POSTGAME BULLETPOINTS PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (19-17) @ CHICAGO BULLS (13-24) Monday, Jan. 1, 2018 United Center Final Score: Trail Blazers 120, Bulls 124 (OT) TEAM NOTES: Chicago fell in its first meeting of the year against Portland, 124-120. Chicago moved to 1-2 on the year in overtime, while Portland evened up its overtime record at 1-1.The two teams will square off once more this season in Portland on Jan. 31. Chicago had won its last seven home games before falling to Portland, which was the longest such streak during Fred Hoiberg’s tenure as head coach. The Bulls are 9-9 at home this season. All five starters scored in double-digits, marking the fifth time the Bulls’ starters have each tallied 10-plus points on the year. Chicago knocked down 11 shots from beyond the arc, marking the fifth-straight home game the Bulls have made double-digit 3-pointers. Chicago currently holds the team record for most 3-pointers through 37 games (388). The Bulls outrebounded the Trail Blazers, 58-50. It was Chicago’s 10th game with at least 50 rebounds. The Bulls set a season high with 104 field-goal attempts, while the Trail Blazers’ 108 shot attempts was the highest by any opponent this season. The Chicago bench outscored Portland’s reserves, 40-24. It was the ninth time in the last 10 games the Bulls’ bench has outscored the opposing
PLAYER NOTES: NIKOLA MIROTIĆ totaled 18 points and 10 rebounds, leading the Bulls in rebounding for the fifth time this season. It was Mirotic’s 11th game with 10-plus points and his third double-double on the year. LAURI MARKKANEN scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting to go along with eight rebounds. Markkanen has knocked down multiple 3-pointers in his last four games. KRIS DUNN finished with a team-high 22 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Dunn led the Bulls in scoring for the fifth time this season and notched his sixth game with at least 20 points. ROBIN LOPEZ totaled 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Lopez has reached double-digit scoring 30 times through 37 contests, and matched his season high with the five dimes. BOBBY PORTIS tallied 14 points off the bench and pulled down seven rebounds. It was his 19th time scoring in double figures, including in three-straight games. CJ MCCOLLUM scored a game-high 32 points on 11-of-30 shooting, including 5-of-11 from deep. McCollum recorded at least 30 points for the third time this season, and has scored in double figures in 18-straight games. EVAN TURNER had a season-high 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting. Turner led the Trail Blazers with 14 points in the first half. JUSUF NURKIC tied a season high with 15 rebounds and scored 11 points en route to collecting his eighth double-double on the year.
Fred Hoiberg – Bulls Head Coach On the learning process for Kris Dunn and the team: “I thought coming out, I think Kris had four turnovers in the first half; three in the first quarter. A couple of those were offensive fouls and then we got a little careless with it there at the end — with some tough ones at key times. Kris made a lot of good plays out there as well for our team. [He] hit some big shots. We’ll get together, we’ll watch those turnovers and get that fixed up.” On the decision to play Robin Lopez at the end of the game: “I just thought with [Jusuf] Nurkic out there, we needed to find a way to keep him off the glass. He is just too big and strong out there. I felt we needed Robin, who was also playing well tonight.” On getting two-for-one at the end of regulation: “If it’s the right shot. That’s the thing. You got to come down — it’s got to be the right shot. You can’t just jack up and bad one that just gives them something to transition. Ideally, yes you’d like to get a two-for-one in that situation.” On the lack of a timeout decision and Kris Dunn’s last shot (at score 122-120): “For a missed shot — no. We wanted to bring it down and try to get something in flow.” On Lauri Markkanen: “These are all great experiences for Lauri. Being in there at the end at crunch time. That shot he took, that would have put us up in the end, that was right there. Just another centimeter — that thing’s in the basket. He’s not afraid. He’s not going to back down. Hit a couple of big shots for us in overtime, as well to keep us right there in striking distance. The kid is going to be an unbelievable player. Denzel made a couple of big plays tonight as well for us. Lauri continues to impress and show he has no fear when he is on the floor.” On juxtaposition of recent success versus recent losses: “It’s tough. It hurts. That’s the thing about it. When you do have some success, and closing out close games, the last two nights we haven’t done [it]. We have not gotten the job done. It does, it hurts — it stings. Especially after having seven in a row, where we did close out a lot of those close games. So again, we will get back in the film room; we’ll try to learn from it. Tomorrow, I told the guys to get their energy back and find a way to come out and play with great effort on Wednesday. We are going to have to, Toronto’s rolling right now. We’ve got to learn throughout the season, throughout these close games. Which I give our guys a lot of credit for bouncing back after a tough stretch to close a lot of close games. Now we’ve got to get it back.”
