Postgame Notes - March 17, 2018 Portland 100, Detroit 87 Game #69 • Home Game #36 TEAM • The Trail Blazers won their 12th game in a row, extending the longest active winning streak in the NBA. It is Portland’s longest winning streak since winning 13 straight from Dec. 3 - 30, 2007. • Portland’s 12-game winning streak matches the third-longest winning streak in a single season in franchise history (16, March 20 - April 19, 1991). • Portland won its ninth straight home game, matching the longest winning streak at Moda Center this season. The Trail Blazers are 18-1 in their last 19 home games. • Portland head coach Terry Stotts tied Nate McMillan for the third-most coaching wins in team history (266). • The Trail Blazers outscored the Pistons in the paint, 46-32, and won the rebounding battle, 49-43. • Portland had 15 second chance points off of nine offensive rebounds while Detroit had eight second chance points off of eight offensive rebounds. • The Trail Blazers finished with eight blocks and eight steals while the Pistons had two blocks and six steals. PLAYER • Damian Lillard led Portland with 24 points (6-19 FG, 3-10 3-PT, 9-9 FT) to go with seven rebounds, eight assists and a career-high three blocks. Lillard has scored at least 20 points in 14 consecutive games. • Damian Lillard has made 3,502 field goals in his career, tying him with Sidney Wicks for the 10th most in franchise history. • CJ McCollum had 16 points (8-16 FG, 0-4 3-PT), six rebounds, four assists and two blocks. • Maurice Harkless reached double figures for the second straight game and the 10th time this season, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting (2-3 3-PT). • Al-Farouq Aminu had 10 points and 12 rebounds to record his sixth double-double of the season. • Jusuf Nurkic finished with 13 points (6-12 FG, 1-2 FT), eight rebounds and three assists. • Ed Davis recorded nine points (3-3 FG, 3-4 FT) and six rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench. • Andre Drummond led Detroit with 18 points (6-9 FG, 6-8 FT), 22 rebounds and two blocks. It was his 14th game this season with 20-plus rebounds.
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “I thought we played a very solid game for most of the night. It was a little disappointing when we had a couple 15-point leads that we couldn’t have built on it, but we did the things that you have to do to win a game. We had good performances. I thought our defense was solid all night other than them getting some open threes from time to time, but I thought our defense was pretty solid throughout.” Aminu was good defensively; what makes him a good defender? “He had very good defensive instincts, he has length, he takes pride in it, he knows angles and he contests shots. Especially when he guards low posts – I’ve said this many times, he always draws the tough assignments whether its LaMarcus or Anthony Davis or Towns, I mean he’s probably stronger than he looks.” On three point shooting (8 for 31) and still getting the win: “The three point line tonight I thought was going to be a big factor in tonight’s game. They went 15 for 30 last time we played them and we didn’t shoot the three well. I really thought the three point differential was going to be an important part of tonight’s game. I thought we moved the ball really well, particularly in the first half, first quarter. We took care of it for the most part, especially in the first half. I thought we had a lot of good looks and for me, that’s the important thing, if we’re getting good threes. The guys that didn’t make them – Zach goes 1 for 4 and he missed some good looks, ‘Bazz missed two good looks, CJ going 0 for 4. Again, my thing is as long as they’re good threes. I think it’s a credit to our defense, again, that I thought our offense was okay but I thought our defense put us in position to win the game.” Do you feel any added pressure from a win streak like this? “Not in our situation because of the standings and how close the race is. If this were in November, December and it was just the streak, a streak was a streak, maybe. But I think the emphasis on winning games and maintaining our position in the standings is paramount, so I don’t think it takes on that big of a deal right now. Just got to win the games.”
