HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS “That was a tough game. Utah did a really good job defensively on us in the first half, I’m surprised we ended up with as many points as we did because we really struggled to score in the first half. We weren’t quite as sharp as we needed to be, but the run at the end of the first half, to be only down five at the end of the first half, felt a little bit better than it could have been. Dame’s four threes got us back into it. It was tough. I thought Utah played extremely hard and made it difficult for us. It was good to get out with a win.” Is there a bigger contrast in styles going from Golden State to Utah in consecutive games? “Probably not, I’m sure that there might be another team similar, but certainly, Golden State is at one end of the spectrum and don’t run a lot of plays but make a lot of basketball plays, and Utah runs a lot of plays and they run them very well. They move well without the ball, they don’t play a high pace game, they play a big guy at the rim all night. So yeah, we talked about that before the game, how in some ways it was very, very different but defensively, our focus had to be the same.” How much are you enjoying this stretch of winning? “I don’t know if ‘enjoy’ is always the right word to use with coaches, but I’m pleased with the growth that we’ve made. I’m pleased with the way we’re competing. We’ve picked it up defensively. Where we were, wherever that was, Christmas or the first of January, I like the direction we’re going. I don’t think you have time to be pleased or enjoy things during the season because we have Brooklyn on Tuesday and then we’ve got Houston, then we’ve got a road trip. But like I said, I’m pleased with how we’re competing and how we’ve improved over the year. On consistency lately: “We are being more consistent. I think every night we know what to expect from everybody individually and we know what to expect as a group.”
DAMIAN LILLARD On what it means to score 30+ in four straight games: “It means I’m playing well. I’m shooting the ball well, but I think it’s because of the way we’re playing as a team. We’re getting stops, we’re getting out, we’re playing fast. Guys are trusting each other and making the right plays, executing well. There’s a lot of things that allow that to happen.” On winning 10 of 11: “Over the past couple weeks, we haven’t changed anything. We’ve been as consistent as we’ve been all season when it comes to playing physical, having our hands active, trusting each other, being together and that’s what’s been working for us.” On hot stretch in third quarter: “We ran a play that we usually get something good out of and they kind of messed it up, they had a miscommunication and I stepped back and I hit one. It felt good. I saw one go in and then I saw another go in and once you see two go in, I know that I can get rolling in that situation and I was able to at the right time.” On it being tough to keep winning streaks in this league: “We’ve played well then we’ve lost a game and we’ve been able to pick it back up. I think we won’t have to worry about that if we continue to do the things we’ve been doing. It doesn’t mean we’re going to win every game but if we continue to do it, it’ll allow us to at least be consistent. We won’t start losing two or three in a row.”
HEAD COACH QUIN SNYDER On Shelvin Mack’s first game as a Jazz player: “Well you know I hadn’t planned to play him that early in the quarter. I knew I wanted to play him and the way the game was when we were down 11 to nothing, 11 – 2 or something I just felt like there was a window there and thought he could maybe give us something and he did. That was good to see.” On Mack’s physicality: “That’s one of the things we talked about, he’s a bigger guard, he’s every bit of 6 foot 3 (inches) and probably 210 (pounds). Sometimes physicality like that in a game of this nature is important, we’ll look at it and I think there’s no mystery to our team about what happened. So it just can’t happen again.” On Portland’s game: “They were playing really hard, as in they were going. I think it goes back a little bit to what we talked about the way their team is structured. When that ball goes up, you’ve got 3 guys that are rearing up to go. They know that CJ (McCollum) and Damian (Lillard) are going to shoot the ball and as it leaves their hands, they’re going. If you don’t meet them and you just go to the board and jump, they’re physical and they’re big. (Noah) Vonleh’s long, (Mason) Plumlee’s athletic, (Maurice) Harkless, (Al-Farouq) Aminu those guys are big guys. So if you want to jump with them you’ll get some of them but because they’re a jump shooting team some of those rebounds are long rebounds and that’s really where the problems come in. You go and the ball doesn’t come in your area and they’re quick to the ball. It’s not just our bigs, those longer rebounds our guards got to get active and scoop some of those up. They’re not going to be clean rebounds, you’re going to get hit multiple times on loose balls but you have got to come up with them.”
RUDY GOBERT On what to work on: “… We gotta be up on the pick and rolls so we gotta go back and I think those guys really out-hustled us.” On Shelvin Mack’s debut: “Great. I think he’s going to be great for us on both ends.” On if tonight’s atmosphere is what he expects to see in the playoffs: “It’s too far away but I think every one of us needs to be a little more tough. I’m not saying dirty, but we got to get respected. We know that if we get calls we get calls but even through that we got to be tougher.”
SHELVING MACK On the game: “We just went out and competed hard. We kinda got beat on a few plays that kinda caused us the game.” On his early call by Quin: “Yeah I was a little surprised, but I was ready. I was just trying to stay ready.” On Damian Lillard: “He’s a great player. Coming off his career hot. With 51 the other day. He’s kinda just getting in the rhythm so we just try to contest every shot. Try to make a lot of shots and make it difficult for him.” On his flow tonight: “I felt very comfortable. It’s kinda similar to what we ran in Atlanta but also it makes it easier when you got great teammates that let you come in and do your thing.” On how he felt this game: “Felt pretty good. It’s the most minutes I’ve played this year. I’ve been working hard every day, taking every opportunity. So I kinda feel good and we’ll see tomorrow how my body feels.”