Kris Dunn On his potential game-tying shot in overtime: “Coming off the screen, I was trying to look for the pocket pass for 'Rolo' (Robin Lopez) and then try to look for the kick-out. But all their players spread it out back to our wings. So, I was deep in the paint, and I just took the shot. Felt like I was taller than him, bigger than him, I could get it over him.” On if he was fouled on the shot: “I don’t really remember. I don’t get into that.” On tonight’s game: “The game was messy. It was one of those games, you just gotta keep grinding. I think both teams, we did a good job going out there and competing. Back and forth, making plays, and it came down to who made more stops, and they did.” On the team playing well in spite of fatigue from the back-to-back: “We’re gonna go out there and compete. We’re gonna battle with any team. Like I said, we’re clicking right now. We’re playing good basketball. These two losses, they definitely hurt. When they’re down the stretch, and you feel like you can win the games, it’s hard to swallow. But we’re playing good basketball, and I like what we’re doing so far.” On CJ McCollum: “He’s a good player. In this league, once the good players get going, it’s kind of hard to take the fire out of them. He made multiple big plays for them. Credit to him.”
Nikola Mirotić On if he wished he could have been on the court toward the end of the game: “Obviously, I wish I was there playing. I had a little issue after the second quarter with my rib, lat strain. But, I felt good in the third quarter, making some shots, and Fred [Hoiberg] just played with Lauri [Markkanen] and [Robin] Lopez, which is great. We couldn’t get that win unfortunately, so we keep moving forward. Now we have to try to find a way again to win the next game against Toronto.” On getting back to closing out close games: “Try to play the same way we’ve been playing those last few games, without counting Washington. I’m sure we’re gonna make some adjustments now in practice and keep our confidence high. We played two really good games, solid games. Unfortunately, we couldn’t close, especially last couple minutes of those games. We made some good strides. I think that shot [by] Kris Dunn was a foul. They didn’t call it. But we are fine compared to where we were before, we need just to keep improving.”
Terry Stotts - Trail Blazers Head Coach On the team’s potent offense: “It was good for us to have an offensive night. We’ve struggled a lot of the season with our offense and it was good to see Evan [Turner] have a good offensive night obviously. Al-Farouq [Aminu] in the fourth quarter and overtime we needed every one of his threes. CJ [McCollum] didn’t necessarily shoot the ball well, but in the fourth quarter and overtime he made good decisions.” On the game: “On the heels of our last game this was a good one. Chicago is not necessarily a team that forces a lot of turnovers unlike Atlanta which does force turnovers. It was 108 to 104 shot attempts, you don’t see that very often. I think at the end of regulation it was almost 100 per team. There weren’t a lot of whistles, the ball was going up and down, so it was a good game.” On stopping the Bulls’ second-chance opportunities: “There was a stretch there [Bobby] Portis really had an effect on the game in both halves. They were stuck at 21 (second chance points) for a long time. That was a big part of what they were hurting us with in the third quarter. On CJ McCollum’s game-high 30 shot attempts: “[CJ McCollum] is a shooter, he’s a scorer and you’ve got to have that mentality. What I was pleased most about with CJ was his assists. Eight assists was something I was probably more pleased about than the scoring.”
Pat Connaughton On tonight’s win: “It was huge. We’ve been playing pretty well. Obviously, the last game, we wanted to get that taste out of our mouths. I think we did a good job of hanging in there. We had some down moments tonight. We had little mental lapses at times, but the key is that we battled back, and we showed that toughness that we showed against Philadelphia and some of the other teams when we do win games that we should win.” On his role on the team: I want to help have an effect of the game in any way that I can. Whether the shot’s falling or not, I want to make sure I’m taking them. Because when you’re not, that’s when you’re not really helping the team. You’re not giving yourself the chance to help the team. So, I’ve been trying to focus on that a little more, throughout practice and throughout some of these games. You know, get more comfortable as the season continues, as I take on the first full season that I’ve been playing.” On Evan Turner: “Ever since he had his first bucket, I was saying, ‘E.T.’s home. He’s at the crib.’ He kept it going. I ended up saying that quite a few times tonight. It was really cool to see. My rookie year wasn’t anything like this, but I was able to be in Boston, and score some points late in the game, even though that was in a loss. That was cool for me, so I can only imagine how good he’s feeling, being from here and staying connected with Chicago so much.”
Evan Turner On returning to Chicago: “It’s always cool to see my friends and family and stuff. Obviously, playing in front of familiar faces I actually care about, that’s definitely dope.” On his 3-point shot at the start of overtime: “I was just wide open, you know what I’m saying? It’s what I’m going to shoot away, mostly in general. I’m off the ball, you know, that’s what’s going to be open.”
This is just bad reporting. They really needed to have the lead-in be whether Aminu knows about the fight, and who he has money on. Step it up!
