HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS On Lillard’s performance in the fourth: “Obviously Dame carried us. It was good to see him have a stretch like that. He hasn’t had one of those in a while and it’s good to see him see the ball go through and carry the team like that. Obviously we don’t win the game if he doesn’t carry us offensively.” On Crabbe: “AC, he really moved well without the ball. I thought our guys really did a good job of setting the screens in some of our sets to get him open. He was ready to shoot and he was in a really good rhythm. We’ve struggled offensively for the past I don’t know how many games, but it was good to have an offensive game and those two guys were a big part of it.” On winning close game against team that usually wins close games: “It says a lot. We’ve played Memphis three close games now and to win two of them, one at their place, they’re hard fought games and I think the key to Memphis’s season so far is they’ve won those games. They find ways to win them. So hopefully this is something we can build on as well.” Fair to say this was one of the most physical games recently? “I’d have to go through them, but generally when you play Memphis, I think they lead the league in fouls or the second most, so they play a physical brand of basketball. They have for a few years now, so you kind of expect that.” Do you feel like you matched their physicality? “You can’t win if you don’t with them.”
MASON PLUMLEE When Crabbe has it going, do you make an effort to get him the ball? “To me, one of the best plays of the night – three guys were open, I think Chief had the ball but because he had hit so many shots, Chief skip passed it to AC. That’s when you know you’re playing together and seeing the game beyond just the immediate play, knowing who’s hot, how to get him open. Guys are setting better screens – as a guy gets hot in the league, teams, especially good defensive teams, put more attention on him, but I thought our guys did a good job of calling sets and setting screens to get him open regardless, which was big for us.” On Lillard’s performance in fourth: “It was a big lift, man. Those shots were huge. He really put them away offensively. Those were big.” You’ve been searching for momentum, do you feel like you’re getting there? “Well if we keep it going. If we come in here and win Sunday, I think it’ll keep the ball rolling. To pull out a couple close games in this stretch was good.”
ALLEN CRABBE “I felt good tonight, just going out there, just letting the game flow. Letting the game come to me and good things happen. My teammates found me tonight, and just a good night.” How big is it seeing first couple shots go in? “I think that’s confidence for everybody when you see the first one go and you just feel like you’re going to knock the next one down and every time you touch it, it feels like it’s going in. That’s the type of feeling I had tonight. They were going in and I’m glad I had a big night for the team.” How would you describe Lillard in the fourth? “Dame Lillard. It’s not shocking to us. We know what he can do. He took over in a big way for us tonight. He made tough shots, but that’s what he does.”
HEAD COACH DAVID FIZDALE On Allen Crabbe’s shooting off the bench: He can do that. He’s a bonafide shooter, so it’s never a surprise when he makes 3’s. We lost him a couple times on the backside access where we should have switched, but for the most part we know who he is. His reputation precedes him. Sense of urgency due to the standings at all? I feel we have urgency in there. We just have these lows right now. There’s not a guy in there that’s not really fighting for us to win. I don’t feel like there’s any lax to our team whatsoever. We’re just fighting for consistency and constant defensive effort where we’re communicating and doing our job all the time. On Marc Gasol’s play tonight: Awesome again. We’re just lucky to have a big guy like that; an All Star like that. He’s really starting to take a strangle hold of being a superstar and really attacking it and embracing it. It’s fun to watch. On Lillard’s hot streak: Yeah. We tried to trap him. We had our best defender on him. He made some right in Tony Allen’s face. I couldn’t guard it any better, and that’s what it comes down to sometimes – make or miss. We get him to miss a couple of those, and maybe we could pull this out on the road, but he was just nailing the ones he needed to make. Added comments: Just one thing… Condolences to Michael Goldberg’s family. Our prayers and well wishes are going out to his family.
TONY ALLEN On Damian Lillard not making All-Stars: “That was a given, I’m pretty sure if Mike [Conley] would’ve had a huge game he would’ve said the same thing. He didn’t make it so they’ve got to focus on trying to get their record up, like we’re doing. We try to focus on getting our record up, move up in the standings. I don’t care about no All-Star snub or how good he played today. All I care about wins and losses and we lost.” On what happened during the last few possessions: “I can’t get over those two big shots Lillard hit over me. I mean that’s still got me floating gas so I don’t know. I thought we played hard, we fought back but we’ve got to capitalize on a lot of situations. When we get an opportunity to go up or put our foot down when we get the lead and I thought we did a poor job of that. The effort was there but there’s no such thing as moral victories, we’ve got to understand that we have to be a group that’s together for 48 minutes, defensively.” On Damian Lillard getting hot in the fourth; “He hit two shots, that’s hot? When he hit two like that? I only saw two of those big shots on me, it didn’t look like he was hot to me, he hit two big shots. That’s all I saw, two big threes. A curl three and a pull up three from deep. So I didn’t see the hot.”
