BEYOND THE BOX SCORE HAWKS NOTES: Atlanta’s .929 free throw percentage tied a season-high … The team finished 13-of-14 from the charity stripe. Trae Young led the Hawks with 26 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists in 32 minutes … Young has scored 20-or-more points in eight consecutive contests, the longest such streak of his career. Trae Young passed Dominique Wilkins (1,434) and John Drew (1,442) for second on the Atlanta Hawks rookie points scored leaderboard (1,444) … Young also joined Oscar Robertson as the only two rookies in NBA history to have at least 1,400 points and 600 assists in their rookie campaign. John Collins scored 20 points and added three assists and two blocked shots in 35 minutes … Collins has scored at least 20 points in 29 contests this season. Kevin Huerter finished with 11 points and added four rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes … Huerter has finished with 10-or-more points 34 times this season. Vince Carter led all Hawks reserves with nine points (3-7 3FGs) in 16 minutes … Carter tonight tied Karl Malone for fifth on the NBA’s all-time games played list (1,476). In his first start of the season, Justin Anderson finished with six points, two rebounds, two assists, and two blocked shots in 24 minutes. Dewayne Dedmon scored seven points and added five rebounds and two blocked shots in 27 minutes … Dedmon eclipsed 70 rejections on the season (71) and 300 in his six-year career (301). TRAIL BLAZERS NOTES: The Trail Blazers outscored the Hawks 60-52 in the paint, 23-9 on second chances and 15-13 on fast breaks. Al-Farouq Aminu secured a double-double, scoring 17 points and collecting a game-high 11 rebounds in 30 minutes. Damian Lillard led all scorers with 36 points and added seven assists, three rebounds, and a blocked shot in 32 minutes. Zach Collins tied a season high with nine rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
HAWKS POSTGAME QUOTES HEAD COACH LLOYD PIERCE (Opening Statement) “Very flat game tonight. I didn’t think we played efficient basketball. I just thought we were stagnant. We were playing to how they wanted us to play, which is (that) they want a lot of one-on-one basketball and for you to take the first and second options because of how deep they play off the pick-and-rolls. It’s easy to fall victim to that. I think (that’s) the reason we only ended up with 20 assists- which, that’s not our team- 20 assists on 38 made baskets. We’re not going to win a lot of games when we play like that. We’ll always be able to score and get stats, but we’re tough to defend when we get a lot of ball movement and when we get a lot of ball reversals. That’s why we ended up with 38 three’s but those aren’t the threes we like to take. We like to move the defense, we like to get a lot of good to great, paint to great, extra-pass three’s, and we didn’t have a lot of that.” (On rebounds) “They are one of the best rebounding teams in the league. Their positional defense, they’ll let you come down and shoot the floaters. They try and keep themselves (in the paint). It’s hard to get downhill with this team. They want you to shoot pull-ups and floaters. They’ll stay disciplined. They’ll stay hugged up on the weak side. So any missed shot, and we didn’t shoot it well, we shot 40 percent - any missed shot they are in position to rebound. That’s tough for us. If we move them defensively and we get it to the paint, and we put pressure on them - they don’t really have a lot of rim protectors. If we put pressure at the rim, now we’ve got guys getting to the rim, and we’ve got John and Dewayne and all our bigs getting offensive rebound opportunities. But we didn’t have that tonight. We were spaced out. We settled for some of the shots. We didn’t get some of the ball movement and reversals that we like.” (On Trae Young in the second half) “It’s the ups and downs of the game. You make shots and then you don’t make shots, which is kind of how it goes. I don’t think he did anything differently. A lot of the floaters that he made in the first half, he didn’t make in the second half. That’s just part of it. As good as he was in the first quarter shooting and scoring, he got the same looks, they just didn’t fall down. That’s where we need ball reversal and we need some ball movement. We need to find other ways of attacking the rim. They didn’t foul much tonight, so we didn’t put enough pressure at the rim or at their bigs or any other guys in the paint. We just didn’t have the urgency or the aggression that we normally have. We didn’t have the ball reversal as a result of that.”
