some big plays offensively and defensively so everybody did a little bit of everything.” On hitting the shot after missing it against Grizzlies in Portland: “You just got to have that mentality where you don’t really fear missing shots. You don’t really let it phase you. You work on your stuff. You get to your spots and you live or die with the result and that’s just kind of where I’m at. I told them I wasn’t planning on missing two in a row, and if I did miss two in a row, I wasn’t going to be short. Luckily, I was able to get one to go down tonight.” On seeing Damian Lillard go down: “I didn’t know what it was because I was kind of watching from the bench and there’s a crowd so when somebody goes down and grab their foot, you don’t know if it’s their foot, ankle or knee so I was just hoping it wasn’t his knee or his foot because I know what it’s like to fracture and obviously he’s had a fracture before. Ankle although, it’s not ideal, it’s a better situation where he can recover from it and get back.” On checking on him after injury: “I just asked him how he was doing and what is the pain level because obviously everyone’s pain tolerance is different. The second day is the worst day so if he can get through today and tomorrow, we’ll see how it feels.” On what Damian Lillard said after injury: “He said guard the ball for a little bit because he needed to get it loose and try to keep it loose and move around a little bit because obviously once you stand still, the swelling comes and that’s when you really start to feel the pain.” On starting the road trip off with a win: “It was crucial. This was a game we needed to win obviously. Memphis is a good team, going through some injuries right now and trying to find themselves with four {five} straight losses so we didn’t want to give them a chance to beat us.”
Postgame Grizz: GRIZZLIES HEAD COACH DAVID FIZDALE: On the game: “Crushed us on the glass. Crushed us on the glass. We finally got our defense activated again, and I felt like we were back somewhat looking like our early season self, but the glass just really killed us.” On the lineups: “I’ve been playing small a lot. I thought tonight I didn’t play very small. This is actually the biggest I’ve played in a long time. I played (Deyonta Davis) and Marc (Gasol) together, I played a lot of (JaMychal Green). I really didn’t play any small. Jarell (Martin) was at the four the other minutes. So, we just need to take care of business on the glass. But, like I said I just told our team, ‘I know when you’re in a rut it’s tough,’ but that game looked a little bit more like us. I was just happy to see us looking like ourselves again. You’ve got to look for some small victories in this stuff when you’re crawling through the mud. We’ve just got to keep digging and stick together, and keep trying to weather this. I liked our approach this week. I even liked us in the locker room right now. We were just way more connected and just more about let’s just keep trying to figure it out.” On players returning from injury disrupting the chemistry of the team: “There’s a lot of stuff throwing that off. First, obviously with no Mike (Conley), the chemistry is thrown. Then you’re trying to inject Ben (McLemore) and (JaMychal Green), both who have not played in training camp – and during all of this I’ve had to obviously get away from the bench that was playing exceptional. We were third in the league off the bench for a long time there until we started getting hit with this stuff. It’s a challenge. This is my challenge. Welcome to coaching David Fizdale because this is definitely a challenge, and I’m going to crack it. I’m going to keep pushing for it. I’m going to keep uplifting these guys, keep leading them, keep pointing out where we can be better and keep pushing us to connect.” On connecting the offense and defense: “We’re working on it. I can tell you that much. I don’t know. We got some great looks there, and the ball just wasn’t going in for a lot of this stuff. And it’s tough because when you miss the wide open ones, multiple wide open ones, it takes the air out of the building a little bit. I thought we got some great shots there that we normally make, and we didn’t make them. They’ve got guys that can close the game. CJ McCollum is serious business. He made a tough shot over Tyreke (Evans) to really put the dagger in us, but over all I really thought we played a better basketball game than we had been playing.” On Ben McLemore: “Every game you see him get a little bit better, and that’s really what it’s about. You’re talking about a guy who hadn’t played, I forgot when he broke his foot in the summer, so he missed all that time. No training camp. He actually had, I would say he’s probably had three practices, a G League game, and now these games. So, you add that up and that’s not exactly a picture of efficiency, but every game, I can see it, his legs are getting better, his shots are getting better. You just take one game to the next. His shots were all over the place last game, and tonight it looked like it was on point even on the misses. So, it’s going to get there. You can see a talent there. His cut, his back cut from Marc (Gasol) and the dunk. He’s going to add a good element to our team. It’s just, we’ve got to weather this. We really do. We’ve got to stick together and dig in and weather this storm right now, and just hold the fort because it’s early. Nobody’s necessarily running away with playoff spots or nothing like that. But, if we can just keep building our game and getting better and get these guys’ legs under them, eventually get Mike (Conley) back in the mix, I really feel like if we can just hang on, we’ll be alright.” On how not making shots effected the game: “It didn’t help. Let me just say that much. I don’t want to be unfair to Portland either. They came in here and earned the win. I talk about it a lot, but I have so much respect for Terry (Stotts) and his staff and what they do. It’s very similar. They hit some bumps in the season and those guys are sticking together. They’re fighting through it too. They came out here and got a tough road win. I do think if we could’ve made some of our open shots, it would’ve at least helped momentum and it also helps energize your defense when you make a couple of those. But, ultimately we’ve just got to keep plugging away.”
