Friday, November 25, 2016 Final Score: POR 119, NOP 104 HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well obviously, it’s really good to get a win. We’ve been struggling a little bit and I thought offensively, we were pretty good for most of the night. Defensively, after about two minutes into the second quarter, we were good the last three quarters, so that was very encouraging. Obviously we’ve had some struggles and we need to get back on track so we did that tonight.” On improved rebounding: “We’ve done a better job over the last four of five games, actually since probably the last New Orleans game. The game in New Orleans, they had one offensive rebound, tonight they had two offensive rebounds. So the rebounding over the last four, five, six games has really improved. Obviously we’ve had our struggles defensively and we’re kinda harping on the rebounding, but our defense, there are a lot of factors that go into it, not just one.” “I was going to say – quarters two through four were all pretty solid defensively. Anthony Davis is a great player. I thought we worked pretty hard on him and he still had 31 and 13. He’s a difficult guard and when he’s making threes, that makes it that much more difficult, but he does a good job of drawing fouls and getting to the line. Anyway, it was good to get one like that.” What specifically did you like defensively? “Particularly after the first quarter, we keyed in on some of the defensive things that we wanted to do, but more than anything else, I thought our alertness, our communication, attention to detail all got better in the last three quarters.” On Plumlee’s play tonight: “I thought he and Meyers played well together in the first half. You know Mason, he brings a lot of energy. His passing certainly helped at the offensive end. We did some switching with the bigs and he would switch onto Davis and he competed and fronted and tried to deny him the ball. Offensively, he’s a very important part of what we do whether he scores or not, but being an outlet and a facilitator in the middle of the court.” MEYERS LEONARD On defending Davis: “Get into him. There’s a couple plays they run where we schemed to front him in the post, make things difficult for him – we talked about it before the game, the guy is going to score. He gets a lot of touches, he gets a lot of good looks. Their team does a good job of finding him and he’s just, flat out, he’s a really good player. We did our best to slow him down. I feel like we did throughout a majority of the game, we did a really good job of what we wanted to do, some breakdowns but that’s going to happen. So I thought we did a pretty good job.” Overall as a team, do you feel like you took a step forward? “No question, I truly think we did. There was lulls here and there that we’ve got to shore up but I thought we really came out focusses, aggressive, and maintained it throughout most of the game. Certainly there’s things we can work on and understand from film, and also understand some of the positives. I’ll say this – the crowd, when they got going in the third. That to me, this is my fifth season, they really get us going and I’m sure the rest of the guys appreciate that too. We feed off it, no question. We have an amazing home court advantage and so I thought that was a big piece to why we kept ourselves together there when things got a little loose toward the end of the game.” On playing with confidence: “I think it’s just understanding what the coaches want from me and playing off of my teammates. Mason finds me at the rim, Evan finds me in transition, Dame and CJ and the rest of the guys are so good at creating for others, and myself, I space, I do what I do. It’s my job to convert whenever they find me, but I’ll say this, I think the main reason was my rebounding and intensity on the defensive ends, it kind of carried over to the defensive end.” On McCollum’s performance, particularly early: “It’s something I’ve seen from CJ ever since he’s been here. The guy is confident and he can really play, really put the ball in the basket. Terry doesn’t slow him down, he lets him play and he doesn’t make him feel out the game. CJ can go get a bucket. Not only that, but I think it’s testament to everybody. It’s not just one guy, it’s the actions we’re running. It’s Dame being willing to let CJ take charge sometimes and really get himself going. I know Dame in the first half didn’t score much but CJ did, and I truly think Dame does not care about that. All he cares about is winning, and so when you have a one-two punch like that, and then the rest of the guys, I feel like we have so much talent around this locker room. Now it’s just continuing to put it together, continuing to build chemistry and just playing the way we know we can.”
