POSTGAME QUOTES Portland Trail Blazers 100, Utah Jazz 81 February 23, 2018 Notes: Damian Lillard went 8-8 tonight on free throws and has now made 54 consecutive free throws which ties his previous record (March 8-24, 2016) and is three short of Damon Stoudamire’s franchise record of 57 (Jan 14- Feb 16 2005) … This was CJ McCollum’s 37th game of 20-plus points this season. … Tonight Portland ended a six consecutive Portland game streak of Rudy Gobert notching a double-double … Damian Lillard scored 24 points, his 39th game this season with 20-or-more points … Maurice Harkless tied his career high with 6 steals (prev. 3/15/13 vs OKC). Terry Stotts – Head Coach On the win “Arguably one of our better defensive games for the season, even know we gave up 30 in the first quarter I thought we really got off to a good defensive start. We were active and then the rest of the way we stayed with it, transition defense, three’s, offensive rebounds, all the keys that we talked about, we did a good job with”. On Maurice Harkless game “Mo [Maurice] Harkless had an outstanding game, I mean he set the tone at the beginning of the game, he was very active defensively, he did a good job on Mitchell [Donovan] until he cramped up, Mo was outstanding.’” On the second half and poor three pint shooting by the Jazz “They have been on such a tear with their three-point shooting through their win streak and that was one of our priorities was not letting them get their three’s. I thought we were very active on the weak side, but they did not get any threes on the weak side, so that was one of the top priorities defensively for us and I thought our guys were really locked in and I was really very pleased with the way we sustained our focus, our defensive focus, throughout the game” CJ McCollum – Guard – (26 Points, 3 Rebounds, 2 Assists) On closing out the game “Yeah, we knew it was a big possession, they had cut our lead a little bit under double-digits and I heard the fans getting into it, so I called a pick-and-roll to try and get some space. I got to that free throw line, it’s more of a sweet-spot for me, comfort shot, and then I rose up and hit it and we did the same thing over and over again.” On the play of Maurice Harkless “He was great. He was ferocious. He was in the passing lanes. He contested shots at the basket. He was explosive in transition, got a nice tip dunk. Besides him cramping up, he was huge all night.” On improved defense “Well after that first quarter we gave up 30 points, I think they shot 12-of-16, so felt like it was too easy for them. We wanted to get into them a little bit, challenge them, try not to let them turn the corner in those dribble handoff plays, especially Ingles, he likes to get to that left hand and he’s very good once he gets into the lane. So we wanted to make it as difficult as possible and then just attack them.” Damian Lillard – Guard (24 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists) On leading the entire game “I just thought we did a great job of keeping our focus, even when they started to make shots, they went on a run, the crowd got into it. I think what our mentality was, allowed us to kind of weather each storm. When they were taking shots, they were contested. We got our hands on balls. We limited the second and third opportunities, and we made them work. We were active. When the ball went to the weak side we were closing it out and making them put it on the floor. Contested shots at the rim. We were physical. I think because we were consistent from start of the game to the finish it took a toll on them. It took them out of rhythm. We also put pressure on them on the offensive end. We had a really solid game.” On the importance of Maurice Harkless tonight “He was a monster. From the start of the game, I knew he was going to dominate the game. Without even having to score or get a bunch of rebounds, it was his activity. He was everywhere. On one possession I saw him cutting a guy off, sprinting back to his man, ran his guy off the line, he gave it up, then he came from the weak side, blocked a shot, came up with the ball, sprinted down on offense, came back and got another deflection. It was like the start of the game, he was doing everything. I always tell him, you have the ability to change the game for our team like nobody else on this roster. Since he’s been kept in the rotation, he’s been doing that.” On setting the tone after All-Star weekend “That first game is really important. I think the first part of the season everyone is just trying to stack up the wins and be in a good position leading into the break. I thought we did that, along with a lot of other teams. The Jazz had 11 wins straight before the break, but we know that this second half of the season is when you have to get the job done. You can have a great first half of the season and it could fall apart in the second half. We knew coming in here how important this was, especially with how hot they are. We knew what it had to be and we came in here with that kind of mentality.”
