HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “It’s good to get a close game win. We needed that especially on the heels of not only last night but some of the other games. Dame’s shot was huge. He really carried us in the second half. After a good first quarter, I felt like we stopped playing the way that got us the lead. That was disappointing.” On getting away from what worked early: “I thought at both ends. I didn’t think we played with the same urgency defensively. For the most part – a 37 point quarter – I just didn’t think, and I think it’s human nature sometimes when the game comes easy in the first quarter, there’s a tendency to let down. I don’t think we moved and passed the way we needed to offensively. It was partly human nature, but it’s disappointing.” On Lillard’s game winner: “It’s the same play I had last night.” “He made a good read last night and Gobert made a great play. Tonight I think he had his mind made up to take the shot. It’s what great players do.” On Nurkic: “His offense was really good as far as finishing around the basket. I thought our guards did a nice job of finding him on the rolls, on pick and rolls, the passes that they made to him in the lane made his job easier. So I think it was a combination of both of them, but it was good for him to have a night like that where he was finishing around the basket.” What did you see from the rookies tonight? “I thought Caleb made a difference in the second half. He really battled. He made just tough plays. Even though he got his shot blocked a couple times, he was aggressive and got on the floor. He was ready for it. Zach, I thought Zach played fine. It wasn’t good or bad, he was out there, I was glad he was able to get a run and he held his own.”
DAMIAN LILLARD On last shot: “I was just telling Ed – my entire career, every time I’ve missed one and then the next time I’m in that position, it always goes in my favor. Like last year, we lost a game in Philly. I missed a free throw, we had a two point lead, could have been three, they hit a three. We went to Boston the next game, I was in the same position, make the free throws and we win the game. My rookie year, the first game winner I made, it came right after coach gave me the ball and I missed. Usually after that first miss, the next one is going in. It’s funny that it happened the next night but I felt good about it. I backed him up, I got a good look at the rim and I rose up with confidence.” This would have been a disheartening game to lose after the good start, right? “It would have been a really tough one, but we’ve had a stretch of games where we haven’t played the way we want to play consistently. Usually in professional sports, to dig out of that, you’ve got to have a game like this where you really get tested and you’ve got to go and take it, you’ve got to make it happen. When we needed stops, we got stops. When we needed to make some shots and make plays, we did that. The most important thing is that we got the W while having to deal with some adversity.” It is sometimes nice to just get a win? “We had the game against Toronto then you have a tough one last night in Utah and you come back, we come back and just have a blowout, then maybe we don’t have to look at ourselves as much. When we come in here tonight and we had a dogfight on our hands, we really had to look at ourselves and make it happen. We had to trust ourselves and trust each other to get it done, so I think a game like this and having to pull out a game like this does more for our team character-wise.” On possibility of game winner overshadowing Nurkic’s game: “I don’t think it overshadowed it – I mean, that’s just how it goes. You hit a game winner and it’s how it goes, but if Nurk doesn’t play the kind of game he played, we’re not in position to take that game winner. Down the stretch we went to him twice, he got two buckets. I think we was down five and we went to him both times, he got two quick baskets. His weak-side defense, he had his handprints all over the game tonight.”
HEAD COACH LUKE WALTON On what the game came down to: “The good thing is it was things that we can control. We missed a bunch of front ends on our free throws in the fourth quarter, we had like three or four possessions in transition, which we had been focusing on and getting better at, where we made careless plays. We tried to make high risk, low reward passes and our turnovers in transition turned into them coming to the other end and scoring. There were a lot of little things that we did in the fourth that we could’ve corrected ourselves that really hurt us. You’ve obviously got to give them (Blazers) credit, they hit some big shots. (Damian) Lillard is an absolutely amazing player and competitor. I thought Brandon (Ingram) did a good job of playing defense on that last possession, but great players hit great shots.” On why the Lakers were better defensively to start the third quarter: “It started, in my opinion, in the second quarter. We started to engage in the fight. The first quarter we let them move wherever they wanted. Offensively, when you play against talented teams, and you let them have the freedom of swinging it side to side and catching it in the positions in their offense that they want to operate from, it’s tough to stop guys like that. We finally started to engage in the second and I think we just let the momentum of our fight on the defensive end build from that point.” On Larry Nance having a broken left hand and if he had talked to him about it: “No, I will right now. I talked to the team. Obviously you feel terrible for him, he’s been playing so solid for us. It’s unfortunate, it’s going to hurt the team. He’s been working so hard. It’s tough, but that’s what team sports are about, someone else has to step up and fill that role now. We’ll get him healthy and he’ll be back on the court when he’s ready to go. On if Kyle Kuzma will be one of the guys that picks up the slack while Nance is out: “One of the guys, as in everybody has to pick up the slack. I hate when people get hurt and other players think they need to do more themselves. Just keep doing what you do and as a group we’ll pick up that slack.”
