Postgame Notes – November 8, 2019 Brooklyn 119, Portland 115 Game No. 9, Home Game No. 3 TEAM • Portland shot a season-high 96.0% (24-25) from the FT line, outpacing Brooklyn’s 70.0% (21-30). Portland’s 24 made free-throws were a season high. • The Trail Blazers had a season-high nine blocks. • The Trail Blazers had double digit offensive rebounds (13) for the fourth time this season. • Portland won the transition battle, outscoring Brooklyn 14-11 in fast break points. • Both teams recorded 48 points in the paint. PLAYER • Damian Lillard led all scorers with 60 points (19-33 FG, 7-16 3-PT, 15-15 FT). His 60 points topped his own franchise record (59, 4/8/17 vs. Utah) and represent an NBA season-high. It was his sixth career 50-point game. Lillard’s 19 field goals were a new career high (18, three times). • Anfernee Simons scored 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting (2-7 3-PT, 3-4 FT) to go with four rebounds and two assists. It was the sixth time he’s been in double figures this season, and his 36 minutes played were a season high. • Hassan Whiteside recorded his fifth double-double of the season (10 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks), and had a season-high five blocks. • Nassir Little logged eight points (3-5 FG, 2-2 FT), and three rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench. It was just his second NBA appearance, resulting in the first points and rebounds of his career. • CJ McCollum finished with eight points (4-19 FG, 0-2 3-PT), five rebounds and two blocks in 40 minutes. His two blocks tied a season high. • Mario Hezonja (six points, nine rebounds, one assist) finished with nine or more rebounds for the second time this season. • Kent Bazemore finished with three points (1-2 FG, 1-1 3-PT), three rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes off the bench. • Spencer Dinwiddie led the Nets with 34 points (12-24 FG, 1-4 3-PT), five off of his career high. He added five rebounds, four assists and one steal. • Kyrie Irving contributed 33 points on 12-of-27 shooting (4-8 3PT, 5-5 FT), to go with three rebounds, six assists and one steal. It was his third consecutive 30+ point game. • Jarrett Allen recorded his third consecutive games in double figures (12 points, nine rebounds, five blocks) and tied his season high with five blocks.
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS Frustrating to lose when Lillard has a game like that? “Look, it disappointing losing any game. We’re 0-3 at home and a 4-game losing streak – they’re all disappointing, but obviously Dame was exceptional tonight. He carried us to at least put us in a position to win the game. It is disappointing but like I’ve said, Dame’s a special player. He shoulders a lot of responsibility for us.” Did you like your defense on the Irving shot near the end? “Yeah, I mean they ran down the clock, he’s going left sideways – yeah, I mean it was a tough shot. He’s a great player, he made a good shot.” With a game like that from Lillard, what was the rest of the team missing? “Well we had trouble scoring, that would be one thing. I don’t know what we shot other than Dame, but as a team, we shot 41 percent and Dame was 19 for 33, so obviously scoring was tough. Our defense was a little inconsistent but we didn’t really take away anything that they did well. They’re averaging 36 three attempts, they took 37. They’re number one in offensive rebounding as a team, they got offensive rebounds and second chance points and converted them. So from the defensive standpoint, I thought we competed in the first half but we didn’t really take away what they did well.” On Little’s performance off the bench: “He had a lot of energy. I thought he made some momentum plays. I liked his athleticism, his dunks, he got the crowd into the game, got our bench into it. Down the stretch, he made some defensive mistakes which is tough for rookies out there, but for him to get his first real opportunity in an NBA game, I thought he really provided a spark.” Is there anything you’re seeing from McCollum with his shot being off? “No, everybody goes through slumps. It’ll come back. As long as he doesn’t press too hard and just lets the game come, he’ll be fine.”