POSTGAME QUOTES Portland Trail Blazers 100, Utah Jazz 81 February 23, 2018 NOTES: Rookie Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz in scoring with 21 points (8-of-20 FG) … Mitchell now leads all league rookies in games scoring 20 points or more with 29 games … Rudy Gobert swatted four shots, scored 15 points (6-of-9 FG) and grabbed nine rebounds … Jae Crowder scored 11 points (5-of-11 FG), his fourth straight game in double figures since joining the Jazz. Quin Snyder – Head Coach On where the game got away from the Jazz “We didn’t break down early defensively, but we didn’t play with enough force. I didn’t think they really felt us. They are efficient offensively. I thought they scored early, which I thought didn’t set a good tone for us. And then we were able to make some shots in the first quarter and keep it tight there, but really from that point over the course of the game, I think beginning of the second quarter, turning the ball over as much as we did makes it really difficult. Obviously we struggled on the offensive end, but really to me it starts there. Give Portland credit. I thought they battled defensively. I thought they got into us and played hard. Not that we didn’t respond, but we need to respond by being more precise and being a little tougher offensively. Being more forceful. Sometimes when you do that, you make shots. We just didn’t have that juice, especially on the offensive end and when you get behind against these guys, their ability to make shots and make plays, it’s difficult to catch up when CJ [McCollum] and Damian [Lillard] can just get to a spot and make a shot.” On if the break affected the team’s precision “I hate to say that, to be honest with you. We weren’t sharp. I felt that we were ready to play. It’s not like we had a week of practice, but we had a couple days and I felt that we were crisp then. I’ll have to look at it, but it just seemed there were a lot of plays where there were just little things that weren’t quite precise enough that lead to mistakes.” On the level of Ricky Rubio’s health “He wouldn’t have played if he was in harm’s way. Any time you are out for a couple weeks, I think you anticipate someone having to get their timing back, certainly their wind back. It’s good to have him back and he was on a minute restriction. I thought it took him a bit in the first quarter to kind of find it. I thought when he came back in the second half he played well.” Derrick Favors – Forward (4 points, 9 rebounds) On factors leading to the loss “I think it was a combination of things, but we’ve got a game tomorrow, so we’ve got to come back tomorrow ready to go, mentally focused, sharper and be ready to play.” On the second half “They started hitting shots and we started turning the ball over. We were taking a lot of contested shots, and the shots we normally make, we weren’t making. They were making plays on the other end. We’ve got to come back better tomorrow.” On whether the All-Star break factored into tonight’s defeat “You’re off for, like, a week, so you’re going to come back rusty, not practicing and not being around the team to sharpen things up. You’re going to come back kind of rusty, so that’s what happened tonight. Luckily we got that out of the way. We’ve got a game tomorrow, so we’ve got to come out better.” Rudy Gobert – Center (15 ponts, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks) On the Blazers “I just think they played more physical than we did. Obviously, we turned the ball over a lot, but they played good defense. I think maybe coming off the break we weren’t as sharp as we were before. Give them credit. They played a good game.” On Portland’s defense “I think they were being active and being physical, especially on our guards. We did a good job in the first half. We turned it over, but we moved the ball well. In the second half we didn’t move the ball as well, then we gave them a lot of fast break points.” On snapping the winning streak “It’s just a game. It’s the NBA. Everyone loses, everyone wins. We’ve got another game tomorrow, so maybe it’s not a bad thing. We forget about the streak and focus on every game.” Joe Ingles – Forward (12 points) On tonight’s loss “Yeah, we tried some different things but it didn’t really come together. They made a couple big runs and a couple big shots, we’d have a turnover. Wasn’t our night really.” On snapping the winning streak “It was going to happen eventually. We weren’t going to win out. Maybe it was going to be next week, maybe tomorrow, but it happens. We’ve dealt with 29 of them (losses), so we know how to deal with it. We’ll come back ready tomorrow.” Jonas Jerebko – Forward (8 points, 5 rebounds) On the Blazers and the loss “I think we can play harder than them too. We just didn’t take care of the ball. Shots weren’t falling. They made a few shots. The good thing is it’s the NBA and we’ve got another game tomorrow.” On snapping the winning streak “We wanted to win this one tonight, but we didn’t. Now we come out tomorrow, play hard and take care of that ball first and foremost and make it move again.”
