HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS What did Henderson do for the team tonight? “Kind of what he’s been doing for most of the second half of the season. He’s really provided a spark off the bench, quality scoring. He makes some energy plays, some dynamic plays. He’s strong defensively. Just a little bit of everything, but the obvious thing is his scoring off the bench has been pretty consistent.” Was this one of better defensive games in a while? “To be honest, I think the last five games we’ve been pretty solid defensively. The Sacramento game was a little skewed because of the last five minutes, but really we’ve kind of gotten back on track defensively. Tonight was from start to finish, was very good. The games all kind of run together so it’s hard for me to rank them but it was a good effort tonight.” Winning four in a row, do you sense momentum building? “I like the way we’re playing. I think we have a good rhythm. I think it’s really important to take care of these games at home. We’ve been very good at home the second half of the season, but I think there is a confidence. We have some tough games coming up, obviously Golden State and Oklahoma City coming up at home. So more than anything else, it was good to take care of business at home. I don’t know about momentum but I like the way we’re playing.” On breaking franchise record “It was funny, the narrative at the beginning of the season was everybody was kind of curious about the three point shot. Certainly we’ve had some guys have career years shooting the three like Gerald and Chief, but I knew that CJ would come in and shoot threes, I figured that Dame might shoot a couple more. Obviously Meyers being a part of that. To break the record when that was a concern going into the season for some, I like it.”
DAMIAN LILLARD Do you feel like you’re playing your best basketball of the season right now? “I think we’ve played better. Tonight we played one of our best games but the games before this, we could have done a lot of things better. I think tonight we moved the ball really well, we defended, we played great team defense and really good individual defense. This was the first time we did it for long periods of time. We didn’t have the best first quarter but the second and third quarter, we got after them. Like I said, great team defense, great individual defense – that allowed us to get out and run at them. We moved the ball. Everybody was involved. It was a dominant game by our team.” On whole team playing well at the same time right now: “You’ll see that throughout the league. There’s always times that presents itself where the best player had to take over the game or another guy has to step up and have a huge game like our last game, Chief had a huge game for us. Every once in a while, you see a great group effort and tonight that’s what we had, especially on the defense end of the floor. I think that’s what allowed us to separate ourselves.” What did McCollum do for the team tonight? “I mean, the same thing he’s done all season long. Not just score the ball, he’s gotten a lot better as a playmaker. At the beginning of the season, everybody knew he was going to score the ball. He can score in bunched. Now that myself and CJ are getting a lot of attention, some of the shots aren’t there as early and he’s finding guys. He’s hitting Mase in the pocket, he’s seeing the skip play, in transition he’s hitting guys, he’s passing ahead. The fact that he’s gotten better in that part of his game has really helped our team.”
HEAD COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA On losing the game but still clinching a playoff spot: “It’s something that we don’t want to take for granted, getting in there with just how tough it is in this league. So that is the perspective on that, but with this organization we always have big expectations, that doesn’t change from year to year. So getting over that hurdle does mean something to us but we still have more that we’re working for right now and that’s really what we’re focused on. It was a disappointing game. They outplayed us, they played very well and we did not bring a great game that would have been necessary to get this one on the road.” On why they had a lackluster 2nd quarter: “Well, it could be anything but it was a higher level of game and competition that they were bringing. Some of the transition that they got in that 2nd quarter broke the game open. We still had opportunities to keep it right there but we weren’t able to do that. Our offense was a bit sluggish, we haven’t played like that offensively in a while where it looked like we were in mud. You have to credit their defense as well, they made some plays, they were physical and we didn’t get enough stops, obviously, to get us into the open court.” On where they are defensively compared to where they want to be: “We need to get better, there’s times where it’s what we want but we still need to strive for that consistency and getting it to a level that’s necessary that we’re capable of.”