FORWARD JOHN COLLINS (On the offensive struggle) “I don't know if it was them defensively. More of it was us defensively. Dame got off to a quick start and it kind of ignited them all night." (On facing Milwaukee on Sunday) "We like playing better teams, (based) on our record against them. So hopefully we come out with the same energy. We know we can compete with any team in the league. It's all about the starts. Just try to get off to a nice start and try to continue that energy throughout the whole game."
GUARD TRAE YOUNG (On facing another playoff team) "We're just trying to play hard and build momentum going into next year. There's no pressure on us. We just want to go out and compete hard." (On the first quarter) "It's fun competing against one of the best point guards in our league. I looked up to Dame growing up and it's fun competing against him now and going at each other. That's all you want. You want that competitive spirit and you want to challenge yourself. Going up against Dame tonight was fun." (On ball movement) "Shots weren't falling. We hit nine three's tonight. We usually hit a little bit more. For me, I didn't shoot the ball well. I started off early, but my shots weren't going in after that first quarter. I have to do a better job of making plays, not just for myself but for my teammates too."
TRAIL BLAZERS POSTGAME QUOTES HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS (Opening statement) “From a defensive standpoint, Atlanta had been on a roll scoring 120 or so a game since the All-Star break, so to hold them under 100 speaks a lot for our defense. First quarter we probably didn’t defend as well as we needed to, but after that it was pretty good. Damian was terrific again, scoring and passing. I though Enes did a nice job in the lane, both offensively and defensively. So, against a team that has been playing pretty well lately, it was a good win.” (On their defensive effort tonight) “We blitzed some pick-and-rolls. I thought we showed some good activity. We rebounded the ball well; in the first half, I think they only had one or two offensive rebounds. Like I said, in the first quarter they had 30, after that it wasn’t anything specific other than being solid. Again, for a team that doesn’t blitz a lot, I thought it was okay.” (On limiting Trae Young after a big first quarter) “We don’t usually blitz pick-and-rolls, but tonight we made a concerted effort to show him a little bit more of a crowd in those situations.” (On preparing his team to play the Hawks) “They just beat Utah and Philadelphia, so I think that speaks enough. Our guys follow the league, they know what’s going on, they know what Atlanta has been doing since the All-Star break. But you don’t beat Utah and Philly without playing some good basketball.” (On Damian Lillard setting the tone) “Dame sets the tone all the time, not just early. He sets the tone with his leadership. At the beginning of most games, he reads the game, it’s not about his scoring. I think he picked his spots pretty well tonight. Obviously he and Trae were kind of going back-and-forth in the first quarter, but that is how the game presented itself. Whether it is scoring or passing.”
GUARD DAMIAN LILLARD (On limiting the Hawks offensively) “At the start of the game they were getting some things. I don’t think it was because of effort or not focusing, they just came out competing, playing hard, and making some good plays. We tightened it up in the third and again in the fourth and we were able to get another win.” (On playing against Trae Young) “I think his growth from the beginning of the season until now is the most impressive thing. For rookies coming in, the game is faster, guys are more athletic, and guys are longer. So you have to figure out how to get to your spots, how to manipulate the defense to make plays. Being a smaller guard, you have to figure out how to use your body and your quickness, be crafty, and I think he has grown in that area.” (On preparing for the playoffs) “I think we just need to focus on sustaining the style of play that we have right now. It’s not me having to have huge performances…nobody is having to go out there and go crazy because each guy is doing what they do best at a high level right now. Everybody is contributing, and giving us that production that we need from them right now.”
CENTER ENES KANTER (On running the pick-and-roll with Damian Lillard) “My thing is, from day one, is to go set a good pick for Dame. So that is my focus every game, it’s to go set a good pick. You know that he is going to score the ball and make everyone else better.” (On playing with Damian Lillard) “Like I said, Dame is one of the most special players in the league. He has the ability to make himself better and to make everyone else around him better. So whether it is making an open shot, or finding the open man out of a double team or triple team, he just has the ability to make the right reads.”
