Postgame Notes - February 8, 2018 Portland 109, Charlotte 103 Game #55 • Home Game #26 TEAM • The Trail Blazers won their ninth consecutive game at Moda Center, marking the longest Portland winning streak at home since winning nine straight from Dec. 10, 2012 to Jan. 10, 2013. • The Trail Blazers won their 10th straight home game against the Hornets and swept the season series with Charlotte for the first time since the 2012-13 season. • Portland improved to 2-1 in overtime games this season. • The Trail Blazers outrebounded the Hornets, 57-44 and outscored them in the paint, 58-32. • Portland had nine offensive rebounds leading to 19 second chance points while Charlotte had seven offensive rebounds leading to five second chance points. • The Trail Blazers reserves outscored their Charlotte counterparts, 31-29. PLAYER • Jusuf Nurkic finished with 24 points (10-14 FG, 4-5 FT), 14 rebounds and two steals while tying his season high with four blocks. It was the third game in the NBA this season that a player recorded 24+ points, 14+ rebounds, 2+ steals and 4+ blocks (Cousins/Drummond). Nurkic joins Bill Walton (five) as the only players in franchise history to record multiple games with that line in a Portland uniform. • It was the fourth game this season that Jusuf Nurkic recorded 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds, the most such games he has had in a season in his career. • Damian Lillard scored 18 points to go with four rebounds and eight assists. With a three-pointer with 3:15 remaining in the second quarter, Lillard (10,079 career points) passed Jerome Kersey (10,067 points) for fifth on the all-time franchise scoring list. • CJ McCollum scored 22 points (7-18 FG, 2-5 3-PT, 6-7 FT) to go with four rebounds and three assists. • Al-Farouq Aminu recorded six points and 15 rebounds. It is the first time in his career that Aminu has had at least 14 rebounds in consecutive games. • Ed Davis logged seven points (3-3 FG, 1-1 FT) and eight rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench. • Maurice Harkless scored four of his eight points in overtime. Harkless also recorded five rebounds and one block. • Kemba Walker led the Hornets with 40 points (13-26 FG, 6-11 3-PT, 8-8 FT) to go with one rebound and three assists.
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS How did you feel about the win tonight? “I’m glad we won.” What did you like most about what Harkless gave you in overtime? “His drive and his putback were big plays for us.” You seem a little curt, what’s the reason? “No reason.” What did you think of Nurkic tonight? “I thought he played a very good game and had some very careless turnovers.” DAMIAN LILLARD Coach was short with the media tonight, what was his demeanor like post game? “I mean, he just came in and told us that when we build a lead, we can’t make the game that hard on ourselves. We’ve got to be better in the fourth quarter. We had a 14, 15 point lead. I thought we played hard but we had a little bit of a let-up and they felt like they could get in there and get a run and they made a run and we end up in overtime. He was just kind of disappointed about that, but never apologize for a win. That’s what we needed to do and we got a big win. ” What was your reaction to the trade deadline and trading Vonleh? “Me and Noah, we had a real friendship so that’s the part of it that’s always tough. Having somebody that’s actually a friend of yours and having to accept the fact that you’re not going to see them everyday no more. Now it’s going to make the friendship harder. It’s hard in that way, and selfishly, I liked him being here. You wish it didn’t happen but also I’m happy for him. I know he’s going to get more of an opportunity in Chicago and that’s what he needs. He’s still young. He deserves a chance to show what he can do in this league.” Beyond that trade, do you feel good about the team moving forward? “Yeah, I think in the last few weeks we’ve played our best basketball up until this past road trip. Tonight we had a solid game going until the end. I still believe we’re going in the right direction as a group. I feel good about where we are.” JUSUF NURKIC “I think we played great for three quarters. I don’t know, maybe mental things in the fourth. But every win is a win and at the end of the day, we did a lot of great things tonight but we should not get in overtime. At least we won.” On seven turnovers tonight: “My decisions are supposed to be better. I know I’m a great passer, I just need to trust myself and what I’m going to do and it’s going to come. Not overnight, but I’m getting there where I want to be.” Besides turnovers, how do you feel you played? “My game’s not going to change. I’m trying to be consistent and to be normal games like this, and all I can do is work and trust my teammates like they do to me so I need to just trust back to them.” On back to back tomorrow at Sacramento: “I mean, big time for us. After that road trip, tough road trip, we just need those before the break. We want to win all of the games.”
HEAD COACH STEVE CLIFFORD On the game: “Great fourth quarter, much better offensive energy in the second half and Dwight’s (Howard) pick and roll defense was unbelievable on both of those guys, which set the tone for our defense. We played a really good fourth quarter and then we just struggled in overtime to make.” On why they struggled shooting in overtime: “I’ll have to watch the film and see. I think we had a couple shots that were maybe makeable, we had two fast break plays where we didn’t get any points out of it at all, so those are big opportunities that we didn’t cash in on.” On Kemba Walker: “He just wants to win so badly and he has courage and he makes big plays. I thought tonight he and Dwight were really good in the pick and roll and Frank (Kaminsky) also had some good pick and roll sequences with Kemba too.” On Frank Kaminsky: “I think he’s one of those guys that’s been a little fatigued the last couple weeks. Tonight he looked very energetic.”
MARVIN WILLIAMS On how he felt returning from injury: “Pretty good, it was nice to play a little bit. My conditioning felt pretty well, I felt like my timing was pretty good as well too so it’s good to be back.” On what happened in overtime: “I think we need to do a better job at executing our coverages. Defensively, we need to do a better job of getting to the right spots a lot sooner and we’ll be able to create some turnovers and get our scoring together instead of trying to get back into the game. We fought really hard in that fourth quarter and overtime, Portland just made a couple more plays.” On playing Utah tomorrow: “You’ve got to kind of put this one behind you, I guess sooner or later. Obviously Utah has been playing really, really well. I think Rudy [Gobert] is back for those guys so that’ll be a great edition for them so it’s always tough to play in Salt Lake, it’ll be another great challenge for us and we have to get ready for it.” KEMBA WALKER On the fourth quarter: “We just got stops, just pushed the basketball and just made plays. I got a bit hot, I was able to make some shots.” On overtime:“Like you said the shots just didn’t fall, theirs did. They made some tough ones but we just didn’t get baskets when we needed to.” On Jeremy Lamb’s fast-break play in overtime: “I didn’t get a chance to really see it, I was kind of behind the play so I don’t know.” On getting back into the game: “We just got stops and made plays. I mean that’s all I can really say, we just got stops, that was it. That was the key to us making that run.” On if he had inspiration after being named an All-Star earlier today: “No. No, I was just playing the way I play every night, honestly. All-Star or not.” On the refereeing: “No comment.” On how his teammates get him free:“They do a great job at screening for me, getting me open looks. Once they screen my man it’s all up to me to make the next play.” On if he’s excited for All-Star weekend: “I’m excited, yeah. I’m really excited.”
