·With the win tonight, the Blazers even the season series against the Rockets 1-1 with two games remaining in Portland. Houston has its five-game home winning streak snapped and has lost consecutive games for the first time since a three-game streak from 11/20-11/24. The Rockets won 10 of their next 13 games following that losing streak. Portland has won two in a row after losing three of its previous four games. ·Houston lost tonight despite holding Portland to 43.2% shooting from the floor. The Rockets fall to 15-2 when holding their opponent below 45.0% shooting this season. Houston shot 39.6% tonight and is shooting 43.0% over the past five games after shooting 48.0% the eight games prior. The Rockets are 17-4 when shooting 45.0% or better this season and 9-10 when shooting below. ·The Rockets were outrebounded 58-50 tonight after outrebounding the Blazers 58-44 on 11/18. Houston is 17-4 when outrebounding opponents this season and 9-10 when failing to do so. The Rockets are being outrebounded by 3.1 rpg in losses this season (+3.2 rpg in wins). ·Houston had a season-low tying 4 steals while forcing just 8 turnovers tonight. Opponents have only recorded more than 16 turnovers once over the past nine games. Houston is 5-6 when forcing 12 or fewer turnovers this season. ·Russell Westbrook had 31 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds with just one turnover while shooting 11-of-22 from the floor. It is his seventh triple-double as a Rocket and the 145th of his career. The Rocket fall to 7-2 when Westbrook has 10+ assists this season and 10-3 when he shoots 50.0% or better from the floor. He has scored 30+ points in each of his past three games played, tying his longest streak of the season. Besides Harden, the last Rocket to have scored 30+ points in three straight games was Kevin Martin from 4/1-4/5/11. ·James Harden had 13 points tonight, marking his lowest total since having 10 vs. Minnesota on 1/18/18. He shot 1-of-6 from 3-point range tonight, marking just his second game with fewer than 2 3FGM this season (opening night vs. Milwaukee). That streak of hitting 2+ 3FGM in 37 consecutive games played from 10/26-1/14 was the longest of his career and the fourth-longest in NBA history. ·Clint Capela had 14 points and 18 rebounds tonight. He grabbed 18+ boards in both games against the Blazers this season with Hassan Whiteside playing each game. No other player has recorded more than 15 boards in a game vs. Portland this season when Whiteside played. Capela has grabbed 15+ boards in 16 of his 33 games played this season after doing so a career-high 21 times in 67 games played in 2018-19. ·Carmelo Anthony had 18 points and 12 rebounds in his first game vs. Houston since playing the first 10 games for the Rockets last season. It is his second double-double over the past three games and his third overall this season.
TRAIL BLAZERS HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS (On what they did to contain James Harden) “Well, we tried to get the ball out of his hands a little bit in different ways, but obviously he didn’t shoot the ball well. I thought our guys took the challenge of trying to get the ball out of his hands and having him kind of less of a factor.” (On his team’s defensive performance) “To have a game like that and I’m sure they’ll say they missed shots, but I thought we did compete defensively and it makes a difference. I thought we scrambled, even though they got 49 threes up – I don’t think it was in the rhythm of the game. It was a great effort, that’s all I can say.” (On if he was satisfied with the plays the Blazers were running) “Yeah, I was pleased with our offense all night. I thought our passing; we did a good job of passing. We tried to attack certain matchups, you know Hassan (Whiteside) did a good job on the glass, so I was pretty pleased with the shots that we were able to get.”
TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD DAMIAN LILLARD (On why he felt his team played well tonight) “We just had good fight, we had good energy, and a good presence about us I think. Even in our meeting today, we kind of talked through stuff. Before the game, it was pretty quiet. You can tell, coming off the win against Charlotte – we came into this trip wanting to start off on the right foot and I thought our effort on the floor showed that.” (On where this type of play has been all year) “The season is full of ups and downs, and we’ve had more downs this year than ups, but it’s a whole second half of the season to play. I think this was our first game of the second half of the season. Coming off the win against Charlotte – before that game, we were saying we need to win this game before we go on this road trip and get started off on the right foot. Tonight before the game we were talking and it was like ‘let’s come out and start off right, have our energy up, let’s talk, let’s compete, and let’s try to start this trip off with a win. Our coaches came up with a great defensive game plan. We executed it and we played like we wanted to win the game. We shared the ball on offense. We did all the things to give ourselves a good chance. We just have to try and sustain that and have some carry over.”
TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD CJ MCCOLLUM (On holding James Harden to 13 points) “We followed our game plan well. I think besides a couple of breakdowns, we followed him to the help and double teamed him at half court. We did a lot of stuff we were supposed to do to take him out of the game and make his teammates beat us, and it worked.” (On how well Portland played to start off its road trip) “It was very important. We dug ourselves quite the hole with inconsistent play, injuries, bad losses, lots of losses in a row. This was a game we needed to win. We need to win every game honestly going forward, but games like tonight – when you get a lead, you have to hold onto it, try to extend it. We did that tonight.”
TRAIL BLAZERS CENTER HASSAN WHITESIDE (On the game) “Dame (Damian Lillard) made great plays down the stretch. We knocked down shots, guys were trusting each other, we were moving the ball, everybody felt involved, and we were moving it well. I noticed at the end, we didn’t panic. They got it down five or six points, we didn’t panic. We kept relying on our defense and we stuck to the game plan.” (On the game plan for James Harden) “Kudos to Dame and Kent (Bazemore), and all the perimeter guys – they were scrambling. You know, they work their tail off out there and those guys did a hell of a job.”
ROCKETS HEAD COACH MIKE D’ANTONI (On if the Rockets energy was lacking tonight) “There was a lack of—yeah that’s a good word, energy. A lack of—you know, a lot of guys have issues, physically, that they’re fighting through and sometimes that take you away from the collective spirit. Clint (Capela) is trying to get through his foot, Eric (Gordon) is trying to get back in shape and P.J. (Tucker) has got the stinger. Sometimes they’re focused on themselves and it does create a little bit of whatever—but that’s an excuse but that doesn’t work. We’ve just got to get back. Right now, it’s a rough spot, (but) we had rough spots last year, we had rough spots the year before. We always have rough spots. We’ll just regather and regroup and get back here Saturday and (we’ll) have a great game.” (On James Harden’s play tonight) “Well I thought he kind of taking what was coming. They were doubling him every time, so we have to look at the first half especially and I have to look at the second half, but I think even in the second half we were getting the looks, we just didn’t knock them down, but the biggest thing is on defense. In the first half they had 60 points—we’ve got to do better than that.” “A lot of other guys are going to get wide open shots; we’ve got to try and knock them down, but we’ve got to get in transition a little bit more and we can only do that with stops. We’ve got to get a little bit tighter defensively (and with) switching. We just make some mistakes that when we’re down to five points and we’re making a comeback and no switch on one side and no switch on the other, which we were switching (tonight). Then two mistakes and it’s back up to 12.”
ROCKETS GUARD JAMES HARDEN (On if he feels the Rockets have hit a rough spot) “Yeah, we’ve got to figure out a way through it. A tough one, but it doesn’t get any easier for us. We’ve got some tough opponents coming up and we’ve got to figure out a way through it.” (On if he feels the Rockets will fight their way out of this tough stretch) “We will. We will. I think everyone goes through a tough time throughout the course of the year. For us, this is now. You know, we’ve got to come together and figure out what the problem is and go out there and try to fight through it.” (On if it was discouraging for him to not be able to produce how he normally does) “No; every game is going to be different for me. So tonight was one of those nights where they double-teamed from the beginning of the game as soon as I stepped up to half court. Then trusting in my teammates to knock down shots. We didn’t knock down as many as we wanted to, but I think defensively we can be better to limit them from scoring so many points.”
ROCKETS GUARD RUSSELL WESTBROOK (On what he feels the Rockets are lacking) “Just creating consistency, that’s it. Just playing hard. X’s and O’s don’t really matter, just playing hard consistently on a night in and night out basis.” (On what has to happen to for the Rockets to get back on track) “Simple as that. Play hard. Everything else will fall in line. (We) have enough talent, enough experience. (We) know how to play the game. We just got to play hard every single night.” (On whether or not the leaders of the team should be responsible for getting the team back on track) “Yeah, I’ll take it. I’ll take the blame, for sure. I’m going to bring my energy every night, so my job is to make sure the rest of the guys do it. Starting with myself and hopefully I can lead by example.”
