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Sunday, October 18, 2015 Final Score: POR 116, UTA 111
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“It was good to get a win. I thought Utah obviously played very well and Ingles and Burke made their threes and getting down 20, but I’m glad we played the way we did in the fourth quarter and in overtime. It was important to get a win for the crowd, they were very good. Dame had been out for a while and I wanted to extend his minutes, probably not that much but I think that was good for both he and CJ to feel what 40-plus minutes feels like. We did a lot of good things, but certainly the first three quarters of defense wasn’t where it needed to be.”
Was there a point where you said, you know what I’m going to try to win this?
“At the end of the third quarter – Dame wanted to come back into the game just because like I said, he had missed the last couple games. When it got to 10 – we were down 20, I think we were down 20 in the fourth – I didn’t know how I was going to handle the fourth quarter, but then when it got to be a game and certainly when it got to be 12 with 6:00 to go or something like that, we were going to do what we could.”
Was this good practice for you coaching late game situations?
“It was good. It’s not like I diagrammed any great plays out of the time out, but I thought tonight as far as managing it at the end, it was pretty simple. They got the rebounds, we had to foul – that was pretty basic.”
DAMIAN LILLARD
Do you feel like regardless of what else happens, this team will be entertaining?
“I agree with that. We’ve got super athletic wings, we’ve got shot blocking bigs that run the court, we’ve got guards that can score the ball, so I think having that, if we do the things we need to, we’ll have a chance to be around in every game. Like tonight, it wasn’t so much about them or who they had on the floor, it was about us and just getting ourselves right, handing adversity that we haven’t seen so far this preseason and staying together and finding our way back into the game.”
On playing hungry:
“I mean, who are we to not want to win that game. So we stuck with it, we wanted to win the game and we stayed out there and played.”
Is it good to be in a position to have free throws to tie at the
“It wasn’t my first time being in that position, but it’s always good because we stayed in the game and if I miss one of these free throws, we might lose. So going through that is always good, especially in the preseason when you’re in a make or break situation, it’s good practice for the regular season.”
Why did you want to play in overtime?
“Like I said, who are we to not want to win the game. We fought out way back at the end of regulation and I said let’s just win the game. There’s no reason to say alright, that’s enough. Let’s go out here and put ourselves in situations where now we’ve got to make shots, and we’ve got to get stops and we’ve got to go that extra yard, that extra mile to win the game. It doesn’t matter who it is, it’s just being in those situations.”
ED DAVIS
Do you feel like win or lose that this team will be entertaining
“For sure. We’re a young team, athletic. We have an all-star point guard, so every night we’re going to be in games. We’re going to fight. It’s going to be a long season, it’s going to be a lot of up and downs but like you said, every night we’re going to fight and we’re going to give it our best effort.”
On playing with Noah Vonleh:
“I like playing with Noah. He knows how to play the game. It’s going to help him a lot this year for him to get minutes and be able to play and understand the NBA game more, but he has a lot of talent, he has a lot of skill on the offensive end that he hasn’t really showed yet. With more time, he’s going to be a great player in this league.”
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“It was good to get a win. I thought Utah obviously played very well and Ingles and Burke made their threes and getting down 20, but I’m glad we played the way we did in the fourth quarter and in overtime. It was important to get a win for the crowd, they were very good. Dame had been out for a while and I wanted to extend his minutes, probably not that much but I think that was good for both he and CJ to feel what 40-plus minutes feels like. We did a lot of good things, but certainly the first three quarters of defense wasn’t where it needed to be.”
Was there a point where you said, you know what I’m going to try to win this?
“At the end of the third quarter – Dame wanted to come back into the game just because like I said, he had missed the last couple games. When it got to 10 – we were down 20, I think we were down 20 in the fourth – I didn’t know how I was going to handle the fourth quarter, but then when it got to be a game and certainly when it got to be 12 with 6:00 to go or something like that, we were going to do what we could.”
Was this good practice for you coaching late game situations?
“It was good. It’s not like I diagrammed any great plays out of the time out, but I thought tonight as far as managing it at the end, it was pretty simple. They got the rebounds, we had to foul – that was pretty basic.”
DAMIAN LILLARD
Do you feel like regardless of what else happens, this team will be entertaining?
“I agree with that. We’ve got super athletic wings, we’ve got shot blocking bigs that run the court, we’ve got guards that can score the ball, so I think having that, if we do the things we need to, we’ll have a chance to be around in every game. Like tonight, it wasn’t so much about them or who they had on the floor, it was about us and just getting ourselves right, handing adversity that we haven’t seen so far this preseason and staying together and finding our way back into the game.”
On playing hungry:
“I mean, who are we to not want to win that game. So we stuck with it, we wanted to win the game and we stayed out there and played.”
Is it good to be in a position to have free throws to tie at the
“It wasn’t my first time being in that position, but it’s always good because we stayed in the game and if I miss one of these free throws, we might lose. So going through that is always good, especially in the preseason when you’re in a make or break situation, it’s good practice for the regular season.”
Why did you want to play in overtime?
“Like I said, who are we to not want to win the game. We fought out way back at the end of regulation and I said let’s just win the game. There’s no reason to say alright, that’s enough. Let’s go out here and put ourselves in situations where now we’ve got to make shots, and we’ve got to get stops and we’ve got to go that extra yard, that extra mile to win the game. It doesn’t matter who it is, it’s just being in those situations.”
ED DAVIS
Do you feel like win or lose that this team will be entertaining
“For sure. We’re a young team, athletic. We have an all-star point guard, so every night we’re going to be in games. We’re going to fight. It’s going to be a long season, it’s going to be a lot of up and downs but like you said, every night we’re going to fight and we’re going to give it our best effort.”
On playing with Noah Vonleh:
“I like playing with Noah. He knows how to play the game. It’s going to help him a lot this year for him to get minutes and be able to play and understand the NBA game more, but he has a lot of talent, he has a lot of skill on the offensive end that he hasn’t really showed yet. With more time, he’s going to be a great player in this league.”