DAMIAN LILLARD What defined this win? “Discipline. We defended. We were steady. I thought we did a good job, we were on top of the things that they really hurt us with last time. We came out on high alert, we were on edge. We addressed everything that they hurt us with. Defensively, we were physical, helped each other out, communicated. We probably had more turnovers than we would have liked in bunches in some spots, but offensively we moved the ball really well again, trusted each other, made the right plays and it allowed us to play another solid game and get another win.” On Aminu’s defense, particularly vs Griffin: “He did a great job. We approached it similar to how we did with LeBron where we didn’t want to show him too much attention and send people to him so he could pick us apart. We basically told guys like Chief and sometimes it was E.T. and sometimes it was Moe, Ed as well, you’re on an island. We’re going to stunt and we’re going to show bodies but they’ve got some guys that can make shots so you’ve got to show some resistance and just play defense. I thought they did a great job of that.” On tomorrow’s matchup vs. Clippers being more about you than them: “I think during this entire run, a lot of things we’ve done have been about us. Us communicating, being on a string defensively, locking into the scouting report, knowing what hurt us the last time we played these teams and doing a better job of it, and also trusting each other on offense and making teams have to work to stop us instead of being easy to guard. Those are things that we control. When we do those things well, we’ve been on the winning end a lot, so if we do those things again tomorrow, which I think we will, we should be able to get another win.”
HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY On what Portland did that made it hard to score: “Well they held and grabbed on every play and they got away with fouls all over the place, we got absolutely screwed all night. Luke [Kennard] makes a back cut to the basket on the out of bounds play, gets knocked down and they ended up with two points at the other end. Blake [Griffin] has two straight drives in the fourth that he gets hammered on. Look, it’s not a clean strip when you slap down and the ball goes up in the air. Try it sometime. Somebody hold the ball, hit the guy on the ball, knock it down and see if it goes up in the air, he gets screwed twice. In the first half the very first bucket he makes, Al-Farouq Aminu, two forearms no call. [Reggie] Bullock gets fouled on a three, no call but when you hit Damian Lillard on three it is a foul. A big part of their defense they play very hard, I don’t mean to take anything away from them but when you can get away with playing like that and get screwed that badly by the officials, you defense is going to be pretty good.” On if he got an explanation for the no-call on the Kennard play: “Yeah “If I saw it, I would’ve called it.” Well you know what, your damn job is to see it. You know? Referees, I love that, that’s like an excuse “well I didn’t see it.” Why the hell do we have you out there? He’s the guy cutting, that’s where the ball was being passed. Like it’s not happening on the weakside of the floor. That’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing for them and embarrassing for the league they’re not going to make that call. I’ve been here for four years, many more years before that I’ve never come in after a game, never. I might have talked about one call, but I’ve never come in after a game and talked like this, that was embarrassing. We got absolutely screwed tonight.” On trying to get the deficit to single digits: “Man, our guys were fighting hard and playing hard. Alright? I’ve gotten on them at times, they played really hard tonight and fought really hard, okay? And they played hard too, Portland did but it’s a lot easier to play hard when you can get away with everything they got away with.” On their defense: “We played great defensively in the second half. We really, really played hard defensively in the second half.”
ANTHONY TOLLIVER On the game: “We have to do better at not letting it get to that point as far as getting frustrated to the point of getting technicals but it’s a part of the game, man. It’s a part of what makes great players great sometimes is that the amount of effort and amount of fight you put into it, so you don’t get mad at whenever you don’t feel like you’re getting fair calls. It’s tough because you never want to blame it on anybody else but there’s definitely some stuff that happened that didn’t go our way, kind of throughout the night.” On the backcourt of Lillard and McCollum: “They definitely put a lot of pressure on your defense. If you’re not up every single pick and roll they make you pay. Then when you’re up on pick and rolls they have their bigs who are skilled and who can make plays to the basket, they put you in a pickle. When you have that much talent in that backcourt you’re in constant rotation and you’re in constant scramble mode. They did a good job of moving the ball into bodies and they were obviously able to make enough shots to get it done.” On if they took anything away from their game in Denver and used it tonight: “There’s always things you can take out of every game. I feel like obviously in the Denver game, after that first quarter or so it felt like we really picked it up. We had something to at least be positive about going into the next game and tonight we didn’t shoot it very well as a team but we’re flying around and it’s encouraging to see some good things. Obviously it didn’t result in a win, it kind of sucks but whenever you struggle you just try and look for positive things if possible. There’s definitely some positive things that came out of this game as well.”
