Blazers vs Bucks 12/17/2014 - Quote Book

Doesn't seem like you guys like this much but I'll post it anyways.

 

[FONT=&quot]Wednesday, December 17, 2014 Final Score: POR 104, MIL 97 POR POR[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“It was a tough game. Milwaukee really plays hard. They spread the court. They were undersized so some of the matchups were a little difficult, but I liked the way that we kind of figured things out at both ends of the court. They did a nice job of taking LA out of his post ups, but when we got the ball to the weak side, I thought we had a lot of opportunities at the offensive end. Obviously, T-Rob had a great game.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On decision starting Robinson and did it work out better than you expected?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“The decision was basically because they’re an undersized team, I thought from a matchups standpoint it made sense. Obviously he had a very good game. I won’t say it turned out better, but when you look at his line, I wouldn’t have predicted that kind of line, but he brought the energy that I expected.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Did it take time to settle in without Lopez?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Like I said, it was an unconventional game. It wasn’t two bigs, it was an unconventional game. That was part of my reasoning in starting T-Rob, but I don’t want to necessarily make my mind up ahead of time. We’ll look at each game and see how it goes.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On Lillard’s shooting:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Particularly in the first half, he made some big threes. He kept us afloat and got us back in the game. I think the best part about it is he looked comfortable shooting. I think his finger feels better, he’s getting used to the splint. It looks like he’s stroking it like he normally does.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On confidence in Robinson starting for first time:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“You know, when we started Allen, I had confidence in Allen. When we started Meyers, I had confidence in Meyers and I have confidence in Thomas. I have confidence in a lot of the players that are on the bench that don’t always get the same opportunity. I have tremendous confidence in our starters and when they’re healthy, they’re going to play. I know what Thomas and everybody else on our bench can bring to a game.”[/FONT]




[FONT=&quot]DAMIAN LILLARD[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On your offense tonight:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“I just saw the ball go in a couple times. I saw how strong they were running to LA and how they were trying to double team him and make things hard for him, so at that point I knew I had to be a little more aggressive and it helped that I had actually made some shots already. I just tried to stay in attack mode.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On rebounding advantage tonight:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“I mean, T-Rob was a monster. It seemed like every time a ball came off the rim, a make or a miss, he was right there in the air waiting for it to come off. That’s him. We’ve seen him do that every day in practice, bring that energy and compete like that. He was the biggest difference.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On looking for shot when offense was struggling:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“We moved the ball well. I think we got a lot of the looks that we wanted to get. We were kicking the ball out, swining the ball out, transition getting good looks at the rim. We just weren’t making those shots. I felt like I could get to spots that I wanted to get to, so I just started to assert myself a little bit more. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On Robinson’s play tonight in first career start:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“I was just happy to see him get that opportunity because I know how hard he works and with how positive he is, being that he hasn’t played a lot this year. He’s always cracking jokes, laughing, putting his two cents in when we bring it in, just being a positive, great teammate. So for him to come out and play the way that he did tonight, that was what we all wanted to see. He’ll continue to do that.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On getting win without Lopez, before big 4 game road trip:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“It was huge because we know we’ve got a tough road trip coming up. Taking care of our home floor is big to begin with, but especially with this beast of a trip that we’ve got coming up, it was important for us to get this one.”:[/FONT]

 

[FONT=&quot]HEAD COACH JASON KIDD[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On the poor fourth quarter:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Rebounding, we couldn’t get the rebounds. We got some stops and then on the offensive end we got some good looks that we missed, but guys played hard for forty eight minutes. A call here or a stop or a rebound, they got offensive rebounds in crucial parts of the game that led to a three or a basket. We gave ourselves a chance to win on the road against a very good team.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On the strategy to foul Thomas Robinson:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“He missed a lot of them, but we didn’t capitalize on it at the other end. We played hard for forty eight minutes and we have to build on that.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On Khris Middleton’s performance:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“The last few games Khris has been playing at a very high level and I thought he validated his performance in Phoenix and we’re going to need him to continue playing that way.”[/FONT]



