HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “I liked the way we stayed engaged defensively throughout. The fourth quarter, we really struggled to score the ball. We got a lot of good looks but they didn’t drop. I thought we stayed locked in defensively with what we needed to do until the shots came around. Our ball movement was very good. I thought we attacked pick and rolls offensively well with passing decisions. Defensively, I don’t think we can take credit for them missing all of those threes but I thought we had a little something to do with it. We were kind of locked into tendencies and pick and roll coverage and not helping too much off three point shooters and limiting transition, so a lot of the keys that we were looking for pregame, I thought we stayed pretty attentive to those.” On Harkless guarding Harden: “I thought it was good. His length was good. He didn’t get in foul trouble, didn’t bail him out with fouls or draw any fouls, good pursuit of the ball. Got a couple blocks, I don’t know if it was on Harden necessarily, but I thought he was very conscientious about guarding him every possession.” On Crabbe’s game: “Well he was on a roll in the first half. I mean the last corner three was a terrific shot. Coming up with a big steal at the end was big. Again, when you have a win like this you can point to a lot of the guys but I thought AC’s offense certainly in the first half really kind of kicked us in gear.”
MAURICE HARKLESS What did you like about the win? “The way after they kind of kind of got back into the game late in the fourth, we held our composure and just took over the game from that point on.” What did you think key was defending Harden? “Just making it tough for him, trying to not let him get to the free throw line as much and I think we did a good job tonight. It was a collective effort. I guarded him, AC guarded him, ET guarded him and I think we did a pretty good job together.” How would you describe feeling now? “We’re feeling good. We’re rolling. We’ve been playing some really good basketball. We’ve just got to continue to work, continue to keep it up and hopefully it’s momentum and we go into the playoffs with it.”
DAMIAN LILLARD What word describes how you’re playing? “Urgency, I think we’re playing with a great sense of urgency. It feels like we’re playing like the team that we expected ourselves to be from the beginning of the season. It’s frustrating because we wish we could have been playing this brand of basketball months ago and we wouldn’t even be in the position that we’re in, but I feel like it couldn’t have come at a greater time. So right now, we’ve just got to continue to focus on having that same mentality and approaching each game with the same level of urgency and playing complete games. I think we’re playing really complete games right now.” On physicality in the fourth quarter: “I mean, with us and they’re an elite team this season and it’s the NBA so you should expect those kind of games especially a team that they can run off points. They shoot the ball well, they draw a lot of fouls, they space the floor and we expected a battle with guys like Patrick Beverly and Trevor Ariza, you know they’re going to get in the mix, they’re going to play physical on the defensive end, they’re going set screens, they’re going to crash the glass and try to get more opportunities. You know how they’re going to play. They play that kind of game down the stretch and it got close, they tied the game up but we showed great poise and still pulled it out.”
HEAD COACH MIKE D’ANTONI On the game: “We’re just not playing real well. I think mentally you can tell, sometimes on the defensive end we just have our ups and downs and there’s not an urgency in what we’re doing. It kind of explains right where we are in the standings and they look at and these other teams are a little more desperate than we are. We’ll have to pick it back up and it’s not a great place to start at Golden State but we’ll start playing better and understand what’s going on.” On playing better in the second half: “In the second half we held them to about 52 points, first half they got it up to 60 something, that’s too many points to give up when you’re not shooting well. We’ve got to figure out a way, even with shooting bad, you’ve got to win. It’s getting to, like I said, I think a lot of it is urgency. A lot of it is we don’t really start getting into people until we’re down eight or nine and then everything’s got to go right, you’ve got to get calls, make shots, big shots and we didn’t. We had our chance, we had the ball I think we were down two and we couldn’t get over the hump so give them credit, they played well. They’re a solid team.” On James Harden being ok: “Yeah I think so, I think everything’s fine.” On finding urgency with not much season left: “I think they have to know. They have to understand when we start getting to playoff time, we can have a little lull here, it’s better now than a little bit later so we got, what, seven games left? They’ll understand that when it comes time we got to get going. They’ve always been resilient and we’ll show them the film, we talked about things and they’ll respond, they’ll respond.” On Portland’s addition of Jusuf Nurkić: “Obviously given them new life, he’s a big dude. He’s a talented basketball player and then you’ve got the two little guys out front so they’re a lot more solid now than they were. I’m sure they’ve got confidence and they’ll be a handful in the playoffs, they’re going to be in the playoffs.”
TREVOR ARIZA On the game: They played better than we did, and they were able to get a win. They came out on their home floor ready to play, and they did what they were supposed to do. On the rough start: Yeah. We struggled again from the start. Picked it up in the second quarter. Picked it up in the second half. Again, we have to be ready to play from the beginning. Is it difficult this time of year when you’re locked in to where you are to maintain urgency? I don’t think so. I just think that you just have to come out to play. No matter what. No matter who you’re playing against. No matter what’s at stake. Just come out and do your job. That’s it. Tonight, we didn’t start off that way. We have to get back to our old mindset of no matter what the situation, no matter what’s going on come out ready to play.
JAMES HARDEN On the game: Defensively, it was pretty tough. That second half we did a better job of containing the basketball, closing out on their shooters and doing things that we needed to be doing in that first half. How did you feel physically tonight? Alright. I have to do a better job of closing the game out. Tonight, I took a couple bad shots, and I turned the basketball over a couple times. As a team we did a pretty good job. Especially fighting back – giving ourselves a chance. But personally, myself, I have to do a better job of getting better shots and getting shots down the stretch. I’ll take that one to the gym. Why did you take the wrap off? You just have to hoop. You just have to hoop. You have to stop worrying about it and try not to focus on it.
Postgame Notes - March 30, 2017 Portland 117, Houston 107 Game #75 • Home Game #36 TEAM • The Trail Blazers have won a season-high five straight games and eight of the past nine overall. Only Golden State has a longer active win streak (nine). • Portland has won four home games in a row, the longest home winning streak of the season. • Tonight’s win put the Trail Blazers at 13-3 for the month of March, clinching the best record in the NBA this month. • Portland’s bench outscored Houston’s reserves, 35-30. PLAYER • Damian Lillard (31 points) is the first player in Trail Blazers history to score 30+ eight times in a calendar month. • Damian Lillard scored 465 points in March, the most ever scored by a Trail Blazer in the month of March (438 - Clyde Drexler, 1989). • Damian Lillard (31 points, 11 assists) recorded his 11th double-double of the season. • Damian Lillard has 25 games of 30+ points this season, one shy of the franchise record (26 - Drexler, 1987-88/Vandeweghe, 1986-87). Lillard’s 55 games of 20+ this season tie his most in any season (2015-16). • Damian Lillard has made 442 free throws this season (seven tonight), fifth most in a season by a Trail Blazer in team history. • Jusuf Nurkic (19 points, 11 rebounds) recorded a double-double for the fifth time in the last seven games. • Maurice Harkless (17 ponts) has scored 10+ points in six straight games against the Rockets. He averaged 18.0 points and 5.0 rebounds in three games against Houston this season. • Allen Crabbe (17 points, 7-11 FG, 3-5 3-PT) scored in double-digits off the bench for the 35th time this season, 11th most among NBA reserves. • Allen Crabbe’s steal from James Harden with 1:15 remaining in the fourth quarter gave him a career-high four steals. • Al-Farouq Aminu (15 points, nine rebounds ) has scored 10+ points in consecutive games six times this season (20 games of 10+). • James Harden’s 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the first quarter was Houston’s 1,078th of the season, setting a new NBA record for 3-pointers made in a season (1,077 - GSW, 2015-16). • Trevor Ariza set a new career high with six steals.