GRIZZLIES GUARD MARC GASOL (19 POINTS, 12 REBOUNDS) On tonight’s loss: “It’s not the outcome that we all wanted, but there are a lot of things we can build on, that we can learn from. Unlike the game against Houston, where it was the complete opposite. I think this game, obviously, we didn’t have a great night shooting, but defensively we were way more engaged, way more physical, way more aggressive, way more proactive, and that’s what it’s going to take. Obviously, then, we have to make shots and give good passes, but those things you can clean up and you can build on. It’s obviously still not a good feeling to lose, ever, but you can come back tomorrow, build on it, watch film - everybody keeps looking at themselves and seeing what you can do as a professional. It’s that simple, and not in a negative way. Just see what your job is, and see where your shots are coming from, and see what you need to do to help the team. I think that’s my take from the game tonight.” On having younger teammates and teaching them how to respond to adversity: “We [veterans] have to show them. Me as the leader of the team, I have got to show them the way, not by making shots necessarily, but just the energy. The bottom line is, all those things go a long way with some of the guys – being in their ear, especially when things go bad for them. Being in their ear, talking to them, letting them know that you have their back, no matter the outcome might be. When you make shots, you think you’re really pretty and everybody loves you. When you’re not making shots, you’re in the doghouse, not playing much or getting pulled out of the game really quick. You think you’re really ugly, and nobody loves you. You’re not that pretty, you’re not that ugly. You just want to have a balance and know that your teammates have your back… I’m always going to have their back.” On the rebounding margin tonight: “… We missed a lot of shots obviously. I don’t think we had many offensive rebounds. You miss a lot of shots, there’s going to be a lot of rebounds, but we didn’t get a lot of them. They were in a good position most of the times. They have a lot of guys in the paint, so it’s hard to work around all that and find that space… But obviously, 15 is way too many. We try to cut it down to a maximum of eight to 10, that should be the goal. But a 20-rebound difference is too many. On defending the three-point line tonight: “Yeah, I don’t think they shoot many, around 22 per game. And they shoot them at a good percentage. Maybe eight or nine of [the attempts] come from two guys…I think it’s 12 [attempts] that come from two of the guys. So you can see that we should have done a better job of shrinking the paint, knowing that they don’t have that many shooters. But that’s what I’m saying – that’s something that you learn and you can build on. You think on it, and you realize that you could have done it differently, but that takes a little time, a little experience, and putting yourself out there as a player.” On the way the team feels pressure, based on the losing streak: “No, not for me. Maybe for some of the guys, but I’m going to let them know – if you play the right way, good things are going to happen. Maybe not right away, as you wish, but if you play the right way, you help your teammate, it’s going to come back around and help you. So we do that. We do that every night, in every game, in every practice, every shootaround – have each other’s back. We as players do our job, and things are going to get better. It’s hard to sleep and it’s frustrating and nobody likes the situation, but it’s the one you are in, so what are you going to do to get out of it? Work.”
Yeah we talk a lot about ET playing poorly but he was a +16 last night without scoring a single point.