MARC GASOL On battling back from being down double digits: “I don’t think it was one of those nights. I think that we came out and we tried to execute what we said and obviously they’re a talented team. Once we figured out all of their movements and all of their thumb up and flare into a pick-and-roll and all of those actions, we got better but they’re a good defensive team. We’ve got to play probably with a better sense of urgency on the ball, that really does help a lot of things and finish a possession with a rebound. All the movement that gets you out into position for rebounding and they’re a good rebounding team too, offensively, because they run from the outside in and it’s hard.” On if they hit a rhythm late in the third quarter/early in the fourth: “Yeah and again Damian [Lillard] made three or four shots at the very end that made the game a two or three possession game and we couldn’t get enough stops to overcome that. That’s what it came down to, obviously we had a lot of possessions where it could’ve gone either way, could’ve got a better look. I haven’t seen the clip yet, I don’t know if I got fouled or not but it doesn’t matter, they won it.”
Postgame Notes - Jan. 27, 2017 Portland 112, Memphis 109 Game #48 • Home Game #22 TEAM • The Trail Blazers have won three consecutive games for the third time this season and the first time since doing so from Nov. 30 to Dec. 5. • Portland is 5-2 in its past seven home contests (13-9 at home overall). • The Trail Blazers improve to 16-5 when leading after three quarters this season (11-1 at home). • Portland has won its first regular season series over Memphis (2-1) since the 2011-12 season. PLAYER • Damian Lillard (33 points) has scored at least 20 points in a season-best seven consecutive games (Jan. 13-27). Lillard has scored at least 20 points in 10 of his 11 games since returning from a five-game absence (left ankle) on Jan. 5. • Damian Lillard scored 15 points on 4-of-7 shooting (3-5 3-PT) in the fourth quarter. • Mason Plumlee (13 pts, 10 reb) has recorded four straight double-doubles, the longest such streak of his career. Plumlee has averaged 14.0 points and 11.3 rebounds during this four-game stretch. • Mason Plumlee is the first Trail Blazer to record four straight double-doubles since LaMarcus Aldridge did so from March 15-20, 2015. • Allen Crabbe scored 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting (6-8 3-PT), and has now recorded 20 or more points three times in the last 10 games (no such games through first 38 contests this season). Prior to 2016-17, Crabbe had five games with 20+ points through three NBA seasons. • Allen Crabbe shot 6-of-8 from beyond the arc to match his career high for three-pointers in a single game. • Al-Farouq Aminu scored 12 points, and has now scored in double figures six times in the past 12 games (one such game through first 18 games). • With his first assist tonight, Mason Plumlee became the ninth player in the NBA this season to record at least 300 rebounds and 200 assists (Antetokounmpo/Batum/Butler/Durant/Green/Harden/James/Westbrook).
A couple of interesting quotes: Terry Stotts On Crabbe: “AC, he really moved well without the ball. I thought our guys really did a good job of setting the screens in some of our sets to get him open. He was ready to shoot and he was in a really good rhythm. We’ve struggled offensively for the past I don’t know how many games, but it was good to have an offensive game and those two guys were a big part of it.” My comment.........Terry needs to make sure we set good screens for him every game. MASON PLUMLEE When Crabbe has it going, do you make an effort to get him the ball? “To me, one of the best plays of the night – three guys were open, I think Chief had the ball but because he had hit so many shots, Chief skip passed it to AC. That’s when you know you’re playing together and seeing the game beyond just the immediate play, knowing who’s hot, how to get him open. Guys are setting better screens – as a guy gets hot in the league, teams, especially good defensive teams, put more attention on him, but I thought our guys did a good job of calling sets and setting screens to get him open regardless, which was big for us.” My comment: Regardless of how Crabbe is shooting, Chief needs to skip pass it to AC every time. (Or any open shooter) Even when Aminu is shooting well like he did last night. They need to define their roles better IMO. AC is a shooter. Get him open and pass it to him.
My thoughts: “To me, one of the best plays of the night – three guys were open, I think Chief had the ball but because he had hit so many shots, Chief skip passed it to AC."- Plumlee I agree. That was an awesome play by Aminu. That's where chemistry and the guys caring for each other comes into play. “He hit two shots, that’s hot? When he hit two like that? I only saw two of those big shots on me, it didn’t look like he was hot to me, he hit two big shots. That’s all I saw, two big threes. A curl three and a pull up three from deep. So I didn’t see the hot.”- Tony Allen And that is why we won. Tony Allen somehow blacked out while Dame was scoring 13 points straight. "But they’re a good defensive team."- Marc Gasol on Blazers You heard it here first. From a guy who knows defense. Can't believe no one commented about this. “Yeah and again Damian [Lillard] made three or four shots at the very end"- Gasol Maybe he should have a talk with Tony.
