HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS Describe Beal’s performance: “He shot really well, scored in a variety of ways – scored in transition, scored off of isolation, scored off of off-ball movements, scored off kick-outs. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone take 37 shots. That’s a lot of shots. He had an outstanding night.” What concerns you most right now? “Depends on when you ask me. If you had asked me at halftime, having 11 turnovers in a quarter – I can’t remember 11 turnovers in a quarter. So if you ask me at halftime, I was concerned about our offense. If you had asked me third quarter of New Orleans, I would have said our defense. It’s different things at different times.” Is it a fair question to ask are you not playing well or is this who you are? “I think it’s a fair question. I don’t think we’re playing well. I think we’ve shown that we can play better, so with basically the same group of people last year, we know that we can play better. The answer today is that we’re not playing well.” What went into the decision to start Aminu and Harkless? “This was the first time since Chief got hurt that we could get back to the lineup that was our best lineup to start the season. Chief and Moe have played well together, that lineup was our starting lineup at the beginning of the season because it was our best lineup. That was the primary reason. Also, I thought moving Pat to the bench would kind of help the flow with the second unit.”
DAMIAN LILLARD What’s most concerning about what’s going on? “Like I said last game, I’m not somebody that’s going to get overly concerned especially this early in the year. We’re just not playing well. I think it goes back to the road trip. We didn’t play great but we found ways to win games. We came back home and we just haven’t played well offensively or consistent defensively. We dropped three in a row. Every year at some point adversity is going to hit and I feel like this is the start of a little bit of that adversity for us. We’ve just got to keep playing. I think I said it earlier in the season, we look back at a lot of the games we played that we could have won and some that we probably shouldn’t have had that we got and I think we’re 13 and 11 now, and it could be a lot worse. But we’ve got to address what we’re not doing good enough right now so it doesn’t keep going this direction.” What do you think that is that you’re not doing? “We’ve got to play like we somebody, you know what I’m saying? We’ve got to have some swagger about it. We’ve got to have that confidence and we’ve got to be able to play the kind of basketball that allows us to feel that way, myself included. When I’m turning the ball over, I’m taking possessions away from the team, taking a tough shot here and there that’s taking away the quality of our team offense. Those things take the life out of a team. We have a good defensive possession and sometimes I might come down and take a deep transition three and we’ve got to go back and guard again. Just stuff like that. We’ve got to be better about it. There’s no 30-point shot, there’s no 30-point steal that you can get. As a group, we’ve just got to be consistent. Paying attention to the personnel like I said last game, being solid – being solid over long periods of time is always going to work out for you and I think we have too many ups and downs. We’ve got to have that swagger about us. We’ve got to go out there like – coming into tonight we was fourth in the West – we’ve got to come out like we’re the fourth best team in the Western Conference, regardless of whose record is what, we’ve got to have that attitude.” On Beal’s performance: “I mean, he had a special game. I watched their game at Philly and he struggled shooting the ball, he was getting good looks. Last night in Utah, he struggled shooting the ball. Just the way of the odds, the way this game goes, I knew that the way they struggled to score, they was going to come in here and they was going to play a lot better than that. He hadn’t been making shots, so at some point a guy that’s that skilled and shoots the ball that well, he’s going to get it going. I’ve been in that position before, so I know how he felt. Once the guy sees it go in enough times, he’s going to make tough ones after that. At that point, I think we’ve got to address that problem and try to make it a little bit harder. But we weren’t scoring enough points, even our chances where we did have where we got a few stops in a row, we weren’t able to go down and capitalize.”
HEAD COACH SCOTT BROOKS The tone was set by your best player, and it seemed to permeate throughout the team: It was a great bounce back game for all of our guys, but in particular Brad played an outstanding game on both ends of the floor. He took the challenge of guarding one of the best guards in the league. He was feeling good, and I was keeping him in there. Probably played him a few minutes more than I would have like to, but he was in communication and feeling good throughout the game. A great win for us considering last night’s debacle. We came back and it was a great bounce back win for all of us. What do you say to a guy who is playing the way Beal was? Nothing. I don’t want to mess with the rhythm. He has a nice mojo out there, and I just want to keep that going. I don’t want to give him any words of wisdom. He knows what he was doing, and he was doing it at a high level. He missed probably 6 easy shots, but can’t be greedy. Do you read body language? Can you tell before a game when a player has it or not? No, but I don’t know. Some nights I think we’re ready… like 24 hours ago. We know how that turned out. He’s due. He was due. I’m glad our guys rallied around him. They gave him a lot of opportunities to get shots. He hasn’t taken a lot of shots, and like I said before the game that’s on me. I have to do a better job of putting him in positions to attack and not always be a facilitator when John is out. So it was a great win for all of us. Beal was especially aggressive tonight, and his 51 points tonight wasn’t expected, but is this the type of play you were expecting overall? You never go into a game thinking one of your best players or best guards in the league is going to get 50, but he has the ability to get high numbers when he’s aggressive. We gave him space to work and operate, and they were switching bigger guys on him and I’m comfortable with that match up. He had a great game going, and they guys were rallying around it, and that’s a sign of a good team. Some of our guys did not shoot the ball well, and a lot of times when that happens you feel sorry for yourself. I didn’t see that tonight. They kept getting opportunities for Brad to get open with great screens and great passes. Is it because you have more confidence in Tim and Tomas that you’re allowing Brad to play off the ball and be more aggressive with scoring? Since John has been out, I’ve been putting him at the point guard for 6, 7, 8 minutes a game, and it just made him too much of a facilitator. I want him to be an attacker and facilitate off of his attacks. Tonight, I told myself I’m not doing it. So Tomas and Tim has given me confidence, and it worked out. Was there extra motivation after giving up that win at home? There’s no question. We felt that we gave them that win. We gave it to them, and they earned it. They made shots. They got stops, and they made big plays down the stretch and we missed them. It’s unfortunate the way it tuned out because it seemed like we had to make… all of our mistakes were capitalized by their great play. A combination of motivation and the great playing tonight? There’s no question. I felt good going into this game. I believe in our guys. Not one of us wanted to be embarrassed like that. It’s all of us. Coaches and players – we’re in this together. You can lose a game, and there are great teams in this league, but I don’t feel any team is better than you by that many points. Brad had eclipsed 40 points with only three free throws, is it unusual for guys to have that many points? There was definitely a lot of opportunities for him to get to the basket, but his jump shot was falling, his mid-range was on and his attack game. Sometimes you’re going to get some of those calls, sometimes you’re not. You still have to be aggressive, you still have to take the shots or give what they give you, and they were giving them opportunities to attack the bigs for pull-ups and Brad is one of the best for doing that. At what point did you know he was having a special night? I knew he was playing well, but I didn’t know the points until he had I think… 47. I knew he had a lot of points, but I’m not one to look at who has point, who has shots. I look at how many points they have and how many points we have. I like that. I don’t know if we all think that. In fact, I know that’s not the case, but I want to keep building our program where that is the case and you just worry about winning the game.
