Postgame Notes - January 18, 2018 Portland 100, Indiana 86 Game #45 • Home Game #22 TEAM • The Trail Blazers have won five straight games at Moda Center, their longest winning streak at home this season. • Portland has won nine straight home games against the Pacers. • The Trail Blazers held Indiana to 12 points in the fourth quarter and 86 points for the game. It was the second-fewest points that Indiana has scored in a game this season and tied the third-fewest points Portland has allowed in a game this season. • Portland outrebounded Indiana, 57-46 and outscored the Pacers in the paint, 40-36. • Portland shot 100% from the free-throw line (16-of-16) for the third game this season, the most in the NBA. • The Trail Blazers had 14 offensive rebounds leading to 24 second chance points, while the Pacers had 10 offensive rebounds and 10 second chance points. • Portland has scored 100 points in 10 consecutive games, extending their longest streak of the season. • The Trail Blazers bench outscored their Indiana counterparts, 25-13. PLAYER • Damian Lillard scored 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. It was the fifth straight game of 20-plus points for Lillard. He added five rebounds, eight assists and one block. • Jusuf Nurkic recorded his 10th double-double of the season, finishing with 19 points and a season-high 17 rebounds to go with two steals and two blocks. • CJ McCollum recorded 16 points (6-18 FG, 4-10 3-PT), three rebounds, two assists and one steal. It was the fourth game in a row that McCollum made three or more three-pointers, matching the second longest streak of his career (six, 11/2/17 - 11/15/17). • Shabazz Napier finished with 13 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals while tying his career high with two blocks. Napier has scored in double figures in five of the last seven games. • Al-Farouq Aminu had 12 points (4-11 FG, 2-7 3-PT, 2-2 FT), nine rebounds, two assists and one block. Aminu has scored in double figures in 15 games this season. • Ed Davis had eight points and eight rebounds off the bench. • Victor Oladipo and Darren Collison led the Pacers with 23 points each.
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS How big was Napier’s steal and three at the end of the third? “Just like CJ’s three at the end of the first quarter, it was a big momentum play. It was a big momentum play – we had just made one play to cut it – it was a six point lead, cut it to three, then to tie it up at the end of the quarter, obviously it gave us momentum going into the fourth quarter.” On Nurkic tonight: “He was very good. He played very well. He had 19 and 17 and I don’t know if I ran a play for him. He got all that with hard work.” On winning the fourth quarter 26-12: “I thought our guards did a good job on their guards. It ended up being kind of a perimeter game with their three guards and our three guards. Nurk made some good plays at the rim. I thought we contested their shots well. More than anything else, in the third quarter and then in the fourth, I thought we gave them a lot of opportunities. I thought we had offensive opportunities where we didn’t either finish or turned it over or gave them extra shots and they took advantage of those – more than anything else, I don’t think we gave them anything due to our mistakes.” You’ve talked about not putting teams away, was it nice to finally step on a team like that? “Yeah, I don’t know about not stepping on teams, but we just made plays when we needed to in the fourth quarter. I thought Dame – he struggled, he missed a couple layups, and bounced back after that and made some big momentum plays. Ed Davis was really good throughout the game during his stints. Our second chance points had a lot to do with that. In the fourth quarter, it was good to see just the lead kind of expand without having very many mistakes. You win the game shooting 39 percent. You win it holding the other team to 12 points [in the fourth]. It was good.” How did you think you did defensively on Oladipo “I thought alright. We made him work for his points. He’s an explosive player, he can get to the rim, he can shoot, but I thought we showed a lot of attention to him and made him work for it.” DAMIAN LILLARD What did you like about the fourth quarter “I thought we just really defended. I think they had 12, 14 points or something like that in the fourth, but we also played aggressive on the offensive end. Nurk did a great job on the glass keeping balls alive, so did Ed, so did Chief. I just thought our aggressiveness was what allowed us to overwhelm them on both ends of the floor.” On Nurkic: “He was huge. That type of effort is what we need from him. When he got in the paint, he was finishing early. He played strong. He was just really locked in. Even on the defensive end, he was contesting shots at the rim. It seemed like every ball that came off the rim, he rebounded it and it wasn’t rebounds that he was waiting to come to him, he was going up above the rim to get them. Those are the kind of games we’re going to need from him. When he plays that way on both ends, we’re a much better team.” Coming off fourth quarter in Suns game where you had to hold on to get the win, was it nice to push this one forward? “The Suns game was up 20 and I think we kind of lost our edge a little bit and when you do that in the NBA, teams make runs and that’s what happened. Tonight, we had a lead but it wasn’t a cushion that we were comfortable with so I think that played a part in us keeping our focus and that’s something we need to get better at – staying locked in and not allowing teams to take advantage of our slippage.” On Napier’s steal and three to end the third: “Those are what we call winning plays. We go into the fourth quarter down three if he don’t make that play – a steal and then knock down a big shot. Those are the kind of things that turn the tide of a game and give us momentum and get the crowd into it and get us feeling good about ourselves, so that was a huge play. A game-changing play.” What has changed to get you back on track in home games? “I think overall our team has just locked in a little bit more. We just had a rough stretch. We’re not the first team or the last team that’ll have that. The important thing when you have times like that is to stay together and to stay with it. It’s never as good or as bad as it seems. We came out of it. I think we’re just in a better place on the floor as a group.”