DAMIAN LILLARD What’s been bothering you the most during this losing streak? “The fact that we’re losing. I think we’re in position to win games and we’re in position in the third quarter, in the fourth quarter and you’ve got to be present mentally and physically. You’ve got to be willing to do a little bit more than the other team to win games. I think we compete, I think we are together, I think we’re trying to do all the right things, but that little bit of wanting it more than the other team and wanting it more doesn’t mean playing harder. It means being able to be sharp one more possession, being able to do your job when you’re tired and when you’re wearing down, being able to count on the next guy to do his job and trust him to do that so you do your job right. So all those things have got to connect in the big moments of the game and they haven’t been connected for us, all of us.” How much of that is it being a new group of guys? “I think that’s part of it. Guys coming from different situations. Us being kind of new with each other. But it’s not an excuse. We’ve been together long enough. We know what we’re trying to do and we’ve been in the league. We all have experience and we know what it takes and what has to happen when it’s time to win the game. We just haven’t done it at the level that we need to do it at to win games. That’s why we’re coming up short.” What did you think of Little: “I thought he was great. Any time you are a guy that is not playing regular minutes, or just a young player where you don’t have any experience, you haven’t been in the league or you’ve just been on the bench and games are going by and your name’s not getting called – so for him to just be ready and come in fearless and have an impact on the game – because he had a huge impact on the game. That’s special. That has nothing to do with talent, that has nothing to do with hype or any of those things, that’s just coming in and helping the team and being ready to do that. Being called late in the game or random moments of the game, he comes in with energy flying around, effort and fearless like I said. So I thought he was great. I was proud of what he did tonight.” At what point does it become a concern [the losing streak]? “I don’t know, that’s a good question. It’s just so early. I know that’s the easy thing to say but we could very well win the next three and be at .500 and playing better basketball and it’s like, Okay here we go. But right now, we’re just not getting the job done down the stretch when it’s time to win games. We might be last in the league defensively in the fourth quarter. If you’re in every game like we are – we haven’t been blown out – so if you’re in every game like we are and you’re last defensively in the fourth quarter defensive rating, you’re not going to win those games. I think that’s where we’re struggling right now. It is what it is. We’ve got to stay down, we can’t fold. In these type of situations, the most important thing is obviously staying together and never folding. The teams that fold and just give into it, it keeps going. The teams that keep working and stay together and keep our minds right even though y’all don’t want to hear that, keep our minds right and not fold and stuff will start going in the right direction. Maybe we’ll get a few bounces down the stretch, a few deflections and the other team will miss some shots and it’ll work out in our favor.”
HEAD COACH KENNY ATKINSON On taking control of the game… “A lot of guys stepped up; I think it a was great team win. We obviously started trying to get the ball out of Damian Lillard’s hands, but we did an okay job. Just overall, we made some big shots. Like I said, a great team win, a lot of guys contributed.” Takeaways from the team’s improvements… “Just searching for our rotations and trying to find some rotations. I think we saw some good contributions from guys. Dzanan Musa, despite his two missed shots, I thought he was good, and I thought Nicolas Claxton was excellent, exactly what we saw in preseason and his length at the rim was really good. Again, a lot of guys contributed.” On defending Damian Lillard… “We tried box, zone, blitz, we threw the kitchen sink at him. He would just make incredible shots, and we kept saying “he’s going to tire out eventually, he played 39 minutes last night, eventually he’s going to fatigue.” I don’t know if that was the case, it felt like he kept making shots, but I thought getting the ball out of his hands midway through the fourth quarter helped us.” On keeping the team mentally tough against a player like Damian Lillard… “I think even at halftime our players are saying “hey, the guy’s hitting tough shots.” Sometimes there’s not much you can do when a guy’s hot like that. So credit to him, like I said I think we made some slight adjustments that helped, and we did a good job on (CJ) McCollum, I thought that was good, and we did a good job on the other guys. Rodney Hood didn’t get off, (Kent) Bazemore didn’t get off, so they had one guy that had a lot of points, but I thought we controlled the other guys.” On dominating the turnovers… “I would love to say it was our two practices and fine tuning our offense, and our execution was better, but you never know what the reason was, but that was a big key, not turning it over tonight.” On the relationship between Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddie… “I think Kyrie coaches them and holds them accountable, and coaches them hard, which I think is good. I think they have mutual respect obviously, but I saw them talking a lot tonight and sometimes when something goes wrong or we didn’t run something right, Kyrie will say something to him. I think that’s what you have to do as a leader on the team. So they have a lot of conversations and I think its good leadership from Kyrie.”
