Lakers Head Coach Luke Walton (On what stands out about tonight) “Well we had our chances. We had some shots. We had a lead late in the fourth [quarter]. Damian Lillard was pretty impressive down the stretch there. We tried to get a blitz on him, but a lot of times he was just attacking before the screen even got there. But our execution down the stretch on offense and defense, that was the frustrating part … we were kind of dying on screens. We weren’t up as high. We had done a good job in the second half, of kind of playing a tough, physical game we wanted, and then for whatever reason we got away from that down the stretch when Damian got hot.” (On the team’s execution) “We had some good execution. It was up-and-down today. It wasn’t consistent, the effort was consistent, but the execution was not—but our guys played hard. We gave ourselves a chance to win but we didn’t do a good enough job down the stretch to get it done against a good vet team like that.” (On how to defend Damian Lillard) “Well your options are blitz him like I said … one of the threes he hit we had the chance to blitz, which was what we were trying to do. The other ones he just raised up and hit shots on people, but what we’re trying to do is not let him shoot threes— make him play within that three-point side, that three-point line. That’s easy to say, it’s a lot harder when he’s going full speed and step back or hesitation pull up. We’ll continue to work on that and get disciplined … when someone gets that good we can’t let him raise up into his rhythm and get into jump shots, and then when he does miss we have to do a better job of grabbing the defensive rebounds.” (On the last play) “We have a couple late game plays to get threes up and they switched it all out. They did a good job switching. There’s a lot of actions on that, there’s multiple options: KCP [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] over the top, Isaiah [Thomas] over the top, Kuz [Kyle Kuzma] coming up the middle—and they did a really nice job of staying on the high side of all that and communicating their switches out. We had no timeouts left so we just had to get the ball in bounds.”
Lakers F Julius Randle (On Damian Lillard’s play) “Those tough shots were shots he makes all the time, especially in the clutch, so you have to give hats off to him. But we knew we have to force him on the drives, get the ball out of his hands, and make him kick it. For the most part, I don’t think we did that, but we can be better, [and] we will.” (On if it is harder to lose when they expect to win) “I would say so. We expect to win those games. I think we were up [eleven] with four and a half left. At home, we expect to win those games. It’s kind of opposite of what happened last game.” (On the final seconds of the game) “[It was] annoying. I feel like when we were at home and played them last game we lost the same way. They had a lot of offensive rebounds [and] they won the game last game…It’s annoying and frustrating, especially when you kind of lose the same way a little bit. But for the most part we played hard. Both teams played hard. They had a guy who came in in the fourth quarter and just played amazing, so it’s tough.”
Lakers G Isaiah Thomas (On Damian Lillard’s three-point shooting stretch) “He just got a little too open on each one of them. Once a player like that gets one or two going, it’s hard to contain them. He’s known for that, so as players we have to do a better job of acknowledging where the fire is and try to stop it. Offensively, we just couldn’t knock anything down on top of not getting stops and letting Lillard get off in the fourth.” (On the loss) “We just have to execute better, plain and simple. At the end of the day we have to execute, we have to move the ball side-to-side, we have to have somebody get the ball in the paint, and make something happen. This was a tough one for us, just because we felt like we had the game, and we let it go towards the end.” (On playing without key starters due to injury) “Next man up mentality – we just have to play. This was a tough one because we had the win. We felt like we played a pretty solid game to secure the win, we just didn’t execute and didn’t get stops down the stretch. Once tomorrow comes, you have to have a short memory, whether good or bad, and we have to move on and get ready for the next opponent.”
Lakers G Lonzo Ball (On the loss) “We just have to close that one out. We were up by [11 points] with five minutes left. They took the game from us, so just live and learn. [It’s] not the end of the world.’ (On defense) “We were playing hard. It came down to the last minute, Dame [Damian Lillard] just made big time plays.” (On confidence in winning) “Like I said, we just let this one get away. It’s the third time they took the game from us, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.” (On playing without injured players) “Guys have to step up. BI [Brandon Ingram] and Josh [Hart] are both two big parts of this team. We miss them, but we can’t harp on it. We know they’re out, so we have to step up.”