HEAD COACH NATE McMILLAN What keyed their run late in the game and especially in the fourth?At the beginning of the fourth, I think it was an 8-0 run. A lot of it was out scrapping us. You can’t give up 14 offensive rebounds, 24 second chance points. When we did force them to miss in the first and second half we had them shooting 40%, but we gave up second opportunities. That’s the hustle game that you have to win. We have to give help to our bigs down in the paint, and they out-worked us and won that game. Why were Nurkic and Davis such a load for you guys on the inside tonight?Well, that’s where they do. With you being spread, your defense is spread, chasing their guards who are threats from the 3-point line. With the movement, and their offense, those bigs are rolling to the basket, and you got to get a body on them. You got to put your body on them, hit them early, and you need 2 guys. You can’t have 1 guy trying to box those guys out alone. What did you see going on the offensive end in the fourth when you were struggling with scoring?I didn’t think we were moving the ball. We didn’t have the ball movement that we normally have. I thought we were settling, taking quick shots. Only 17 assists tonight, which part of that is due to the way they defend. They pretty much hugged the perimeter, but I thought we pretty much settled and didn’t make them work enough on the defensive end of the floor. Lance played, but did he look like himself to you?You know, he was ready to go. He wasn’t able to knock down anything. He certainly wasn’t himself. Tried to get something going, but he just couldn’t.
VICTOR OLADIPO On the fourth quarter:“We just weren’t getting shots. We got some good looks but they didn’t go for us. It’s tough, man, you know? All night we kind of stayed in the game, played defense and we got some O boards down the stretch but overall we just missed some shots we should have made.” On bouncing back from the loss: “It’s on to the next one, you have to have a short term memory in the NBA so we’ve got a big game tomorrow that we have to get ready for.” On Jusuf Nurkic’s block in the fourth quarter: “He felt like he had a good play or something and he wanted to boast or I don’t know what it was but he ain’t just going to do that on me so I don’t know why he did that. He felt good about himself, about a block, congratulations. Everybody can do it, you know what I mean? Ain’t nobody just going to block me and get in my face like that, like he just won the lottery or something. I ain’t just going to let that happen. You’re going to respect me and you’re going to respect my team.” On if he felt the Trailblazers tried to limit their three pointers: “A few times and we missed some shots, some three pointers that were some good looks that we normally make and missed those as well. Overall it was just a tough game for us, now we just have to move on from it.” LANCE STEPHENSON On how he felt tonight:“I felt a little heavy on my feet but no excuses, man. I still felt I could’ve made some of the shots that I shot and I could’ve helped our big guys on the rebounding. Just was a slow day for me, for all of us.” On having confidence with bouncing back from this loss: “Just one of those games, all I’ve got is confidence. Keep playing ball and just got to move on to the next. We’ve been doing good so far, we have to stay positive and don’t let this hit us. Stay motivated and staying positive and move on to the next game.” On if he’s over his bug: “I’m getting there, I’m getting there.”
On Jusuf Nurkic’s block in the fourth quarter: “He felt like he had a good play or something and he wanted to boast or I don’t know what it was but he ain’t just going to do that on me so I don’t know why he did that. He felt good about himself, about a block, congratulations. Everybody can do it, you know what I mean? Ain’t nobody just going to block me and get in my face like that, like he just won the lottery or something. I ain’t just going to let that happen. You’re going to respect me and you’re going to respect my team.” ————- Oh shut all the way up. This dude was pumping his chest after he made a layup earlier in the game, so who is he to talk? Plus he didn’t do shit while Nurk was in his face. You wanna act tough, do it while he’s in your face.
