HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well, certainly disappointing to let that one get away. I thought the turning point was in the third quarter when we had a sizable lead and their offensive rebounds and scored three threes I think, scored 13 points in the third quarter just on second chance points. We had a chance to, I don’t know if you necessarily control the game at that point, but certainly not give them life that they got at the end of the third quarter. To Houston’s credit, they really got into us defensively, made it difficult for us in the fourth quarter. We didn’t do what we needed to defensively, particularly 70 points in the second half is too many.” How would you describe your offense in the fourth? “Not good. I mean, again, Brewer and Ariza did a nice job on Dame and CJ. We didn’t make passes, obviously I’ve got to watch the film, but the ball wasn’t moving. Part of that is their defense. Whether it was their pick and roll defense or our lack of screening or what, but we didn’t do the things that you need to do against teams that get into you defensively like they did.” Did they do anything differently defensively when they made their run? “I thought they were being more aggressive, certainly. Like I said, Brewer and Ariza had length on Dame and CJ. They were making their catches difficult. They guarded pick and rolls well. We didn’t separate much and when we did, they deflected passes. I wouldn’t say they did anything conceptually differently except they did put length on Dame and CJ, on both of them at the same time, and they were more aggressive.” Did you think you got a bit comfortable going up 21? “I don’t know if that’s necessarily the case. They didn’t get a lot of offensive rebounds but they got five of them and they scored on every one of them. I don’t think that’s necessarily being comfortable, but I don’t know, that’s too easy.”
DAMIAN LILLARD On frustrating loss: “It was frustrating, man. Just because we played so well to start the game. We gave them life. In that third quarter, we even came out strong and I think we just got a little comfortable. Sometimes when you play so well, you forget how hard what you were actually doing is. We got up on them, then they saw a few shots go in. They kept competing, they stuck with it and they played like a desperate team. We kind of took our lead for granted, took what we had been doing for granted and they found life and came back and won the game.” Can you rank losses in a season? “I think earlier in the season we had a lot of them that really hurt because we really wanted to win. Now it’s to the point where we’ve won enough games and understood what we did to win those games to where you have one like this, and it’s like c’mon man. It’s one of those losses. Like I said, especially with the way we played the majority of the game and we let it come to that. So it’s definitely frustrating but just like we’ve been doing all along, we’ve got to keep our minds right and get ready for this tough road trip.” On struggles offensively: “I think started looking at some things that worked for us early in the game and we kept trying to go to it and you have to give credit to them, they played more physical. They turned it up on the defensive end and they took us out of our offense and made it tougher to just execute. We just didn’t respond to it well enough.” On Houston denying ball to you: “A lot of the sets that we like to run, we try to get into them at different parts of the court but Ariza was guarding me and he’s a big defender, a long defender and sometimes when you try to get a handback or a backdoor, you don’t want to mess around with that. So they disrupted our offense. They did a pretty good job of it and we didn’t play well enough defensively for the way that they turned it up.”
INTERIM HEAD COACH J.B. BICKERSTAFF On what changed defensively in terms of contesting the Blazers 3 point shots: “That’s what it was. I mean we talked about it at halftime. In the first half we didn’t take anything away. They got layups, the got dunks, they got open jumpers, so in the second half the message was, take something away and make them have to earn it. We felt like offensively in the first half everything was too free flowing for them, there was too many easy opportunities for them, they were playing to their strengths. But it was the fortitude of our guys to draw a line in the sand. They made the decision that it wasn’t going to happen anymore and they did it.” On whether it was a goal to play James Harden the entire second half: “No, No. Obviously if we could’ve given him a break, we would’ve given him a break, but the way he was going, he was getting busy, so we didn’t want to get in his way. I thought the timeouts came at the right times, so it gave him an opportunity to catch his breath. He was exhausted, but great players when it’s winning time, find a way to dig down and he found a way to dig down and obviously you can see the result.” On his message to his team at halftime: “It was time to make a decision. You’re either going to stand and fight or you’re going to retreat. And it’s obvious we stood and fought.” On his team’s composure tonight compared to the last time they were here: “I think it’s the place we’re in right now as a group. We talked about it coming out of the break, everything has been positive, everything has been upbeat, everything has been together. There has been no one, no distraction, no issue that has separated the group. Everything has been about us together going out and winning basketball games and being the best we can be. You go in that locker room, you ask everyone to a man, they feel something special coming and we believe in it. We believe in each other, we believe in that group in there, so we’re just waiting for it to come.”
JAMES HARDEN On the 2nd half: “We picked up our intensity, they were just aggressive with everything and we were letting them do what they want. In the second half we dictated what we wanted and got to our spots defensively, we were aggressive and the game changed for us.” On if at halftime he sensed a turnaround: “Like I said, we were dragging our heels too much. Second half was the opposite.” On how exhausted he was at the end: “It’s a gutsy comeback win, get some rest and be ready for Saturday.”
DWIGHT HOWARD On the team’s mindset down 21: “We didn’t even think about the score, we just wanted to come out and play harder. I think that we all were upset with the first 3 quarters of basketball and we just came out with a different mindset in the 3rd quarter. We got a good win against a really good team especially at home.” On if they have to be desperate every night: “It’s hard to be desperate. I think we have to go into every game with the same desperation that we had tonight to get the win. If we do that we’ll have a great opportunity to win every single night.” On their second half defense: “I just thought that we were all talking and communicating. We stopped their two main scorers. Damian had to take some tough shots in the paint that he wasn’t able to get easy looks at the basket from 3’s and that was key. When he’s on fire they’re tough to beat, he knows how to make tough plays, when he’s on fire it’s tough to cool him. I think as a team we did a really good job at containing him and forcing him to make plays for others.”
Postgame Notes - Feb. 25, 2016 Houston 119, Portland 105 Game #58 • Home Game #31 • Portland wraps up its five-game home stand (2/10 to 2/25) with a 4-1 record. • Houston’s 119-105 victory snaps Portland’s winning streak at six games. Portland is 15-4 in its past 19 games. • Tonight’s marks Portland’s first loss in the past 18 games when leading at halftime. • CJ McCollum scored 20 points, and has now matched his career-high of four consecutive games with at least 20 points (12/27/15 to 1/3/16) • Portland’s bench outscored Houston’s reserves by seven points tonight (37-30), and by 42 points (126-84) in four games this season. Portland’s bench has now outscored the opposing reserve unit in 16 of the past 20 games. • Damian Lillard finished with a team-high 23 points, and has now scored 20+ points in seven of his past nine games against the Rockets. • Damian Lillard connected on three three-pointers tonight, moving him to fourth in the NBA with 156 three-pointers this season (Curry, Thompson, Harden). • Al-Farouq Aminu finished with 13 points, marking the first time that he has scored 10+ points in back-to-back games since Jan. 13-15. • Gerald Henderson scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting (2-3 3-PT), marking the 11th time in his past 13 games that he has scored at least 10 points. • Maurice Harkless produced 11 points and has now scored in double figures in six of his past seven games (15 times overall). Portland is 11-4 when Harkless scores 10+ points. • The Trail Blazers led by 15 points at halftime, and outscored the Rockets by a combined 56 points in the first halves of all four games this season. • Houston’s James Harden scored 34 points on 11-of-13 shooting (9-10 FT) in the second half. Harden’s 46 points falls three points shy of Houston’s franchise record for most points scored against the Trail Blazers (49, Moses Malone, 3/13/82). • The Rockets had 36 more points in the paint than the Trail Blazers (62-26).