BRADLEY BEAL On if he thought beforehand that he’d have a big game: “The first person I want to thank is Jesus Christ. I don’t know, I kind of came into the game with the mindset of being aggressive from start to finish, especially coming off of the game last night and the way I’ve played over the previous four or five games. I wasn’t happy with it so I was more focused, more locked in and was thinking way too much. Tonight I was just playing and having fun, ultimately, and I kind of knew at halftime that it going to be a good one but I didn’t think I’d get 50 points.” On his mindset last night: “I was watching film. I watched a lot of film and honestly it was just me watching myself make shots, seeing the ball go in and just getting confidence off of that, looking at my rhythm, looking at my mechanics and making sure I shot that same way this whole time. I know I’m not perfect but I’m a professional at the same time so that’s all I did last night is I barely slept and I was really upset with the way we played, especially with myself individually. I just watched highlights, watched film, watched those guys and what they do and watched different guys around the league and how they get open, how they come off screens and I just came in with the mindset today that I was going to be aggressive, not thinking about anything else but trying to get a win and playing my game.” On if he was thinking too much being their facilitator over the past few games: “Thinking way too much. I was thinking way too much, I was trying to think about plays and get guys shots, to get them easy ones, and I was myself trying to make every play and I can’t make every play. That’s something I learned and that’s something that I have to continue to be better at and play my game I play. My game is to be aggressive, look to score and if the defense closes on me then make the right play at the end of the day so that’s what I did today, my teammates trusted me to make the right decisions and I trusted them to knock down shots as well. Everything worked out well tonight and defensively was definitely a reason why we won tonight.” On their second half mindset after blowing their lead to the Trailblazers in Washington: “It was big, it was huge. We came into halftime this game the same as last game, we said ‘we’ve been in this position before, we can’t take it for granted.’ Dame [Lillard] and CJ [McCollum] only had six and eight shots at halftime so we knew they were going to come out more aggressive in the second half and look to hunt theirs out so we knew our work wasn’t finished by no means and even when we were up 16 or 17 with three minutes to go, the game is still not over and they cut it down to 10 so we always have to keep that in the back of our minds that we have to continue to put our foot on the gas.”
TEAM • The Portland starters outscored their Washington counterparts, 79-72. • The Trail Blazers shot 12-of-27 (44.4%) from the three point line, while the Wizards shot 11-of-25 (44.0%) from deep. It is the second straight game that Portland made 10-plus three-pointers. • Portland outrebounded Washington on the defensive end, 34-33, while the Wizards bested the Trail Blazers on the offensive glass, 11-7. • Portland attempted 16 free throws (made 21) while the Wizards attempted 11 free throws (made 14). It was the 11th time in the last 12 games that Portland attempted more free throws than their opponent.
PLAYER • Damian Lillard led the Trail Blazers with 30 points (10-23 FG, 3-9 3-PT, 7-7 FT), eight rebounds and nine assists. It was the eighth game this season that Lillard has scored 30 or more points. • Jusuf Nurkic recorded 15 points (5-12 FG, 5-8 FT), nine rebounds and three blocks before leaving the game with a right ankle sprain midway through the fourth quarter. • In his first start (third game) since returning from an ankle injury, Al-Farouq Aminu scored 17 points (6-10 FG, 5-8 3-PT) and pulled down six rebounds. The five three-pointers tied Aminu’s season high (Oct. 26 vs. LAC). • CJ McCollum rounded out the four Portland players in double figures, finishing with 14 points (6-16 FG, 1-3 3-PT, 1-2 FT), six rebounds, three assists and one steal. • Bradley Beal scored a career-high 51 points (21-37 FG, 5-12 3-PT, 4-5 FT), setting the record for the most points scored by an opposing player in Portland. The previous record was 49 points (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - 10/17/72, Lou Hudson - 11/18/70). Beal’s 21 field goals were also a career high (16 twice, last Nov. 5, 2017 at Toronto). • Marcin Gortat recorded four points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Gortat’s seven assists tied his career high (Nov. 19, 2017 at Toronto).
