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Friday, November 25, 2016
Final Score: POR 119, NOP 104
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“Well obviously, it’s really good to get a win. We’ve been struggling a little bit and I thought offensively, we were pretty good for most of the night. Defensively, after about two minutes into the second quarter, we were good the last three quarters, so that was very encouraging. Obviously we’ve had some struggles and we need to get back on track so we did that tonight.”
On improved rebounding:
“We’ve done a better job over the last four of five games, actually since probably the last New Orleans game. The game in New Orleans, they had one offensive rebound, tonight they had two offensive rebounds. So the rebounding over the last four, five, six games has really improved. Obviously we’ve had our struggles defensively and we’re kinda harping on the rebounding, but our defense, there are a lot of factors that go into it, not just one.”
“I was going to say – quarters two through four were all pretty solid defensively. Anthony Davis is a great player. I thought we worked pretty hard on him and he still had 31 and 13. He’s a difficult guard and when he’s making threes, that makes it that much more difficult, but he does a good job of drawing fouls and getting to the line. Anyway, it was good to get one like that.”
What specifically did you like defensively?
“Particularly after the first quarter, we keyed in on some of the defensive things that we wanted to do, but more than anything else, I thought our alertness, our communication, attention to detail all got better in the last three quarters.”
On Plumlee’s play tonight:
“I thought he and Meyers played well together in the first half. You know Mason, he brings a lot of energy. His passing certainly helped at the offensive end. We did some switching with the bigs and he would switch onto Davis and he competed and fronted and tried to deny him the ball. Offensively, he’s a very important part of what we do whether he scores or not, but being an outlet and a facilitator in the middle of the court.”
MEYERS LEONARD
On defending Davis:
“Get into him. There’s a couple plays they run where we schemed to front him in the post, make things difficult for him – we talked about it before the game, the guy is going to score. He gets a lot of touches, he gets a lot of good looks. Their team does a good job of finding him and he’s just, flat out, he’s a really good player. We did our best to slow him down. I feel like we did throughout a majority of the game, we did a really good job of what we wanted to do, some breakdowns but that’s going to happen. So I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Overall as a team, do you feel like you took a step forward?
“No question, I truly think we did. There was lulls here and there that we’ve got to shore up but I thought we really came out focusses, aggressive, and maintained it throughout most of the game. Certainly there’s things we can work on and understand from film, and also understand some of the positives. I’ll say this – the crowd, when they got going in the third. That to me, this is my fifth season, they really get us going and I’m sure the rest of the guys appreciate that too. We feed off it, no question. We have an amazing home court advantage and so I thought that was a big piece to why we kept ourselves together there when things got a little loose toward the end of the game.”
On playing with confidence:
“I think it’s just understanding what the coaches want from me and playing off of my teammates. Mason finds me at the rim, Evan finds me in transition, Dame and CJ and the rest of the guys are so good at creating for others, and myself, I space, I do what I do. It’s my job to convert whenever they find me, but I’ll say this, I think the main reason was my rebounding and intensity on the defensive ends, it kind of carried over to the defensive end.”
On McCollum’s performance, particularly early:
“It’s something I’ve seen from CJ ever since he’s been here. The guy is confident and he can really play, really put the ball in the basket. Terry doesn’t slow him down, he lets him play and he doesn’t make him feel out the game. CJ can go get a bucket. Not only that, but I think it’s testament to everybody. It’s not just one guy, it’s the actions we’re running. It’s Dame being willing to let CJ take charge sometimes and really get himself going. I know Dame in the first half didn’t score much but CJ did, and I truly think Dame does not care about that. All he cares about is winning, and so when you have a one-two punch like that, and then the rest of the guys, I feel like we have so much talent around this locker room. Now it’s just continuing to put it together, continuing to build chemistry and just playing the way we know we can.”
Final Score: POR 119, NOP 104
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“Well obviously, it’s really good to get a win. We’ve been struggling a little bit and I thought offensively, we were pretty good for most of the night. Defensively, after about two minutes into the second quarter, we were good the last three quarters, so that was very encouraging. Obviously we’ve had some struggles and we need to get back on track so we did that tonight.”
On improved rebounding:
“We’ve done a better job over the last four of five games, actually since probably the last New Orleans game. The game in New Orleans, they had one offensive rebound, tonight they had two offensive rebounds. So the rebounding over the last four, five, six games has really improved. Obviously we’ve had our struggles defensively and we’re kinda harping on the rebounding, but our defense, there are a lot of factors that go into it, not just one.”
“I was going to say – quarters two through four were all pretty solid defensively. Anthony Davis is a great player. I thought we worked pretty hard on him and he still had 31 and 13. He’s a difficult guard and when he’s making threes, that makes it that much more difficult, but he does a good job of drawing fouls and getting to the line. Anyway, it was good to get one like that.”
What specifically did you like defensively?
“Particularly after the first quarter, we keyed in on some of the defensive things that we wanted to do, but more than anything else, I thought our alertness, our communication, attention to detail all got better in the last three quarters.”
On Plumlee’s play tonight:
“I thought he and Meyers played well together in the first half. You know Mason, he brings a lot of energy. His passing certainly helped at the offensive end. We did some switching with the bigs and he would switch onto Davis and he competed and fronted and tried to deny him the ball. Offensively, he’s a very important part of what we do whether he scores or not, but being an outlet and a facilitator in the middle of the court.”
MEYERS LEONARD
On defending Davis:
“Get into him. There’s a couple plays they run where we schemed to front him in the post, make things difficult for him – we talked about it before the game, the guy is going to score. He gets a lot of touches, he gets a lot of good looks. Their team does a good job of finding him and he’s just, flat out, he’s a really good player. We did our best to slow him down. I feel like we did throughout a majority of the game, we did a really good job of what we wanted to do, some breakdowns but that’s going to happen. So I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Overall as a team, do you feel like you took a step forward?
“No question, I truly think we did. There was lulls here and there that we’ve got to shore up but I thought we really came out focusses, aggressive, and maintained it throughout most of the game. Certainly there’s things we can work on and understand from film, and also understand some of the positives. I’ll say this – the crowd, when they got going in the third. That to me, this is my fifth season, they really get us going and I’m sure the rest of the guys appreciate that too. We feed off it, no question. We have an amazing home court advantage and so I thought that was a big piece to why we kept ourselves together there when things got a little loose toward the end of the game.”
On playing with confidence:
“I think it’s just understanding what the coaches want from me and playing off of my teammates. Mason finds me at the rim, Evan finds me in transition, Dame and CJ and the rest of the guys are so good at creating for others, and myself, I space, I do what I do. It’s my job to convert whenever they find me, but I’ll say this, I think the main reason was my rebounding and intensity on the defensive ends, it kind of carried over to the defensive end.”
On McCollum’s performance, particularly early:
“It’s something I’ve seen from CJ ever since he’s been here. The guy is confident and he can really play, really put the ball in the basket. Terry doesn’t slow him down, he lets him play and he doesn’t make him feel out the game. CJ can go get a bucket. Not only that, but I think it’s testament to everybody. It’s not just one guy, it’s the actions we’re running. It’s Dame being willing to let CJ take charge sometimes and really get himself going. I know Dame in the first half didn’t score much but CJ did, and I truly think Dame does not care about that. All he cares about is winning, and so when you have a one-two punch like that, and then the rest of the guys, I feel like we have so much talent around this locker room. Now it’s just continuing to put it together, continuing to build chemistry and just playing the way we know we can.”