LUOL DENG On why they lost: "We played a very good team. They're good at home. Our defense wasn't where we wanted it to be. It's just a tough place to play. We're disappointed with the way we played. Sometimes you lose a game but you're still satisfied with how you played, but tonight they played harder than us. I don't want to make any excuses, like west coast trip, last game, back-to-back. We still gotta be professional and come out and do the best that we can. I thought tonight wasn't our best." On clinching a playoff spot: "I mean, yeah, that's great. To be honest with you, we believed the whole time we'd be in the playoffs, so it's good to clinch it but it's not a surprise. I think right now, instead of just looking at the standings and where we're going to end up at the end of the year, we really gotta focus on us and try to figure it out right now: how can we go into the postseason being at our best? We got some really good games coming up, some important games. Get everyone healthy. Get D-Wade healthy. Get it rolling. This was a tough game, but as tough as it is, we gotta put it behind us, and, really, we got a tough game at home on Tuesday." Any particular reason why Blazers had a lot of converted transitional opportunities in the 2nd quarter? "No. I really think they played harder than us. We had spurts where we played hard and got it going, but they were more consistent than we were for most of the game. Coming out of the third quarter, they really blew their lead and we didn't have enough to get back into it."
HASSAN WHITESIDE On clinching the playoffs: "Yeah. Making the playoffs is a big deal. We want to keep pushing. We don't want to let games like this get away from us. We just want to come out and focus on Detroit." On Dwayne Wade not playing: "Not having him out there is really tough. He finds guys, not just alley-oops to me... He's really a great play maker. He's the leader of the team so not having him out there is tough." On the biggest problems the Blazers gave them tonight: "I really can't answer that. They scored more points than us."
TEAM • With 10 three-point field goals tonight, the Trail Blazers (808 3-PT FGs) have broken the franchise record for most three-pointers in a single season (807, 2014-15). • The Trail Blazers have won a season-high seven straight home games, and are 16-2 in their past 18 games played at the Moda Center (26-12 overall). • Portland is now 22-10 over its past 31 games. • Tonight marks Portland’s fourth consecutive victory, its longest winning streak since the team won a season-best six consecutive games from Feb. 6 to Feb. 23. • During Portland’s four-game winning streak, the Trail Blazers have scored 100+ points four times and held their opponent to less than 100 points twice. • The Trail Blazers are 32-7 when leading after three quarters (22-3 at home). • Over the past 44 games, Portland is 25-1 when leading at the half, and 3-15 when trailing after two quarters. • The Trail Blazers limited Miami to 93 points, and are now 21-5 this season when their opponent scores less than 100 points. • Five Portland players scored in double figures, marking the ninth straight game in which at least five Trail Blazers have scored 10+ points. • Portland’s 39 points in the second quarter represents its highest scoring total in any second period this season.
PLAYER • CJ McCollum made all six of his three-point field goal attempts, making him the third Trail Blazer ever to do so (Lillard, Porter). McCollum is just the second NBA player to accomplish that this season (Matt Barnes, 1/14 vs. Detroit). • CJ McCollum’s six three-pointers matches his career-high (three other times, all this season). • Gerald Henderson finished with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, marking the 10th time in his past 13 games that he has scored in double figures. Henderson ranks second on the team amongst reserves with 30 games of 10+ points (32-Allen Crabbe). • Portland is now 9-1 this season when Gerald Henderson scores 15+ points (won nine straight). • Mason Plumlee’s 17 points is his highest scoring total in the past 39 games (19, 1/6/16 vs. LAC). Plumlee has scored 10+ points in seven of his past nine games. • Mason Plumlee dished out five assists tonight, and now has 12 games with at least five assists this season. He had one such game in his first two NBA seasons combined. • Maurice Harkless scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and has now posted 10 or more points in seven of his nine starts this season. Portland improves to 7-2 in the nine games that Harkless has started.
I wonder where we are ranked in the league in 3 pointers over the years? Making more than another year doesn't mean much since the whole league is making so many more than the last few years.
