HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “It was a solid win, it was a great start offensively. I thought we had little lulls defensively throughout the game, but for the most part, we did a lot of good things. It was a solid win.” On Leonard returning from injury: “I thought he looked good. There were a couple of times where he was just kind of out of place a couple times, whether it was pick and rolls or spacing, but for missing a couple weeks and seven games, I thought he looked good. You knew he was out there. I think he’s going to continue to get better but I thought for his first time out there, he looked good.” On decision to start Vonleh and use Leonard off the bench: “There were minutes limitations first of all. I think Noah is good with the first group. I liked Meyers and Ed playing together, so we’ll see where it goes. On McCollum and Lillard’s games: “CJ’s start was terrific. He had it going and that was good to see. He had a little pop to him and obviously a good rhythm. I thought Damian did a really good job of orchestrating things for himself and for his teammates. Defensively, he was very solid. Those two guys and the fact that they shot combined above 50 percent and from three as well, you like nights like that. Did you like defense tonight? “Overall, yeah. Like I said, we had lulls in the second quarter and a little bit in the third quarter but I think for the most part we were solid.” DAMIAN LILLARD What did you like about the win? “Just that it was a team that probably looked at us as a game that they could win. We played well against them last week. To be playing them so quickly, it’s a quick turnaround that we’re playing them again and it’s tough to beat a team two times in a row. They came out and they played well. I was just proud of the way we came out from jump and played hard. We played with urgency.” What goes through you mind when CJ starts hot like that: “Ride it out. Try to find him as much as I can. I think we all understand that CJ is a guy that can run off a bunch of points at a time. At the start of the game, we saw that he hit that first one and now the ball went in so I tried to just keep calling plays and in transition keep finding him.” Do you kind of feel each other out and defer when the other has it going? “I don’t think it’s about deferring to each other. It’s about doing the right thing, just being aware if somebody is hot. At this level, if somebody is hot, that can change the game. He came out hot, so it’s what you should do – make the right play but still make sure that you’re aware of where the hot guy is. Then the second half, I hit a few shots to start off. The second half is when you win the game, so I just got a little more aggressive, some shots fell and we were able to get a win.” On turnovers: “You see a play and you take a gamble. I remember one time in transition I saw Chief running on the left side and I saw the defender and I thought I could kind of shoot it in there but it kind of closed up quicker than I thought. Another one, I was expecting Meyers to be spacing out a little bit further and when I crossed over, his man reached in and tapped the ball out. So just trying to make plays, looking for guys. Chief’s sprinting the court like that, I want to let him know by rewarding him and throwing the ball up there. Just stuff like that.” Do you play more conservatively after early turnovers? “I mean I had a lot early today so I was like alright I’m not going to keep loosely throwing passes. I stopped and we still continued to move the ball and make aggressive plays.
