HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well it was good to get off the snide. I thought we played a pretty solid game start to finish. Our defense was pretty solid. Even though I thought obviously we did a much better job with Cousins, he still has 28, 8 and 6. He’s a great player, but I thought our alertness, both on him and our help was much better than the last time we played them. It was one of our better games as far as being in the paint in anticipation of help. I thought we did a good job of locking in on some of the defensive things that we wanted to do this game.” Was the main thing you did differently against Cousins to double on dribble in the post? “We did that, pick and roll coverages were a little different. We went under a lot of pick and rolls so he couldn’t pop for threes. His isos, more than anything else, he hurt us on the post last game, his threes and his isos. I thought post ups, we were very alert on the help. I thought we were going under pick and rolls before he popping to an open three. I thought not only the guy on the ball but the lane was a little bit more crowded for him.” On Leonard’s game on both ends “Defensively, he was aggressive and he took the challenge no matter whether Cousins was in the game or not. I thought he was alert defensively. He made some shots. He had some other ones he probably could have made but I thought he played a good game at both ends of the court.” How do you feel McCollum has done with Lillard out? “I think CJ, just like last year when Dame missed some games, I thought then and now, he’s very comfortable in the role of being a point guard whether Damian is injured or Damian is on the bench. He does a good job of running the offense, of balancing his shots. He just has to do it for longer periods than when Damian is healthy. So I think he is very comfortable in that position as he’s shown in the past.”
MEYERS LEONARD On mentality playing Cousins: “It’s something I’ve been trying to focus on – looking back at film and understanding how I’ve been successful in the past is being prepared mentally and physically like I am against Cousins for every game. Now clearly there’s probably more of a mental edge when it comes to trying to stop him. I mean, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he’s a very, very good player. The guy, we game plan for him and send two people at him and all these different things and he still puts up 28. I have to individually be ready for every game and I thought collectively we were very good tonight.” What was the difference tonight? “I think we came out with good energy and good focus. Those two things led to trust and flow on the offensive end. Again, our ability to execute the game plan was very solid tonight. I thought we were locked in. You always have lulls throughout a game but a very good effort from everybody tonight.” What did you like about how you played individually? “I shot the ball with confidence. I thought I missed some easy ones but that’s okay. I’m a big believer in the law of averages. I put up a lot of shots, I’m not worried about my misses. In order to continue to gain our guards’ confidence, the coaches and everybody – everyone knows my job, one of my jobs is to shoot the ball. So when I’m open I need to continue to be aggressive. It really opens up things for our offense. Even when I miss it or they get to the rim or something, I feel like the flow of the offense is good and the fact that bigs aren’t used to being out there.” What were you watching pregame? “I watched some stuff on DeMarcus Cousins from last game and then today while I was at home, I watched a couple of his previous games. And then the same thing, individually I watched our last game against him to just try to understand what he’s going to right now. In the past it was a lot more post ups. Of course he goes down there but right now it’s a lot of mid pick and roll, him popping back and bigs, Mason, Noah, Ed and myself, having to stay in front of him, take the contact and try to stop him from getting to the rim. Then of course, the three point threat that he’s added really more this year has made it that much more difficult to guard the guy. I mean, he is an offensive force, there’s no question about it. So slowing him down is all you can do. You’re never going to completely shut him down.”
HEAD COACH DAVE JOERGER “Tonight was a tough game for us, Portland has been struggling but is much better than I think what people think. They can score it and they got comfortable in the first half. They got comfortable in the first six minutes, seven minutes, they got too many easy jumpers, too many easy looks and so the way you go. That’s what scorers do, they get comfortable, they feel good. We gave up 60 points in the first half, I thought we scrambled and competed. We didn’t make a lot of shots, I thought they did a good job of jamming up DeMarcus [Cousins] putting a lot of guys in the paint and really attacking him. I thought we got some good looks and didn’t knock down a lot of shots tonight but I thought Portland played well, they’re going to be just fine. I like their team, I’ve always respected them very much. Played a playoff series against them and had a lot of battles with those guys. They’re too good, they’re going to be fine.” On their offense: “Offense was stagnant at times and then when we were behind we tried to make a 14 point shot. At one point in the quarter there, we got nine stops out of ten possessions and we took three, one pass jumpers. We got a little anxious. It was a game that we wanted and it’s a good learning experience for our guys who, whether they’ve been on other teams or in this position here, where they felt like this was a more important game than normal because of the tie-breaker and everything.” On DeMarcus Cousins’ play time: “It had more to do with different matchups that I was trying to get to. I started the second half differently and we’re about one guy short there on the wing. The thing that they did well by playing [Maurice] Harkless and [Al-Farouq] Aminu together is that they’re very athletic, certainly [Mason] Plumlee’s athletic and they flew around the court and used their length and they did a good job.” On his lineup that started the second half: “Well they’ve been fantastic for us. We’ve won a lot of games with those guys playing 12, 14 minutes straight to finish the third quarter and then finish the fourth quarter. That group’s been really solid and I’ve been trying to compress the games down so to give those guys an opportunity to be successful but we’ll just keep plugging away. We’ve got another one against Memphis and that kind of sums up the month for us, we’ve been on the road a lot and that’ll be the cherry on top of the month. Then we look forward from there I think we’re home for two weeks so then that’s its next segment of two week games, then we go on that hellacious road trip and that’ll be its own segment. You try to break up the season a little bit so this is the last of this segment.”
