Madison Square Garden New York Knickerbockers vs. Portland Trailblazers November 27, 2017 Head Coach Terry Stotts On tonight’s game: “Fourth quarter notwithstanding, I thought we played good basketball and it was a good win.” On the team’s play: “Hopefully the goal is to keep getting better throughout the year. We are trying to sustain it but that is the challenge.” On the road trip: “We won two close games that could have gone either way in Brooklyn and Washington. Our ball movement picked up…it started with the Brooklyn game. There are different games. There are different ways to win in different cities.” On the key to success: “I don’t know if there is one thing…different nights it is different things. We have to continue to be a good defensive team. Our offense is kicking back into gear but our defense has been solid.”
Damian Lillard On the road trip: “Any five game (road) trip is a tough trip but we got four of them. We have great momentum moving forward.” On winning four games on the five game road trip: “More than anything we have had to find ways to get it done. Memphis -- we didn’t play well offensively but we found ways to grind it out. CJ (McCollum) had a big game down the stretch in DC. Brooklyn -- we had a great six minute stretch where we came up big defensively. Tonight, from the start, we came out with the mentality that we needed to play the way we need to win in an environment like this.” On the team gelling: “It took time. I had been saying the entire time that we had to stay with it, have faith in each other. A lot of times we were missing shots. We weren’t able to be consistent but now we have had some good games that we have stacked it up. Now we have to balance it out…keep that focus and keep that edge on defense.”
CJ McCollum On the road trip: “I thought it was very successful. Whenever you have five games and you can win four games…overall if you tell me we were going to win four games I would take it. Five is ideal. I thought we did a good job of closing (games) out.” On closing out games: “Being able to figure out ways to win games. We were down 17 in the Wizards game. Battling in that Memphis game. Figuring out ways to close out games.” On Pat Connaughton: “I think he has played aggressive and knocked down shots. (He is) finding ways to score and continuing to be very solid.”
Madison Square Garden New York Knickerbockers vs. Portland Trailblazers November 27, 2017 Head Coach Jeff Hornacek On tonight’s game: “That game was low energy from our guys I felt. In the fourth quarter, they picked guys up and got after it. They made guys shoot shots under duress. We are not the team that is going to come out there, play, and then turn it up later. We have to do it from the tip-off.” On the defense: “When you are not scoring that is when you should be, defensively, all over the place. It is all about winning the game…it is not about getting the points. A lot of times that gets you an easy fast break layup and that gets you going. They dared us to take long twos and we (were) continually doing it. In the first half, I thought we were settling for it.” More on tonight’s game: “Again, we can’t think we are anything (other than) we are a team that has to go out there and play all 48 minutes of the game. I thought the way we are supposed to play were only in the final 12 minutes.” More on the defense: “It is hard work. Play defense…that is really what we are trying to stress. Defense takes care of a lot of things but it is not easy. That is the mentality we have to come in with every game.”
Kristaps Porzingis On the first half: “I would say we get down when we don’t score and we don’t get the same energy. It is a lot of little things. We obviously we want to get the crowd involved. When we don’t do that, we are playing uphill and we want to get the energy back. We did in the fourth quarter but it was too little too late.” On playing from behind: “When you are down 20, 22 points it is really hard. That is a good team especially those two guards (Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum). It is hard to come back from that kind of deficit. We got it close but we don’t want to be in those situations. We have to play better the first three quarters. That way we don’t have to play uphill.” On his back: “It is feeling good. I worked on it during these couple of days I had off. It is a matter of me strengthening it.” On tonight’s game: “I don’t know if it was their game plan but they did leave us open early in the shot clock. When we are open we shoot it. Shots didn’t fall. As a young team, we have to watch the film and see if it is the right moment to shoot…including myself. We want to get everyone involved.”
Enes Kanter On not playing tonight: “First off, I didn’t want to go out there and sit the whole game. My back was a little sore. It is better…it is day by day. I am talking to the trainers, (getting) therapy and we will see what happens.” More on tonight’s game: “If they would have given me the green light I definitely would have played tonight. I practiced this morning but they said I wasn’t ready. It is tough sitting in the locker room.” On potentially practicing tomorrow: “I practiced today. It was shoot around. (Tomorrow) is going to be my first contact (practice). I won’t be 100% Wednesday. Again, I cannot…if they don’t give me the green light (I won’t play).”
Courtney Lee On the first half: “We weren’t moving the ball. We were trying to force stuff up. What (makes it) easy for us is when we are moving the ball. That is where the energy comes from. On the defensive end, helping each other out. We didn’t play for each other on both ends of the floor.” On the offense: “We were forcing too many shots at the wrong time. A lot of bad shots. They were executing and making shots and the lead kept growing. It is an uphill battle from there.” On coming back from a big deficit: “It is very difficult. You are already down in the hole so big. We can’t rely on being at home and coming back from deficits. We can’t hang our hat on that. That group in the fourth quarter started playing for each other and they went on a run. That is our identity…playing for each other.”
Tim Hardaway Jr. On the first half: “I don’t know what to say but we have to come out better. We are a better ball club and we know that. We have to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” On the offense: “Our pace on offense started to slow down as the game continued and we cannot let that happen.” On coming from behind: “We are not built that way. We have to do a better job coming out the gate, pushing up on guys defensively, try to get deflections and turn the ball over.” On the start of the game: “We were not focused. (We came) out sluggish. No excuses. We know we are a better team and we played a very good ball club.”
Did Frazier find that at the Salvation Army? Where is the matching hat? The hat may be in the Alabama Crimson Tide football hall of fame in a glass box.