The Trail Blazers have matched their best winning streak of the season with five consecutive wins, and are 14-3 in their past 17 contests. All five wins during this winning streak have come against Western Conference opponents with .500 records or better. • Portland’s five-game winning streak is tied with Charlotte and Cleveland for the longest active winning streaks in the NBA. It’s the longest active streak in the Western Conference. • Portland improves to 10-2 in its past 12 home games (18-11 overall). • The Trail Blazers improve to 9-3 against Northwest Division opponents this season (5-0 at home). • The Trail Blazers claim the season series against the Jazz (3-1), including a 2-0 mark at home. • Portland has won five of its past six home games against the Jazz, and is 9-3 in its past 12 games overall against Utah. • Damian Lillard connected on four three-point field goals tonight and now has 151 this season. Lillard is the first NBA player ever to make at least 150 three-point field goals in each of his first four seasons. •With 30 points, Damian Lillard becomes the first Trail Blazer to score 30+ points in four consecutive games since Clyde Drexler did so from Nov. 22-29, 1991. • Damian Lillard is now one of five NBA players with 30+ points in four consecutive games this season (Curry-2, George, James, Westbrook). • In the month of February, Damian Lillard has averaged 29.6 points (45.3% FG) and 8.4 assists. Lillard has scored 30+ points in four of the team’s seven February games (POR: 6-1). • CJ McCollum (31 pts) and Damian Lillard (30 pts) both scored 30+ points in the same game for the first time ever. • Maurice Harkless scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half, and has now produced double-digit scoring in five consecutive games (season-high). Harkless scored nine points in the fourth quarter on 3-of-4 shooting. • CJ McCollum scored a game-high 31 points tonight, and averaged 26.3 points in four games against the Jazz this season. McCollum has now scored 10+ points in five straight games against Utah after failing to do so in any of his first five career contests against the Jazz. • CJ McCollum has scored 20+ points in 30 career regular season games, 27 of which have come this season. • The Trail Blazers won despite trailing at halftime for the first time since Dec. 27. Portland was 15-0 when leading at halftime and 0-7 when trailing at halftime in each of its past 22 games. • Portland hauled in a season-high 23 offensive rebounds (22, 12/23 at NOP). • The Trail Blazers outrebounded the Jazz by 10 (48-38), marking the 10th time in the past 13 games that Portland has outrebounded its opponent (+47 reb). Utah had previously outrebounded its opponent in six consecutive games. • With five assists tonight, Damian Lillard (1,851) surpasses Mychal Thompson (1,848) for seventh place on the franchise list for assists.
One day i'm gonna take that fine and tell the truth about what's going on. Anyway we have to learn from this one and keep moving forward. - Rudy Gobert whining on twitter after the game.
Quote of the night, rasheedfan2005's remix to hark the herald angel sings "Harkless the herald angel sings, glory to his giant thing! Ball IQ is really higgghh, watch his pecker slap his thiggghh!"
Think I might need to tweet a link for this post over to Harkless. Prepare for another restraining order. What'll that be, five for you from active Blazers?
Im not sure. I gave aminu the nickname bakers dozen cause of his 13" trouser snake. Thankfully im 2800 miles away from home so I should be good on any restraining orders.
http://www.sltrib.com/sports/3561139-155/portland-trail-blazers-edge-utah-jazz "Even when the Jazz were able to get stops in the second half Sunday, the Blazers punished them with offensive rebounds. Portland grabbed 23 boards on the offensive glass, helping the Blazers score 24 second-chance points." You would think with the big front line that Utah has, offensive rebounds would be tough to get. but with all the 3 point shots taken (Longer rebounds) , maybe quicker smaller "bigs" are a better option.
A lot them we're just pure hustle put backs by Hark, Mason, Ed, Noah or Aminu. Hell even Dame grabbed an offensive rebound and dunked.
Exactly. Hustle plays by guys with quick feet. Rebounds that fall of the rim tend to go to the bigs who block out. Rebounds that bounce away from the rim go to the players who have the quickest reactions and feet. Rolo was effective in different ways, but I would prefer to have bigs who are able to chase down a rebound as well. If I could have the best of both worlds I would take it. But finding a really big rim protector who has really quick feet are hard to find. You have to wonder about SA. The rule of thought is they have been great defensively all these years because they had Duncan anchoring the middle. Yes Timmy is great, but I also saw Tiago Splitter do the same (Defensively) for the Spurs, but struggled at it when he left the Spurs. I guarantee Mason Plumlee and Ed Davis would be more than sufficient with the Spurs defensive strategy. Our defensive is getting better, I am just trying to figure out who we need in the middle long term. Or do we have them already?
The future of good defense is athletic wings that can switch and stop penetration from guards and physical wings. An actual rim protector is not the most vital cog of a defense anymore. It doesn't mean they aren't still valuable, but I think the league is starting to gravitate towards players that have quick feet.