GARRETT TEMPLE How important is it to know that this one loss doesn’t define you? It’s important. We won’t understand that until after the game. We definitely won’t be thinking that during the game because it’s the game. We only play them three times. If we end up having the same record at the end of the season, that will come back to bite us. But it is what it is. We have to move on. Going up against a team that has been struggling – does it add a different component? Yeah, definitely. Especially when they don’t have their leading scorer. Guys tend to step up. Especially at home, they play off the crowd. We weren’t physical enough with them. We played too soft. Especially early on, and they were able to knock down some shots. Then, the guys that don’t usually hurt you were feeling good, and I think that’s what hurt us.
DEMARCUS COUSINS What was different this game from when Portland was in Sacramento? I could tell they were really keying in on me. Of course, they clogged up the elbows. They fronted and had a guy behind me on the blocks. I mean, they really focused in on me. You could tell their game plan was to make everybody else have big games instead of myself. They were successful tonight. They were. What do you take away from this loss? My thing is I don’t want guys to get down or get drained, or start thinking negative because we lost a game. This is the NBA, we weren’t going to go undefeated the rest of the season. That’s not even realistic. So, learn from this game. Like I said, we should expect a loss at some point. Be ready for the next game, learn from this game, learn from our mistakes and just continue to grow. It’s still a long season, still a lot of time to improve as a team and get things on the right track to be the team that we want to be this season. There’s still plenty of time, so just stay positive. What were the defensive problems first half? I don’t think we were aggressive enough. We know what type of team Portland is. They’re a jump shooting team, and they have a lot of motion. It’s constant movement. When it came to switching, we weren’t doing it aggressively enough. We kind of hesitated at the switches, which gave them room to shoot. They were comfortable making plays. We just weren’t aggressive enough defensively. Did they play differently without Lillard? Honestly, no. I know Dame is the head of the snake. He’s the leader of this team but… same team. They were aggressive, everybody was involved. Constant movement. I mean, it was the same team, and guys on the bench stepped up. Meyers had a good game. He came in and was aggressive. Allan Crabbe killed us tonight. It was a good team effort.
Postgame Notes - Dec. 28, 2016 Portland 102, Sacramento 89 Game #34 • Home Game #16 TEAM • Portland’s win snaps a season-long six-game losing streak. • The Trail Blazers have now won eight consecutive games over the Kings at the Moda Center, and are 12-3 in their past 15 contests against Sacramento overall. • Portland’s 102 points scored snaps a streak of three consecutive games in which the Trail Blazers failed to score 100 points (season long). • The Trail Blazers held Sacramento to 89 points, representing the third time in the past four games that Portland’s opponent has scored less than 100 points. • With tonight’s win, Portland is now a perfect 8-0 when holding a lead at the half. Portland held a 16-point advantage over Sacramento at halftime of tonight’s game (60-44). • The Trail Blazers improve to 10-3 when entering the fourth quarter with a lead (8-0 at home). • Portland shot 12-of-25 from beyond the arc, marking the 17th time this season that the Trail Blazers have made at least 12 3-pointers in a game. The Trail Blazers had the fourth-most games with 12+ threes in the NBA this season entering tonight. • Portland improves to 5-4 in games that Damian Lillard has not played since he entered the NBA in 2012-13 (1-1 this season). PLAYER • Mason Plumlee hauled in 14 rebounds, marking the first time in his NBA career that he has totaled 14+ rebounds in back-to-back games. Plumlee grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds against Toronto on Dec. 26. • Mason Plumlee (12 points, 14 rebounds) has now recorded a double-double in three of his last five games (two straight). Plumlee’s six double-doubles trails only Damian Lillard (7) for the team lead. • Over his past five games, Mason Plumlee has averaged 14.2 points (69.2% FG) and 10.8 rebounds. • Allen Crabbe scored 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting (3-4 3-PT), and has now scored in double figures in three of his past four contests. Crabbe has averaged 11.0 points over his past four games. • CJ McCollum matched his season-high of seven assists, and has now recorded at least seven assists in back-to-back games for the third time in his NBA career (first this season). McCollum has now had seven assists four times this season. • Meyers Leonard matched his season high for scoring with 16 points (3-6 3-PT), 11 of which came in the first half. Leonard has now scored a season-high 16 points in two of his past three games (16, 12/23/16 vs. SAS). • Portland improves to 5-2 when Meyers Leonard scores in double figures. • Evan Turner scored 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting, and has now scored 10+ points and shot at least 50.0% from the field in nine of his past 17 games. Nine of Turner’s 11 points came in the final two quarters (4-5 FG).