[FONT=&quot]Giannis Antetokounmpo[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On not wanting to aggravate his injury:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“I want to play with my team but with everything that happened, we just have to protect me.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On if he was scared at the initial impact:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“Yeah I was scared. The first time I twisted my ankle was in Brooklyn, so I had that experience and it was the same foot then when I fell hard this time I immediately felt a lot of pain.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On if he knows when he’ll be back:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“We’re just going to treat is carefully, put some ice on it and listen to the coaching staff and trainers. I don’t like missing games, I try my best to be 100% even if I’m not all the way there.”[/FONT]



[FONT=&quot]Khris Middleton[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On the tough 4[/FONT][FONT=&quot]th [/FONT][FONT=&quot]quarter:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“The second chance points. They had good rebounding because they’re small and they took advantage of it.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On if they stepped up when Giannis went down:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“We kind of failed at the end but for the most part we had it together for the 3[/FONT][FONT=&quot]rd [/FONT][FONT=&quot]quarter. We just need to rebound and get second chance opportunities.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]On seeing a young player go down for the second consecutive game:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]“It’s tough to see those guys go down but we still have to come together as a team. We need to play as hard as we can with the guys we have left.”[/FONT]

 

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]With 15 points and 16 rebounds tonight,Thomas Robinson became the third Trail Blazer in franchise history to record 15+ points and 15+ rebounds in his first career start. He joins Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas on that list.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Thomas Robinson [/FONT][FONT=&quot]made his first career start tonight,scoring 15 points and hauling in 16 rebounds for his fifth career double-double. His 15 points scored tied a career-high which he has reached twice (Most recent: 11/13/13 vs. Pho.).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Thomas Robinson's [/FONT][FONT=&quot]16 rebounds marks the second highest total of his career. Robinson hauled in a career-high 18 rebounds against Minnesota on Feb. 23,2014.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]LaMarcus Aldridge [/FONT][FONT=&quot]tied a season-high of 15 rebounds,marking the third consecutive game that the L-Train has grabbed at least 14 rebounds. It's the second time in his career that he has accomplished that feat.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Portland out rebounded Milwaukee 52-32,representing its second largest re[/FONT][FONT=&quot]bounding margin of the season {+23 at Phi.). The Trail Blazers hauled in 11more offensive rebounds than the Bucks.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]•[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The Trail Blazers have now won seven of the past nine games played at the Moda[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Center against the Milwaukee Bucks.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]At 20-6,Portland becomes the fourth team in the NBA to reach the 20-win mark.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Portland improves to 12-1against Eastern Conference opponents.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Portland is 15-2 when scoring 100+ points.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]•[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The Trail Blazers dished out 25 assists,nine more than Milwaukee.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]•[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The Trail Blazers held the Bucks without a field goal in the final 5:47 of the first half, outscoring Milwaukee,14-4 during that time.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Nicolas Batum [/FONT][FONT=&quot]dished out six assists tonight and has now finished with five or more assists in five straight games and nine of his past 10 games.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Portland conducted a 20-3 run from 7:39 to 2:43 in the fourth quarter.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Damian Lillard [/FONT][FONT=&quot]shot 4-of-6 from beyond the arc,marking a league leading tenth time this season that Lillard has made 4+ 3-pointers.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]LaMarcus Aldridge [/FONT][FONT=&quot]recorded a double-double in the first half with 10 points and[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]10 rebounds. He finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]CJ McCollum scored three points and dished out three assists in 14 minutes tonight in his first game back since missing 14 games with a right index finger fracture.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]• [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Robin Lopez [/FONT][FONT=&quot]was inactive due to a right hand fracture. It was the first time he missed a game in his Trail Blazers career, snapping a streak of 118 consecutive games played {including playoffs).[/FONT]