HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS What do you see going on with the offense? “Well the first quarter was really nice and the second quarter was really bad. We’ll watch the video. Give a lot of credit to Toronto. They were very aggressive on our pick and rolls, they were aggressive on the weak side, they got their hands on a lot of balls, when we did get the ball in the paint, they went after it hard. Nogueira was a factor at the rim. It’s hard to say. The first quarter, the offensive game was pretty easy for us. We’ll watch the video and see what’s there. I’d say it sputtered a little bit in the second quarter.” Are there any consistent issues carrying over between games on the offensive end? “No. I don’t think there’s any consistent carry over. Up to this point, obviously we hadn’t finished very well around the basket. We’ve had some games with turnovers, tonight it wasn’t turnovers. You lose two close games to Milwaukee and the Clippers and that kind of changes the viewpoint to a degree. The difference between winning and losing kind of changes the perception of things. I can’t say that there’s a consistent theme as to our struggles. And like I said, it was the second quarter. The first, third and fourth, it was offense against a good defensive team but we found ways to score. I thought Toronto was very aggressive.” Do you like most of the looks you’re getting? “I thought tonight probably not so much. I think in previous games yeah. Tonight, when we put the ball on the floor, they were aggressive on the dribbler. We didn’t find the roll guy as much as we probably should have because they were so aggressive on the pick and rolls. As far as the shots, I think shot selection is a tough thing to coach because you’ve got great players who can make great shots. We’ve had some guys like Chief has been shooting the ball great and he missed his threes tonight. That’s part of the vagaries of basketball sometimes.” What’s it like watching team miss 20 straight shots? “Brutal. I mean, it’s tough. I felt bad for them because they’re out there struggling. I don’t fault out effort, which as a coach, if they were just kind of going through the motions, that would be something else but they were trying and we couldn’t get anything done. It’s very frustrating and on top of that I thought we competed defensively and DeRozan was terrific in the first half as far as creating his own shot. We gave it good effort with some double teams in the second quarter and they took advantage of that every time. It is frustrating. It’s frustrating for everybody – fans, coaches, players.”
DAMIAN LILLARD “I think we really hurt ourselves in that second quarter. We had 29 point first quarter, it was 29-29 at the end of one and you score 6 points in the second quarter, you’re not giving yourself much of a chance. They built the lead in that second quarter and we pretty much played them even in the second half. I thought we were more aggressive. We had a presence in a second half. That second quarter really hurt us and we wasn’t able to dig out of the hole.” What’s it like when that happens? “I mean it’s tough because you go from trying to execute to you’re not putting the ball in the hole and you start trying to make things happen. When neither one of those is working out, and it wasn’t like they were just unstoppable, they were scoring and we weren’t. It’s frustrating on the offensive end because we defend well. We’ve been doing a good job of being consistent, and then you don’t score points on offense. I think that’s frustrating, but it always comes back around so we’ve just got to keep fighting, keep working and keep having faith in what we’re doing on the defensive end, keep believing and know that the offense is going to come back in our favor.
EVAN TURNER Describing second quarter offensive struggles: “It’s tough. Tough is an understatement. Shots weren’t falling. It seemed like they were getting what they wanted. A couple in and outs. It’s tough. I think halfway through we only had four free throws. Definitely tough. We just have got to get that end of the floor together, keep shooting with confidence and wait for the tide to turn.” On mood in the locker room after game: “It’s tough. Not like down or anything, it’s only seven games, but right now, we’re not frustrated or anything like that but it’s close to it I guess because what we like to do ain’t happening. But the good part is the defense has been there, doing decently well. Once our shots start clicking and everything, we’ll get on a roll.”
HEAD COACH DWANE CASEY This morning you kind of smiled when everyone said your focus was on offense, but tonight your defense was really locked in: Well, everybody’s talking about offensive change and again it’s a two way street. We haven’t just totally changed our offensive. We’ve tweaked it. We have an emphasis on certain things, but you can’t throw an offensive out that was going number two in the league most of the year last year or number one… whatever it was. We’ve done some things, we’re emphasizing some type of shots we want to take, but the major emphasis is still on defense. We still have to guard people. I thought Lucas came and did a good job protecting the rim, discouraging drives. I thought our guards did a good job of making it hard… I mean, you’re not going to stop a great player like Lillard and McCollum, but our whole emphasis was to make them work for every inch of the court. What do you think sparked the rebounding? Well, again, fear is a mysterious thing. We talked about it so much today, and showed them clips of how they physically just beat us up in exhibition, pushed us around, knocked us, come from the outside, pushed us to the basket. It’s one of two things – either you fight, or you run. I thought our guys really dug in tonight and did a much better job of rebounding the ball. Defensive awareness seemed to be there too. There were so many deflections: Well, deflections too. I forgot how many we had at half time, but that’s a pretty good indicator of the energy, effort and focus you have by the number of deflections. We had active hands, that like you said the nail presence was there, the low presence was there by bigs. Again, I thought Lucas did an extra special job of loading at the nail, making sure he had a presence when those guys came off pick and rolls and DHOs and definitely was busy at the rim. People forgot how active he is around the rim. It’s strange, because here’s a guy you pluck from the end of the bench and then had great chemistry: Well, the thing about it is.. First of all, everyone is available. There’s no dog house. If guys earn their minutes they’re going to play. If guys are healthy, and earn their minutes and in the rotation they’re going to get their minutes to do their job. Again, he stepped in, did his job, and what he was supposed to do. I was really proud the way the second unit came in, scored six points, and the only basket they had was with five seconds to go in the second quarter. That was a heck of an effort starting with the second unit and ended up with our starter.