KYLE KUZMA What did you see on that last shot? I thought it was straight on, but he left it a little short. It is what it is. What did you do to battle back after the start? We just tried to play with a lot of energy. Tried to make their players beat us, and we did a good job of fighting through that game. What were you looking for and how were you getting to the hoop? It was just the matchups I had. What do you think you guys will have to do, and how will you compensate for missing Larry? Try to rebound. We have to rebound. Larry is a big piece for us. He rebounds, plays with a lot of energy, and does all the little things. As a group, we have to pick it up.
LONZO BALL How were you thinking of getting open for that last shot? .7 we tried to get one shot up. I liked the look we got, but it didn’t fall. What did you think of the team play overall? We knew they were going to come out with a lot of energy. This is their home court. It’s hard to play in here. They came out and jumped on us, and we fought our way back. At the end, they took it from us. Luke said he would have liked a bit more aggression from you, how did you feel you did on that side of the court? Definitely could have been more aggressive. We got down early, so we had to play defense. I felt our second half defense stepped up a lot, but he made a tough shot at the end. How do you gauge when you need to be more aggressive as the game goes on? I think that’s just a me thing – take shots when I’m open, create shots for myself. Can you talk about your matchup with Lillard? Lillard’s a great player. It’s a tough shot he made. He makes tough shots all night. He’s very good off the ball, but I can add to my game because I really don’t play much off the ball. So it was good playing against a great point guard like him. Do you think you’ll be thinking of this matchup as a learning opportunity, or look back on it in 10 years and think of this matchup? No. You have to learn in the now. What can you learn from a game like this? You can’t get down early. We keep fighting to get back, but at the end it’s an out of gas finish.
TEAM • The Trail Blazers have won 13 consecutive games against the Lakers, representing the third longest losing streak by the Lakers against any team in franchise history (18 - Boston, 1957-59). • Portland has won seven consecutive games against the Lakers at Moda Center. • The Trail Blazers outrebounded the Lakers, 41-32. • Portland’s 41 points in the first quarter were the most points the team has scored in any quarter this season. • The Trail Blazers converted 10 offensive rebounds into 12 second chance points. The Lakers had two offensive boards and four second chance points. • Portland shot 24-of-27 from the free throw line (88.9%). It was the best free throw percentage in a game for the Trail Blazers this season. • Four different Trail Blazers finished with five assists (Lillard, McCollum, Nurkic, Turner). It was the first time this season that more than two players had 5+ assists.
PLAYER • Damian Lillard scored 32 points (8-18 FG, 2-6 3-PT, 14-14 FT) to go along with six rebounds and 5 assists. Lillard has scored 30+ points in three straight games, tying the second longest streak of his career (5, 2/8/16 - 2/23/16). • Damian Lillard’s 14 free throws (of 14) were a new season high and one off of his career high (15, 11/13/16 vs. Den.). • Jusuf Nurkic finished with 28 points (12-20 FG, 4-4 FT), five rebounds and five assists. His 12 made field goals tied his career high (3/28/17 vs. Den.). • CJ McCollum recorded 22 points (8-18 FG, 5-8 3-PT, 1-1 FT), two rebounds and five assists. It was the 100th game of 20+ points in McCollum’s career. Playing in his 268th game, McCollum is the 6th fastest Trail Blazer to score 20+ points in 100 games (Wicks, Petrie, Roy, Lillard, Thompson). • Pat Connaughton was the high-scorer off the bench for Portland, finishing with nine points (3-7 FG, 2-4 3-PT). Connaughton has made 17 three-pointers through the first nine games of the season, matching his total from the 2016-17 season (39 games). • Evan Turner contributed six points, seven rebounds and five assists off the bench. He is only the fifth NBA player to have that stat line in a reserve role this season. • Brook Lopez led the Lakers with a season-high 27 points (9-15 FG, 1-4 3-PT, 8-9 FT) to go along with three rebounds and one block.
His responses and explanations are much better than anything Stotts has given us. He talks about defense & not letting the other team do whatever they want. He talks about focusing on the little things. They matter
This team has a long ways to go to even think they can make playoffs and come down doing the little things that this team don't do like sitting off ball good screen so you can get your team mate open. The thing I didn't was alot of energy special the defense side of the ball. Maybe it was due to the over time last night I don't know.
but....he lost...guess he didn't focus on the little things quite enough...Stotts won the game last night...credit where credit is due....I hate when post game is all about how the Lakers lost instead of how we won.....predictable