JARRETT ALLEN On starting the road trip with a win It feels great, we came out here, we played hard. Especially against a great team like this, and on a night that Damian Lillard scored 60, it feels great. On coming back down 5 midway through the 4th It took everybody, we all came together, we didn’t get flustered, we didn’t try to go take it on a one man show, we stayed together, we played our plays and we came out on top. On Spencer Dinwiddie He played amazing, he played controlled, he played smart, he played how he normally plays. On Nicolas Claxton He played amazing; I was so hyped to see him out there. First couple minutes, gotta get the nerves out for his first game as a rookie. But once he calmed down, he was getting offensive rebounds and getting put backs. On adjustments made for Damian Lillard in the 4th We started blitzing him, started just trying to get the ball out of his hands like you said, anyway we could. At the end of the day he is amazing with it in his hands, shooting and driving, so it’s better for anybody else to make a play other than him. On how tough it is to guard Damian Lillard He makes a lot of acrobatic plays, a lot of acrobatic finishes. He can stop on a dime, step back and shoot a step back three, so you just have to be ready for anything, he’s a tough offensive guy. On his comfort this season I’m a lot more comfortable, I had a good offseason, I trained a lot, and this season I want to show what I worked on. On the biggest thing to carry over from practice I think if you look, I mean I wouldn’t say we were perfect on defense, but we really toned down the defensive mistakes. These last couple of days we came into practice with a mindset that we’re going to get better on defense, going to improve a lot of things, and it showed tonight. On the team having less turnovers I think it was just knowing where everybody was going to be. The last couple of days of practice we really toned down and looked at all of our mistakes that we can improve, and we just went out and showed it. On a good defensive night even with Lillard’s performance I think it is, at the end of the day he’s an all-star and one of the top ten guys in the NBA, so he’s obviously going to be hot and make some tough shots, a lot of tough shots in this situation, so I’m not too worried about that.
KYRIE IRVING On team’s performance.. “It was a stepping-stone for us, growing as a group. Obviously, we want to take a humble approach when the game could have gone either way. Especially with how well Dame (Lillard) was playing. Anytime someone has a big performance like that, it can go either way and take over the game the way he did. Down the stretch we really executed, and defensively we started picking up the pressure to make it tougher. He (Lillard) was still getting to his spot making it tough on us. On the offensive end we were spraying out on the perimeter and making the right play. Making sure we ran our plays that we have in our package for the fourth quarter. Things that we can rely on. Our last practice really prepared us coming into tonight for a back and forth fight.” On communicating with Spencer Dinwiddie this season.. “I just want him to stay aggressive. Myself, C-Vert (Lavert), Spencer specifically I want him to stay aggressive. Come off those pick and rolls, getting downhill, and making the defense respect him on the three-point line to open up his drives, which I think he did a great job of tonight. Just staying on him and getting consistency out of him that I know he wants to be at. Being the type of level player that I know he wants to be at, just stay on him and be patient. Tonight was a fresh start for him on this road trip and he just has to continue it going forward.” On limiting turnovers tonight.. “We can’t turn the ball over on the road as much as we have been at home. I think we’ve just made it a point of emphasis to really take care of it and making sure that throughout the game we got exactly what we wanted. I’m going to go back to the same point I made back at home is that you can’t turn the ball over shooting it at the rim. Letting our guys go be athletic to get a few offensive rebounds and that helped us out a lot.”
Spencer Dinwiddie How was it being able to control everybody else, besides Dame (Damian Lillard) Some of the times when people have that dynamic and having that crazy of a game, then some people have a tendency to watch. When that happens its kind of about keeping them in watch mode and trying to make it as hard as possible on Lillard, he’s obviously hot. He went for sixty but luckily for us he would of needed sixty-five. We did just enough, credit him he’s a phenomenal player. He did a great job all night putting pressure on the defense whether it’d be three’s or layups, we threw different coverages at him. He was phenomenal but luckily we got the win. When you have a night like you had, is there a basket where after you’re like ‘I’m on, I’m hot’ and the lights green for good now or is it more of a feel of what they’re giving you? It depends, tonight I didn’t have very many tough baskets. There wasn’t a time where I was like “Oh man, I’m in the zone, like really killing it” I was just fortunate enough to not be broke from three after starting off the season pretty bad from three but tonight I was able to hit them. Credit to Adam Harrington, my position coach, putting in the time with me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s games where you’re hitting tough shots and you’re like “OK, I’m rolling” tonight was more so Ky (Kyrie) found me a couple times and they had a couple defensive breakdowns and got threes in transition so the open ones are where the score kind of ballooned a little bit. Early in the second half when Kenny (Atkinson) called that timeout and put you in, you looked very aggressive scoring fifteen straight points, was that a conversation you had with him or what you were seeing defensively? That’s just what I was seeing. I think the very first play I went in was the one on the left side when they kind of just weren’t there so I just dribbled into a three and I made it. I was fortunate enough to make a basket but it was the defensive breakdowns, I didn’t cross somebody over and make them fall and really get into my bag. They just weren’t there so I took what the defense gave me and I was fortunate enough to make it so it was a good night for that.