CJ MILES On their second unit: “Just paying attention to the game plan. We know how dangerous those guys are playing behind the three point line, it’s a lot of flairs, a lot of different screens, they slip and stuff like that. We talked and switched out some things and OG [Anunoby] was amazing, also he was in the guts and got a lot of deflections but I mean it’s just about continuing to grow communication wise. As long as we’re talking, we play harder and as long as we know what’s going on, we’ll be able to make up for anything we do.”
KYLE LOWRY On the second unit during the second quarter: “Man they did a great job at cutting off everything. It was such an ugly slug fest in the second quarter, offensively but our defense really improved in the second quarter. They did a great job, Freddy [Fred VanVleet], Delon [Wright], CJ [Miles], Jakob [Poeltl], OG [Anunoby] they did a good job switching, talking and rebounding also.” On the spark the second unit gave them: “If there’s one I’ve told them, run the game, run up the lead. I said ‘this is your job, we’ve got to do it. Get a lead, take a lead back or keep the lead’ and that’s what they’ve done every single night and you have to appreciate the work they’ve put in so far.” On Lucas Nogueira’s performance: “Well Lucas’ head and brain is unbelievable. He’s engaged and he’s into it and we know what he can do, he just has to do it consistently. That’s the biggest thing I say to him every single night, get out there and be a shot blocker and be dominate on the defensive end.”
TEAM • The Trail Blazers have tied or outscored their opponents in the fourth quarter in all seven games they have played this season. • Portland’s 15 personal fouls were the fewest they have committed all season. • The Trail Blazers (15-19, 78.9% FT) shot a higher percentage from the free-throw line than the Raptors (13-17, 76.5%). Portland has been more accurate from the free-throw line than its opponent in every game this season.
PLAYER • Damian Lillard recorded the 76th 30-point game of his career (36 points, 12-23 FG, 3-8 3-PT, 9-10 FT). Lillard has the second most 30-point games in Trail Blazers history (Drexler - 130). Lillard’s 36 points represent a season-high in scoring. • CJ McCollum joined Lillard in double figures, finishing with 16 points (5-16 FG, 3-5 3-PT, 3-3 FT). • Ed Davis led the Portland bench in scoring, finishing with seven points to go along with eight rebounds. • Pat Connaughton (six points, 2-6 FG, 2-5 3-PT) has made a three-pointer in nine consecutive games dating back to last season. It is the longest such streak of his career. • Evan Turner finished with four points, five rebounds, three assists and three blocks. The three blocks represent Turner’s season high. • DeMar DeRozan led the Raptors with 25 points (10-20 FG, 5-7 FT), three rebounds and four assists. • Kyle Lowry scored a season-high 19 points (6-14 FG, 3-6 3-PT, 4-4 FT) to go along with 10 rebounds and six assists. It was Lowry’s second consecutive game with 10 rebounds. Lowry’s seventh point moved him into fifth place all-time on Toronto’s franchise scoring list (6,511 points). • Lucas Nogueira scored a season-high 17 points (7-8 FG) to go along with nine rebounds.
I'll start by saying I didn't watch the game but I know Lucas Nogueira, he always gives us trouble, one of the best rim protectors in the league. What we need to do in this situation is to attack him one-on-one, with Nurkic or with Caleb mostly, someone who can get the ball in the paint and make him focus on man to man defense
Dude was a beast. Seemed like he was feasting on the boards all night and it was alley oop after alley oop for the guy. Nurkic and Davis and Aminu didn't really put foward a great effort to stop him.
Terry is too damned non chalant. The way a team gets better and wins games is to call out your team when they play games like that. He goes to easy on the guys. Coaching isn't about being nice, ask Popovitch...get the whole team in there watch the tape and chew some ass. Point out the lack of teamwork. Lack of energy. Lack of caring. It was good to see the Blazers put forth sone effort in the 4th, but there are four quarters. You can't play like that. You cant take quarters off. Especially at home. They are allowing teams to play them like they are in toronto or LA...the Rose Garden is iur house.
Calling your team out in practice is way different (and better) than being Phil Jackson and calling them out in the media.