HEAD COACH ALVIN GENTRY His thoughts on tonight’s game: “I didn’t think we started the game the right way, with the right attitude. I thought we were going to be content to exchange baskets with them. If you’re going to be content exchanging baskets with this team, you’re probably going to struggle, because they’re really good offensively. Especially the two backcourt players, obviously. Then I thought we locked in and decided that we had to play like we’ve been playing and that our defense would be the thing that initiated our offense. I thought we did a good job of getting the lead and then we came up with four really bad possessions in a row and that put them right back in the game. Then we didn’t start the game in the third quarter the right way. It was like we played in segments, and you can’t play in segments. We had a good segment where we got back into the game and then hit a big shot, but obviously it was nullified by an offensive foul and then I think they scored nine straight. For us, we just have to be who we are and I didn’t think we played that way tonight.” On his team’s rebounding: “You’re probably not going to win an NBA game if you get outscored 23 to two on second chance points. You give up 12 offensive rebounds, they get 23 second chance points, which means they’re scoring every time they get a rebound. That puts way, way, way too much pressure on your offense, because you’re not running out and you’re not getting easy baskets you’re taking the ball out of the net. When you do that, you don’t have any kind of advantage as far as the flow of your offense, because they’re back in their set defensively.” On whether his team needs more of a group effort rebounding the ball: “A lot of rebounds are hustle plays, they’re there for either or. The 50/50 balls they came up with. We don’t have that kind of margin for error where we can give up 23 to two in second chance points and beat many teams, really.” ANTHONY DAVIS On opponents’ offensive rebounds: “We’ve got to box out. Some of them you can’t control when it just came off wrong but most of them you’ve got to box out, put a body on a body and go get the rebound.” On if the Blazers had more hustle tonight: “They just played harder than us. We started out the game letting them do what they were doing and you can’t do that on the road. Then we came back and if we got the lead, we’d kind of slack off again and we couldn’t settle it in the third and then in the fourth we kind of gave them a run at the end so they made big plays and we couldn’t get stops.” TIM FRAZIER On the ovation he got when he was announced pregame: “It’s a great feeling, man, I had a great time here in Portland. It feels like I was here for long time but really I was here for a short time period of time, the fans here, the people here are amazing and it’s a great city, a great basketball city.” On his in-game intensity with Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum: “It’s just competitive nature. When you go out on the court you want to win for your team. I did the same thing when I was for Portland and I took it here to New Orleans. The fans don’t see that we used to get into it a lot in practice but it was practice so you didn’t really see it but we just try to push each other and make each other better.” On Coach Stotts: “He’s a great coach, man. I think the biggest thing besides his coaching and the basketball IQ is that he’s a great man. You can come to him about anything, he was always there when I was down or I wasn’t playing or if I had any questions, if I needed anything he was always there to help me out. It’s a great birthday present for one, I appreciate coach Stotts, he was the one few people to give me opportunities. People always bring up the Atlanta game when he just let me go out there and just play. Every time we would play Houston he’d find some way to get me in the game because he knew my family was there. Coach Stotts is a great man.”
Postgame Notes - Nov. 25, 2016 Portland 119, New Orleans 104 Game #18 • Home Game #8 • With tonight’s win, the Trail Blazers become the 15th NBA team to reach 2,000 wins in franchise history. Portland’s all-time record is 2,000-1,742 (.534), good for sixth-best of the 15 franchises with at least 2,000 wins. • Terry Stotts secured his 191st win as Trail Blazers head coach tonight, making him the fourth-winningest head coach in team history (453-Ramsay, 291-Adelman, 266-McMillan). • Portland has now won 11 consecutive home games against New Orleans, and is 15-5 overall against the Pelicans since the start of the 2011-12 season. • Damian Lillard (27 points) has now totaled 509 points in 18 games this season. That is the most points scored through the first 18 games of any season in Trail Blazers franchise history (494-Petrie, 1973). • Damian Lillard (18 games) has scored 500 points in a season faster than any player in Trail Blazers history (19 games, Petrie/Drexler). • Mason Plumlee is the first Trail Blazer with 12+ points, 14+ rebounds and 8+ assists since Arvydas Sabonis on Nov. 24, 1997. • Damian Lillard has recorded a double-double in back-to-back games for the first time this season and the fourth time in his career. • Maurice Harkless (19 points) has now scored in double figures in six consecutive games. That is his longest such streak in two seasons as a Trail Blazer. Harkless (11 rebounds) also secured his first double-double of the season. • CJ McCollum produced 24 points to log his eighth game with at least 20 points in his past 12 contests. • Meyers Leonard’s 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting (3-6 3-PT) represents his highest scoring output this season (14, 11/20 at Bkn.). • Mason Plumlee’s eight assists resembles a new career-high (7, five times). • Over his past three games, Mason Plumlee has averaged 13.3 points (66.7% FG) and 9.0 rebounds. • The Trail Blazers outrebounded New Orleans by 18 (52-34), and have now finished with more rebounds than their opponent in four of their past five contests. • Portland scored 119 points, and has now reached the century mark in scoring in 16 of its 18 games this season (six straight). • The Trail Blazers made 12 three-pointers (of 32), and have now connected on at least 10 threes for the fifth time in the past six contests. • Portland finished the game with a 23-2 advantage in second chance points. • Trailing 41-32 with 10:06 remaining in the second quarter, Portland outscored New Orleans by 18 points (34-16) the rest of the period to enter halftime with a 66-57 lead.
