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HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“Well, two things come to mind – one is we didn’t defend the way you need to defend in the fourth quarter to win a close game. The start of the fourth quarter with a ten point lead, they came out and scored and made their run then and it was a game. It’s tough to lose it. I thought we had good energy for most of the game. Their bench was obviously the difference. They had 46 off the bench and all their bench players contributed to the win. Even though Carmelo had a very good offensive night, he didn’t have a field goal in the fourth quarter. He made six free throws, four of them were intentional free throws, but their bench guys made the difference.”
How did you like Vonleh matching up with Porzingis
“I thought Noah had a very good game. I thought it was a good matchup for him. I think he liked the challenge of it. He made some good hustle plays getting rebounds. I thought it was a very good night for him. I don’t necessarily say it was the matchup with Porzingis but I thought Noah had a good game.”
Did anything change with Knicks offensively in the fourth?
“They were pushing the ball. They had a lot of energy. Galloway really pushed it, O’Quinn had a lot of energy, Lance Thomas made his shots – so they didn’t really necessarily run their offense, it was more their energy, their transition, their tempo, all those things.”
How did you feel about shots you had late in the game?
“I’d have to look at them but I thought we had some makeable shots. I think in general, we find ways to score. You have to make shots, we missed shots. That happens but during that stretch at the beginning of the fourth quarter where they made their run, I thought we took a couple tough ones but in general for the whole quarter, I thought we had looks that we can make.”
DAMIAN LILLARD
On what happened in fourth quarter?
“In the fourth quarter, we just didn’t defend really well. They got some looks at the rim. We just didn’t defend well enough.”
Did you think the shot at the buzzer was going in?
“It felt good and it looked good. It’s always tough when you don’t really have an idea of how much time is on the clock but I put it up there and it had a chance. From where I was standing, I thought it was going in. We could have done a lot of things better to not even be in that position.”
Have you had a situation like that where you have to miss and hope for rebound?
“Not where the game was basically over – we didn’t have any timeouts and it wasn’t like we could fould them and then advance the ball so I had to miss. I tried to hit it off back rim and let it go in the air so guys could go after it. We got the perfect bound, it went straight to the three point line and from there it was a foot race and I knew I didn’t have much time.”
Do you look at it like you are a team that nobody expected to compete but you’ve been in a lot of games, or do you look at it like you’ve blown a lot of leads?
“Well nobody expected us to compete. That doesn’t really matter because we expected ourselves to compete. That has nothing to do with the situations that we’ve been in. It doesn’t take a talented team to defense. You can throw five guys out there that play hard and care to get it done. I don’t think it was us not caring, I just think we weren’t on top of things like we need to be to win games.”
What happened defensively in the fourth?
“Their offense, it was constant movement. Melo got it going. They got us rotating a little bit, we started to over-help a little bit. I know one time I came completely over and my man ended up getting a wide open three, he didn’t make it but we had a lot of situations like that. Outside of that, we let them get in transition and score. When they made their run, they were pushing it up and we weren’t ready to guard and that resulted in fouls and layups and a couple times it was threes. Especially in the fourth quarter, that can’t happen.”
“Well, two things come to mind – one is we didn’t defend the way you need to defend in the fourth quarter to win a close game. The start of the fourth quarter with a ten point lead, they came out and scored and made their run then and it was a game. It’s tough to lose it. I thought we had good energy for most of the game. Their bench was obviously the difference. They had 46 off the bench and all their bench players contributed to the win. Even though Carmelo had a very good offensive night, he didn’t have a field goal in the fourth quarter. He made six free throws, four of them were intentional free throws, but their bench guys made the difference.”
How did you like Vonleh matching up with Porzingis
“I thought Noah had a very good game. I thought it was a good matchup for him. I think he liked the challenge of it. He made some good hustle plays getting rebounds. I thought it was a very good night for him. I don’t necessarily say it was the matchup with Porzingis but I thought Noah had a good game.”
Did anything change with Knicks offensively in the fourth?
“They were pushing the ball. They had a lot of energy. Galloway really pushed it, O’Quinn had a lot of energy, Lance Thomas made his shots – so they didn’t really necessarily run their offense, it was more their energy, their transition, their tempo, all those things.”
How did you feel about shots you had late in the game?
“I’d have to look at them but I thought we had some makeable shots. I think in general, we find ways to score. You have to make shots, we missed shots. That happens but during that stretch at the beginning of the fourth quarter where they made their run, I thought we took a couple tough ones but in general for the whole quarter, I thought we had looks that we can make.”
DAMIAN LILLARD
On what happened in fourth quarter?
“In the fourth quarter, we just didn’t defend really well. They got some looks at the rim. We just didn’t defend well enough.”
Did you think the shot at the buzzer was going in?
“It felt good and it looked good. It’s always tough when you don’t really have an idea of how much time is on the clock but I put it up there and it had a chance. From where I was standing, I thought it was going in. We could have done a lot of things better to not even be in that position.”
Have you had a situation like that where you have to miss and hope for rebound?
“Not where the game was basically over – we didn’t have any timeouts and it wasn’t like we could fould them and then advance the ball so I had to miss. I tried to hit it off back rim and let it go in the air so guys could go after it. We got the perfect bound, it went straight to the three point line and from there it was a foot race and I knew I didn’t have much time.”
Do you look at it like you are a team that nobody expected to compete but you’ve been in a lot of games, or do you look at it like you’ve blown a lot of leads?
“Well nobody expected us to compete. That doesn’t really matter because we expected ourselves to compete. That has nothing to do with the situations that we’ve been in. It doesn’t take a talented team to defense. You can throw five guys out there that play hard and care to get it done. I don’t think it was us not caring, I just think we weren’t on top of things like we need to be to win games.”
What happened defensively in the fourth?
“Their offense, it was constant movement. Melo got it going. They got us rotating a little bit, we started to over-help a little bit. I know one time I came completely over and my man ended up getting a wide open three, he didn’t make it but we had a lot of situations like that. Outside of that, we let them get in transition and score. When they made their run, they were pushing it up and we weren’t ready to guard and that resulted in fouls and layups and a couple times it was threes. Especially in the fourth quarter, that can’t happen.”
