Postgame Notes - March 15, 2018 Portland 113, Cleveland 105 Game #68 • Home Game #35 TEAM • The Trail Blazers won their 11th game in a row, extending the longest active winning streak in the NBA. It matches Portland’s longest winning streak since Terry Stotts took over as head coach in the 2012-13 season (11, Nov. 8 - 25, 2013). • Portland’s 11-game winning streak matches the fourth-longest winning streak in a single season in franchise history (16, March 20 - April 19, 1991). • Portland won its eighth straight home game, improving to 17-1 in the last 18 games at Moda Center. • The Trail Blazers won their fifth consecutive home game against the Cavaliers • Portland outrebounded Cleveland, 50-34, and outscored the Cavaliers in the paint, 46-44. • The Trail Blazers had 13 offensive rebounds leading to 20 second chance points while the Cavaliers had two offensive rebounds leading to four second chance points. • Portland had 26 assists on 43 field goals (of 96) while Cleveland had 17 assists on 41 field goals (of 80). • The Trail Blazers committed seven turnovers, none of which came in the fourth quarter. • Portland’s reserves outscored their Cleveland counterparts, 25-22. PLAYER • CJ McCollum scored a team-high 29 points (12-24 FG, 3-10 3-PT, 2-2 FT) to go with one rebound and three assists. McCollum has scored 20-plus points in four of the last six games. • Damian Lillard finished with 24 points (7-20 FG, 1-8 3-PT, 9-9 FT), three rebounds and nine assists. He has scored 20-plus points in 13 straight games, the second-longest streak in his career (15, Feb. 4 - March 8, 2016). Lillard has made a three-pointer in 50 straight games. • Damian Lillard became the third player in NBA history to record 1,500-plus points and 400-plus assists in each of his first six seaons (James, Robertson). • Maurice Harkless scored 17 points (6-10 FG, 2-4 3-PT, 3-4 FT) to go with five rebounds, two assists and two steals. • Evan Turner recorded 11 points (5-10 FG, 1-3 3-PT), seven rebounds and five assists. It was the third straight game that Turner scored in double figures. • Al-Farouq Aminu had 11 points (4-8 FG, 3-6 3-PT), nine rebounds, three assists and one block. • Jusuf Nurkic recorded seven points, 10 rebounds and one block. It was the fourth time in the last five games that Nurkic finished with double digit rebounds. • Shabazz Napier scored all seven of his points (3-7 FG, 1-2 3-PT) in the fourth quarter. • Lebron James led the Cavaliers with 35 points (15-25 FG, 1-4 3-PT, 4-9 FT), 14 rebounds, six assists, two steals and three blocks. It was his fifth straight double double.
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Another good win for us. I really liked the way we played for most of the game. That little stretch in the fourth quarter was disappointing with some defensive lapses, but I thought we responded well the last couple minutes to pull away. I thought we did a good job on LeBron and he had 35 and 14. I thought Farouq and Evan and Moe made him work for tough shots, but he’s an outstanding player. He’s a handful in transition, we forced him to make tough shots and he did. Moe and Chief both had a very good game at both ends of the court. Moe’s energy, alertness on defense, deflections, they both made threes. So all around, it was a very good win for us.” Did you feel like you frustrated their defense? “I don’t know. They’re without their big guys, it’s kind of a unique – it’s different scoring against them. Early on, they were doubling and we were doing a good job of passing. We had a lot of assists tonight which was good to see. When they have a small lineup, they do a lot of switching. They doubled early so we had to make good reads. I don’t know about necessarily frustrating their defense but it was a challenge playing against it.” On Cavs getting within 5 late: “Well I was really disappointed. We gave up a backdoor to Korver, we gave up a layup on a baseline out of bounds, we gave up a three in transition. I just thought there was a little bit of a lack of focus on those possessions and that was frustrating because we were really locked in for most of the game. So that was the frustrating part of that little sequence.” And how you closed it out after that: “I thought we regained our composure, we got some stops and we locked back in. Offensively, it was kind of a struggle because, like I said, they were switching everything and it kind of devolves into one-on-one which I’m not a big fan of, but I thought Damian made some really good reads. I thought the fact that Chief came back and made that three after he’d just missed one – he did that in the previous game…To miss one and to come back and make one, I thought that was big time.” How would you describe McCollum: “The stretch he had in the second quarter, they had Zizic in and we were putting him in pick and rolls and that little 2 or 3 or 4 minute stretch gave us a nice little burst. He moved well without the ball. He didn’t necessarily shoot the ball that well from the three but he found ways to score. That stretch was important.” What does it do for your offense when your forwards shoot that well from three? “Today’s NBA, if you can space the court with your perimeter guys and open it up for Dame and CJ and Nurk rolling down to the basket, you create problems. I thought the threes that Moe and Chief had were really good looks. When they have time to knock it down, they’re good shooters. They’ve shown that all year.” Do you like momentum from 11 game win streak? “I don’t know about momentum but I think we’re playing well. Each game is a challenge. But obviously, to string together the wins that we have been, we’ve been doing good things at both ends of the floor and I think tonight was an example of that as well.”
