HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS On New Orleans’ defense on Portland’s guards: “As I’ve said before, Jrue Holiday and Rajon Rondo are exceptional defensive point guards. They’ve made a concerted effort to blitz and double team our pick and rolls and get the ball out of their hands. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before, they’re just doing a good job with it. Honestly the third quarter was the turning point, both from an offensive and defensive standpoint. Whether it’s a the way they’re attacking our guards or not, I’m not sure, but that’s what they’re trying to do.” On Jrue Holiday’s defense: “Jrue Holiday has good length, he has good strength, he’s a smart defender, size, he’s experienced and he’s always been a good defender no matter who he’s guarding. He’s had a career of being a good defensive guard.” On Jusuf Nurkic: “I thought his decision making was fine. He struggled to finish some baskets early. The third quarter he went out with a mild injury and then with the matchups I just decided to go with (Al-Farouq Aminu) guarding Davis. I thought he really gave a good effort, but he got tired in the first quarter because he spent a lot of energy rolling and getting some rebounds. In some ways I thought his decision making was good in game one as well. I know he was frustrated that he had some opportunities that he didn’t finish.” On If Nurkic was available when he came back from the locker room: “Yes.” On if there’s an update on Evan Turner: “No update. He was not available.” On Maurice Harkless: “I thought he was terrific. We weren’t going to play him as many minutes as we did, but he handled it well. He was active, he played good defense, obviously he went five for five shooting. I couldn’t have asked for much more from a guy that had been out for three weeks.” On being down 0-2 in the series: “Well we’ve got to win two games in New Orleans, so hopefully it’s the next two. It’s easy math, we’ve got to go win two New Orleans and I feel we’re very capable of winning both games. Both games have been very tight, New Orleans has made the plays to win the games in the end, but that’s what makes a playoff series great.
DAMIAN LILLARD Where are you at mentally right now? “Just a little bit frustrated. Just expected more out of myself. Coming into the playoffs, you know teams are going to lock in and they’re going to try to make the game hard for you. I give a lot of credit to them for executing their game plan, seeing two and three guys and making the difficult, but the opportunities that I do get, I’ve just got to be better. I think it’s as simple as that, but I’m fine mentally. It’s just frustrating to fight an entire season for home court and then come out and not perform individually or as a team in the first two games of a playoff series. We’ve just got to move on to the next one.” Gentry said Holiday is possibly the best two-way player in the game right now with Kawhi out, can you comment on that and the impact he’s had in these games on both ends? “I mean, I think he is. In my opinion, I think he’s one of the best defenders out there on the perimeter. But I think in this series, he’s just playing well. He’s big and crafty. Coming off that pick and roll, he’s able to get those floaters and get to the rim. He does that well, so they really can change the attention we give him and make it a little bit harder. Same two guys in those situations but he’s playing well on both ends. He’s impacting the game on both ends of the floor.” Do you expect you guys to make changes strategy-wise or lineup-wise? Or do you stick to the plan? “I think we made some good adjustments offensively. I think tonight we got, like CJ said, some of the same looks as game one, we just made a few more. But just some little wrinkles that we put in that led to some better opportunities and sometimes we’re getting turnovers and points, but I like what we did from game one to two offensively but I think defensively, just maybe the aggressiveness that we could have on their ball handlers, maybe we adjust in that area. I think these first two games came down to a lot of 50-50 balls. They were just more grimy than we were, they played a more physical game. They gutted it out more than we did in both games. We’ve got to go to their home floor and do the same thing.” Do you feel frustrations during the game or is that not something you allow yourself to do until postgame? “No, I think after the game when you see the result. We’ve lost the games and it’s like, man my job is to do more. You know you can do more because I always do, but just the way that they’re covering, I think it’s the right thing to do is to trust and to make the right play, find the next guy, but it’s finding that balance of being aggressive and making those right plays and the situation that our team is in, this is our season. So I think that’s the frustrating part of when the game is over and you look back at it, but I think the beauty of that is knowing that we dropped two at home but we’ve won on their floor before and we feel like we’re capable of doing the same thing they did to us to them. I know I’ve got to be much more better for us to do that and I know I’m built to bounce back in that way, so frustrated with my performance and knowing that I could do better, but I guess not down about it at all. I know that going forward, I can really turn it over. We’ll see.” What do you do the next 48 hours to make sure the team is in the right mental state for game 3? “I think it’s just important for us to be who we are, continue our communication like we always do. We’re going to get on the plane tomorrow and interact how we always interact. I think it’s something to be said about being uptight and panicking and worrying, it’s a position that we didn’t want to be in – nobody wants to be in – especially when you start out with home court, but we’re competitors. It’s a game that we love to play and it’s supposed to be fun. As a competitor, the challenge should be fun. We don’t want to be in this position like I said, but it should be fun and we should accept that challenge. If not, it could be a quick series. CJ MCCOLLUM The first game you struggled to score, how did you attack differently or did you tonight? How can you improve for the games in New Orleans? “I think we did a good job moving the ball especially in the first quarter. The third quarter, we got stagnant but overall, I think we had the same looks we got in the first game, we just made them early on. Nurk finished strong inside. Chief hit some threes. Moe’s perfect from the field and that gave us a boost. I think that was the difference from what I noticed.” Heading to New Orleans, what is mindset of the team and what can you do to change it? “We’re down 0-2 heading to New Orleans, we better have the same mindset they had and go into their home court, get second chance opportunities for ourselves, get loose balls. This is a must win. We’ve got to go out there and take both of them.” On Holiday: “He’s a very good player. I said it coming into this series, he doesn’t get a lot of credit because he’s playing with A.D. and I think you’re starting to see how good he truly is on both ends of the floor. He’s got good pace, he’s got good patience in pick and rolls and I think they have a good defense as a team overall with the length they provide on the perimeter with A.D. and E’Twaun Moore. But he’s a good player, he’s playing extremely well. We’ve got to limit some of his opportunities going forward.
