HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “Well it was a tough night offensively. Memphis did a really good job of defending us. They didn’t give us a lot to work with. We finally got a bit going in the fourth quarter, but for the most part it was a real struggle to score. We competed defensively. Zach Randolph obviously was a difference maker scoring and rebounding the ball. He’s a tough matchup coming off the bench. I thought that was one of Memphis’s better defensive games.” On Lillard’s return: “I thought he played hard. The first half, he tried to take his time feeling out the game and not trying to do too much. I thought he was more aggressive the second half. Obviously he can play better but after missing seven games, it was good to have him out there.” Were turnovers being rusty? “I don’t know, I think it’s a byproduct of Memphis being a very good defensive team. We had 22 turnovers tonight and we had 22 the last time we played them, the first time we played them we had 9. So the turnovers, against a team that’s a low possession team, it’s important. Dame had his share but I think if you look up and down the turnover line, everybody kind of contributed to that.” On Aminu’s game and guarding Randolph: “He had a good all around game. Zach is a tough matchup on the defensive end, we tried to buy some time and I thought he did a good job battling him in the first half. I thought we gained a little traction with that lineup with him guarding him and spacing at the offensive end. You’ve got to pick your poison with the offense struggling. I thought Chief being able to guard him allowed us to create some offense at the other end.” On offensive struggles in third quarter: “We struggled to score for three quarters… I don’t think the third quarter was any different than the first two. They closed out really well, we didn’t get a lot clean looks. I don’t know how many turnovers we had in the third quarter but that took away some of our momentum as well.” DAMIAN LILLARD On return from injury: “I would have liked to have won the game, but I thought it was a game for me to come back and just try to find some rhythm. I knew that Memphis was a slower pace team than Denver was, so I wanted to try to come back in this game. I would have liked to have shot the ball better but I was just trying to find that groove back, so the whole game I was pretty much trying to engage myself in getting to the nail, pulling over and helping, getting in the lane and making plays. That’s kind of how the game was played in my head, just trying to stay engaged because I haven’t played in two weeks.” “I was just happy to be out there. I didn’t put too much pressure on myself by it being the first game. Like I said, I just wanted to come out make sure that I was responsible and did what I needed to do defensively, get to the spots that I needed to be on, made the right plays, didn’t try to come out and do nothing extra or something crazy. I just came out and played the game. Each game I’m going to work myself in a little bit more.” On offensive struggles: “Well, they’re a really good defensive team. They play physical, they’ve got active hands and they make it tough for you. I thought we turned the ball over a lot. I had a lot of turnovers. A lot of it was caused by them. We had a good defensive game as well, but that’s kind of what they hung their hat on and they got it done.” Did you feel like returning from injury may have disrupted rhythm McCollum had going? “I mean, it’s different when the ball is in your hand for basically the whole game, but a lot of times when I come out the game, he’s in the game and he comes out of the game and I’m in the game, so we still had the same opportunities. So I don’t really think so. Obviously if I’m not out there, he’ll probably have huge games and better numbers and if he’s not out there, the same for me, but I think we’ve shown plenty of times that we can go out there and both have big games. Usually when we do, we win games, so we just have to stay conscious of what we do to make that happen and what kind of plays and what kind of game we play to make that work.”