Trail Blazers Head Coach Terry Stotts (On what led to a Portland win) “Damian Lillard is special. If it’s not obvious, I’ll say it … Lakers played really well and we struggled, during parts of the game, to finish in the paint. But Damian, reminiscent of Phoenix where he just … he has the ability to take over a game and make big plays, and he got us back in the position to win the game and then we had some good plays down the stretch. The extra possessions on the last—our last offensive possession— were obviously kind of key for us.” (On his thoughts during the final minutes of the game) “Just one possession at a time. We were down 15 [points] at Phoenix, you just have to … in the fourth quarter you just have to chip away, and when you have guys like Damian and CJ [McCollum], who make shots, you know you got a chance.” (On if Damian Lillard is a psychological weapon) “I don’t know if it’s a psychological weapon for me. I’ve said this many times, Damian is one of those guys who can will things to happen. He can will a win, that’s what great players do … their will is as strong as their talent.” (On how critical it was to win in a highly-contested Western Conference) “Every game is critical. Three through 10 right now is a dog fight. The difference between three and 10 is the same as the East eight and nine. I mean it’s … every team knows it and every team is going to be scrapping the rest of the way.” (On the challenge of fouls) “They corrected the foul on Farouq [Al-Farouq Aminu], but [Julius] Randle gave us a bunch of trouble. He caused … he got to the paint, drew fouls, I thought Farouq did a really nice job on him in the fourth quarter because he had his way with us. Ed [Davis] kind of had the assignment in the fourth quarter, but it was foul trouble, and then they played small so there were some challenging lineups.”
Trail Blazers G Damian Lillard (On when he knew he was getting hot) “I just looked at the clock and it was under seven minutes. I think it was a 10 point lead and they had momentum, so I figured we just had to kind of just get really aggressive, start attacking and try to make a run for it. If you don’t try to make a run for it at that point, they could come down and hit a three or whatever could happen and the game could get away from you. So I figured, let’s go now and live with whatever happens. I was able to get it going.” (On how critical winning is at this point of the season) It is huge. Especially when we are going to come across these teams that are right on our heels and are teams that are right there in the mix with us. When you have a team that is playing really well, like the Lakers have been, trying to fight their way into the hunt for those last spots, you have to be able to win those games. To be able to get it done was huge for u Every game counts.” (On being down double digits with only a couple minutes left in the game) “I always keep track in my mind with the time that is on the clock how many possessions for each team does that equal. That is why I say when I looked up and it was under seven minutes it was like alright it isn’t going to be that many more possessions until if we don’t get stops or we don’t start scoring points we won’t have a chance. But I also know that they play at a fast pace. They are a young team so I was like maybe they will just try to keep playing how they are playing and keep playing at that pace and getting shots whenever they come open and trying to get downhill and they kind of did that. I think that allowed us to get our hands on a few balls, get out in transition and cut that lead a little faster than if maybe they would have slowed it down.” (On his feeling when he hits four 3s in a row) “It’s probably going to be a while before I miss. That is what I am thinking. Usually when I get on a roll, I feel like every shot is going in. There have been times when it came down to a big shot where I had been missing but I think that just know that I have taken these shots so many times, not just in games but in workouts and preparing myself, like he said, I expect things from myself. Regardless how the game is going I am always going to feel like when the times comes, I can make it happen.”
Trail Blazers G Shabazz Napier (On playing alongside Damian Lillard when he is having a good game) “Honestly it is just a different experience. You feel like the hoop is an ocean and you just keep letting it fly. What he did today, he definitely though the hoop was an ocean. He threw the rock in the ocean and it looked good every time he shot it.” (On his defense in the last possession) “I knew he had to shoot a three so I kind of timed the way he was going to pull up and was able to put my hand right where the ball was at and was able to get a deflection.” (On if having someone like Damian Lillard gives the team a psychological advantage) “It can be but we don’t want that. It is insurance. That is basically what we have, insurance. With him [Damian Lillard] and CJ [McCollum] being able to do that but nothing against the Lakers, if we play the Warriors, we are going to lose that game if we are down by ten. We have to do a better job of playing better offense and better defense and impacting the game through four quarters.”
We play good defense!!!! “We have a couple late game plays to get threes up and they switched it all out. They did a good job switching. There’s a lot of actions on that, there’s multiple options: KCP [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] over the top, Isaiah [Thomas] over the top, Kuz [Kyle Kuzma] coming up the middle—and they did a really nice job of staying on the high side of all that and communicating their switches out. We had no timeouts left so we just had to get the ball in bounds.”
Dame is smart: “I always keep track in my mind with the time that is on the clock how many possessions for each team does that equal."