DAMIAN LILLARD What did you like best tonight? “I thought we just played a solid game. It was another one of those games where you know a team is going to make a run. It came at a time where we would have liked it not to come. We couldn’t really close, but we can’t complain how you get it. We got another one.” What did you like about responding the way you did after they cut the lead? “We’ve had some teams make pushes but we’ve always kept it at 8, 9, so it wasn’t really dangerous. Tonight, they cut it to three. They did that with momentum and with LeBron James on the floor so it’s a dangerous situation for us but we got some bounces. We hit a few shots, made free throws down the stretch and when we needed to get one or two stops, we got them.” How big was the Aminu three late? “It was huge. A couple days ago at practice somebody asked me about Chief shooting the ball and I said it’s big that he keeps shooting them. He had a big one last game in the corner and tonight he missed one and he took the next shot. I got in the paint, they kind of came in, he had an open look and he knocked down another big one. Those are the ones that count.” What about this team’s ability to close after it had been an issue previously? “I think we’ve gotten better with experience. In the past, it might have been myself or CJ feeling like we had to do things, take a shot here, instead of just making the next play and trusting the next guy. I think now that teams have seen us do that, sometimes we’re coming open and getting looks. CJ is getting looks late in games, I’m getting looks. Chief is knocking down those types of shots, we’ve got guys getting us extra possessions, flying around so I think down the stretch, it’s much more of a collective effort rather than us having to have a big time performance all the time down the stretch.”
HEAD COACH TYRONN LUE On rebounding: “Yeah, I thought it was blitzing and then having to scramble back to the basket, but I thought we did some good things defensively with our blitzes. (them) Having 13 offensive rebounds kind of hurt us because our initial defense was pretty good. Playing Jeff (Green) at the five and LeBron (James) at the five, it was possible that that was going to happen. I liked our scrap tonight, I thought we competed and we just missed a couple plays down the stretch.” On why Ante Zizic didn’t play more tonight: “Well tonight we tried to have him up in the blitz and CJ (McCollum) spun a few times and dribbled around him and then also, Dame (Damian Lillard) did the same thing, so we just thought that to open up the floor, get more shooting on the floor would help us out. It did, but we just couldn’t get stops when we needed down the stretch.” On George Hill: “Just got to be more aggressive. Same thing we’ve been telling him, I’m not a coach that’s going to take you out for making mistakes or missing shots, so we need him to be more aggressive. I think LeBron having to make a lot of plays, he got tired down the stretch. We just need our guys to be aggressive, play their game and we’ll adjust to them.” On his level of concerned: “I’m not concerned, just play. I know it’s tough coming to a new team and the expectations of our team, but the only way we can be successful and win is we need our guys to be aggressive. That takes a lot of pressure off of LeBron and with Kevin (Love) coming back that’ll help a lot too.” On how he gauges a good performance with so many injuries: “I think it’s just the way we play for the most part. Of course you want to win every game, but I think the way we play, blitzing the basketball, scrapping, competing. This is a tough team that had won ten in a row, so you can take some good thing away from this game. We just need to continue to keep building. We’ve got a lot of injuries, a lot of guys down, so we’ve just got to have that next man up mentality.”
LeBRON JAMES On what can be taken away from this game: “I just loved the approach from the beginning to the end. Obviously, we’re shorthanded and they took advantage of our size, we gave up 20 second chance points, offensive rebounds. We played good defense for 24 seconds but with a team like this that has been playing so well, you can’t give them second chance points and second opportunities that make you pay and they did.” On what went through his mind when he dunked on Jusuf Nurkic in the first quarter: “Nothing, just attack. That’s how I’ve been my whole career, pretty much. Just see who you can meet at the apex so that’s my whole mindset.” On if he was surprised at himself by the dunk: “No, I knew it was going to be a good one, it’s going to be shown for a long time. I was more excited to look over and see my teammates and how excited they were. So, it’ll go on and that one will last forever in my highlights for my career and even when I’m done.” On being shorthanded for the game: “Well I think for the most part we sustained the effort tonight. I mean they did get up double digits on us in the third quarter when they made a run, but we sustained our energy, we sustained our effort and we left everything out on the floor so even being shorthanded we still wanted to play the Cavalier basketball that we’re accustomed to playing and I think we did that.” On playing without Kevin Love: “It is what it is, I think at the end of the day my approach is obviously the same; it’s continue to attack the tight defenses and if I can attract two to the ball then give my guys opportunities, rebound the ball, defend. There’s a lot of energy that’s used with that but that’s fine as well. It’s been a long time since I haven’t played with another All-Star on my team so having Kev out, it’s been very challenging, obviously, for all of us. Kev is a big usage rate on our team, get the ball to him, when things get chaotic we can throw to him in the low-post and get some things going. But it’s not just Kevin, we’re missing double T [Tristan Thompson] as well, Rodney [Hood] went back out again. Obviously, you want to win every game, but my position doesn’t change.” On fans wanting him to play here in Portland: “It’s always exciting for me to come to Portland. It’s my first real connection to Nike from day one and it’s the home of Nike in Beaverton but it’s in Portland right here so I’ve always had a good time playing in front of so many business partners and associates and now family that I’ve grown over my 15 years with Nike. I respect the fans, they gave me a very warm welcome here in Rip City.”
