HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “I thought it was a really good effort by our guys. It might have been our best defensive game of the season against an excellent offensive team. We played with a lot of energy. We didn’t make some plays at the end. Offensive rebounds obviously hurt us at the end. Kyle Lowry made some great shows. The effort was very good. As much as we hate to lose games, you appreciate hard work.” On defending Lowry/DeRozan: “We were doing more than hedging. We were blitzing, trapping, yes… They’re their key guys and I thought it worked out okay. You still look at their line and they still had 27 and 20, so they’re dynamic offensive players. Like I said, Lowry hit some great shots, but it got us active. It was a different look for us.” How did you think offense looked without Lillard? “I thought it was okay. Some of our turnovers – we had spurts of turnovers that got a little ragged that I thought we could have probably handled it better. The offense was okay. I don’t know what we were really expecting but I thought we moved the ball well. We didn’t finish in the fourth quarter, but in the fourth quarter sometimes it’s hard to score.” What did you like defensively? “The aggressiveness. Like I said, the rebounding was disappointing. I don’t know if they capitalized on a lot of their offensive rebounds, I think they had 7 in the fourth quarter but they only had 7 second chance points. But the activity, the aggressiveness, the communication, we did a lot of good things.”
ALLEN CRABBE Thoughts on the game: “It felt like we played really hard. You know, we made some steps in the right direction. They’re a really good offensive team and we held them to 95 points. I feel like our defensive effort, locking in on our tendencies and what we wanted to do to certain guys, I feel like we did a really good job at that. Kyle Lowry had a big night for them, so you’ve got to give them credit but I feel like we played hard from the jump and just a couple plays here and there and it could have been different.” Record-wise you’re in a similar place to last year at this point, what do you take away from how you finished last year? “Our biggest thing was that it wasn’t going to get any easier. Just because of the success we had last year and how we got it to the second round, we knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. So us right now, we’re just focused on trying to get wins and just be better and improve in the areas that we need to improve in and that’s really our main focus right now.” So you don’t take any hope/inspiration from what you were able to do last year? “I mean, we know what we’re capable of doing. It’s just going out and doing it. Nobody is down about our record right now. We have a lot of games left and we know we can hit that turning point at some point. It would be better if it was sooner than later, but we’re still positive here. Of course nobody likes losing but the next day we just get to the drawing board, move on to the next team and see what we can do to get a win.” On defensive activity tonight: “Just knowing how bad our defense has been in the past, that’s our focus for each and every game going in. We have to be better and we have to want to be better. So that’s our main focus and we did a really good job tonight.”
HEAD COACH DWANE CASEY On his team’s fourth quarter defense: “Well we found a way to win, that’s the best thing about it tonight. I was afraid of this. I was afraid of the Christmas approach, the casual approach that we had. I knew that they were going to come out with their backs against the wall, wounded. Their best player was out, and their other players were trying to step up and they did. Again, our guys found a way to win. A few years ago we would’ve kicked that one by about 15 or 20. We had a lot of guys that didn’t play their game, so we have to learn from it, flush this out of our system and go to San Francisco.” On how many consecutive stops his team had down the stretch in the fourth quarter: I haven’t looked at it yet, I don’t know. We had had a few down the stretch, but again, we made life too hard on ourselves with casual possessions defensively before that. Runbacks, you make a mistake, you miss a shot and you carry it to the defensive end. To get where we want to go, we have got to be better than that.” On whether his team’s offensive rebounding was a result of good effort: “That was effort. We knew that we were a little rusty offensively, shots weren’t falling, so we had to get the 50/50 balls, loose balls, effort plays, especially down the stretch. Again, it’s a hard way to live.”
KYLE LOWRY On their fourth quarter defense: “We didn’t score and I think that’s the one thing about winning games, it’s good to find different ways to win games. This was a five year ago Toronto Raptors type win, all defense and barely any offense but it was a good win for us.” On their bench play: “Pat [Patrick Patterson] had a slow start but he picked up a little bit and finished out well. Lucas [Nogueira] has been unbelievable when he’s down low and getting lobs and making some free throws. Norm [Norman Powell] came in, Corey [Joseph] didn’t make shots but his intensity, his drive and his push was always there. We just found a way to win a game, tonight was an ugly game but to get a win is always good and against a team like that is a good win.” On trapping him and Derozan: “They did a great job at that, their defensive schemes were unbelievable tonight. Their bigs moved their feet well, I had a couple of turnovers trying to get around and force it. They did a good job tonight, even without Damian Lillard they did a great job. If he would’ve played it might’ve been different but it was a good win for our team tonight.”
DeMAR DEROZAN On winning this game despite shooting 34%: “I think we’ve done it before, we’ve done it before. That’s the great thing about having a reliable defense, you’re still able to win even if you’re not making shots. Playing defense in the whole fourth quarter and that’s what saved us.” On the Blazers not having Lillard: “A guy like Dame not playing, that’s a big chunk of a potential 30 or 40 point game. They’re still a talented team, it was a tough task either way.” On the key to their fourth quarter defense: “We were just into them. It was physical, it was forcing them to miss and trying to limit second chance points. We got every rebound that came off long shots and it gave us the opportunity to go down and keep the game in our favor.”
Postgame Notes - Dec. 26, 2016 Toronto 95, Portland 91 Game #33 • Home Game #15 TEAM • Toronto has now won three consecutive games over Portland, a new franchise record (2, three times). • The Raptors have won seven straight games on the road, extending their franchise record. • The Trail Blazers held the Raptors to 95 points, snapping Toronto’s streak of 16 straight games with at least 100 points scored. • Portland has failed to score 100 or more points for the third consecutive game (season-long) and the fourth time in the past five contests. • The Trail Blazers finished with two more rebounds than the Raptors (54-52) and have now out rebounded their opponent in 13 of their last 20 games. PLAYER • CJ McCollum scored a game-high 29 points, marking the 20th time in 33 games this season that he has scored at least 20 points. McCollum registered 40 games of 20 or more points in 2015-16. • CJ McCollum has now scored at least 25 points in each of his last five games played without Damian Lillard in the lineup (12/27 to 1/3 last season). • Mason Plumlee hauled in a season-high 15 rebounds (14, 11/25 vs. New Orleans). • CJ McCollum matched his season-high of seven assists, all of which came in the third quarter (7, two other times). • Mason Plumlee (13 pts, 15 reb) logged his fifth double-double of the season and trails only Damian Lillard (7) for the team lead. • Over his past four games, Mason Plumlee has averaged a double-double with 14.8 points (69.7% FG) and 10.0 rebounds per game. • Shabazz Napier finished with 10 points, marking the first time this season that he has scored in double figures in consecutive games (10, 12/21/16 vs. SAS). Napier has produced at least 10 points in three games this season, two of which have come in the past two contests. • Mason Plumlee’s fourth and final assist of the night was the 500th assist of his career. His 140 assists this season lead all forward/centers in the NBA. • Damian Lillard (left ankle) was inactive, marking the first time this season and the eighth time in his career that he has not played since entering the NBA in 2012-13. Portland is now 4-4 when Lillard doesn’t play.
