- Joined
- Oct 5, 2008
- Messages
- 127,025
- Likes
- 147,630
- Points
- 115
HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“It’s disappointing to give up over 30 in every quarter. We tried some different things as opposed to last game. We tried some traps, we tried some switching, we tried picking Harden up full court. They’re a difficult team to guard. I think James does a great job of playing the game and figuring out what needs to be done. I thought the run that they went on when Harden was out of the game was tough for us. Eric Gordon got it going. You’d like to make a little bit of hay when Harden is out. I thought that made a big difference in the game.”
On switches defensively on pick and roll involving big men:
“With Ed and Mason out there, we wanted to switch any pick and roll with [Ryan] Anderson. Anderson, if you try and trap or drop, you’re not going to get back to Anderson. So the reason we switched Anderson pick and rolls was to take out the three. If you commit to Harden with the big, Anderson is going to be wide open so that’s why we switched with those two guys. When Ed and Mason weren’t in the game together, then it was Mo involved in it or somebody like that so it wasn’t as obviously, but with Ed and Mason together and Anderson in the ball screens, that was the reasoning.”
You’ve lost 6 of 8, do you feel like you’re in a tailspin?
“You didn’t ask me that after last game. We played a good game last game. You have to have a short memory. What happened two weeks ago, so if we’ve lost six out of eight, what happened two weeks ago doesn’t matter right now.”
DAMIAN LILLARD
Thoughts on defense tonight:
“Coming into the game, we knew that they’re a great scoring team. We saw that the first time that we played them. We’ve seen them put up big numbers on a lot of teams and they shoot a lot of threes. James is a great playmaker, a great scorer, so we knew what we were up against. Obviously we didn’t do a good enough job consistently enough of giving them a hard time.”
The game was close for three quarters, what was difference in fourth?
“I think when you’re playing against a team like that that can be so explosive offensively. You know, they go out there and they play the passing lanes – three turnovers or three bad offensive possessions could turn right into nine points. It’s kind of like the Golden State thing with how quick they can just hit shots and they can score points in bunches. We were right there, right in the game and it was a game, and then I think we could have executed well, especially myself, I turned the ball over. They got their hands on a number of my passes and that led to three pointers and fouls and putting ourselves in a tough situation. Doing that too much down the stretch, they were just able to pull away.”
Is it any one thing defensively or is it something different every night?
“Well first, I think we were giving up a lot of second change, third chance opportunities. We’ve done a lot better at that. Now it’s still the communication in some situations where we’ll have two good possessions and then the third time, you know we’ll take it for granted and we’ll assume that we know what’s going to happen and guys know what to do and we won’t say nothing, and boom, there goes a three. Now a guy’s going and he comes back the next time in transition and after he’s going, we lose the guy that’s got hot on us. As a team, we’ve got to know when a guy gets it going and he can’t be the guy that we lose in transition. To answer your question, I think it’s definitely more than one thing. I think it’s a lot of things that we’re screwing up in different parts of the game. We’ll do well to start and then in the second quarter, we’ll slip up because we did well at it. We’ll take that for granted and then the next thing we’ll slip up, then we’ll clean up something else. It’s a thing where we’re not being consistent enough at the things that should be a given. There’s certain things that should be a given and right now it’s not.”
At almost a quarter of the way into the season, what conclusions have you drawn?
“I mean, right now we’re not getting it done on the defensive end. I think that’s what it comes to. You look at the Cleveland game, we scored 120-something points and we lose. That’s a lot of points to score and not win the game. Tonight we had 114 and we lose. Obviously we’re capable of scoring, we’re going to put points on the board, but we’ve got to find a way to get better at coming up with more stops and being more consistent. Even if teams make tough shots, then you live with that. But if we’re forcing teams to make tougher entry passes and if their execution is harder, the percentage is going to go down. So we can’t say well they made tough shots because if you make people shoot tough shots over and over, they’re not scoring 130 points. I think that’s what it comes down to. We’ve just got to make people more uncomfortable and we’ve got to do it more consistent. We’ll do it for five minutes and five minutes they’ll go on a run, then three minutes and three minutes they’ll go on a run.”
“It’s disappointing to give up over 30 in every quarter. We tried some different things as opposed to last game. We tried some traps, we tried some switching, we tried picking Harden up full court. They’re a difficult team to guard. I think James does a great job of playing the game and figuring out what needs to be done. I thought the run that they went on when Harden was out of the game was tough for us. Eric Gordon got it going. You’d like to make a little bit of hay when Harden is out. I thought that made a big difference in the game.”
On switches defensively on pick and roll involving big men:
“With Ed and Mason out there, we wanted to switch any pick and roll with [Ryan] Anderson. Anderson, if you try and trap or drop, you’re not going to get back to Anderson. So the reason we switched Anderson pick and rolls was to take out the three. If you commit to Harden with the big, Anderson is going to be wide open so that’s why we switched with those two guys. When Ed and Mason weren’t in the game together, then it was Mo involved in it or somebody like that so it wasn’t as obviously, but with Ed and Mason together and Anderson in the ball screens, that was the reasoning.”
You’ve lost 6 of 8, do you feel like you’re in a tailspin?
“You didn’t ask me that after last game. We played a good game last game. You have to have a short memory. What happened two weeks ago, so if we’ve lost six out of eight, what happened two weeks ago doesn’t matter right now.”
DAMIAN LILLARD
Thoughts on defense tonight:
“Coming into the game, we knew that they’re a great scoring team. We saw that the first time that we played them. We’ve seen them put up big numbers on a lot of teams and they shoot a lot of threes. James is a great playmaker, a great scorer, so we knew what we were up against. Obviously we didn’t do a good enough job consistently enough of giving them a hard time.”
The game was close for three quarters, what was difference in fourth?
“I think when you’re playing against a team like that that can be so explosive offensively. You know, they go out there and they play the passing lanes – three turnovers or three bad offensive possessions could turn right into nine points. It’s kind of like the Golden State thing with how quick they can just hit shots and they can score points in bunches. We were right there, right in the game and it was a game, and then I think we could have executed well, especially myself, I turned the ball over. They got their hands on a number of my passes and that led to three pointers and fouls and putting ourselves in a tough situation. Doing that too much down the stretch, they were just able to pull away.”
Is it any one thing defensively or is it something different every night?
“Well first, I think we were giving up a lot of second change, third chance opportunities. We’ve done a lot better at that. Now it’s still the communication in some situations where we’ll have two good possessions and then the third time, you know we’ll take it for granted and we’ll assume that we know what’s going to happen and guys know what to do and we won’t say nothing, and boom, there goes a three. Now a guy’s going and he comes back the next time in transition and after he’s going, we lose the guy that’s got hot on us. As a team, we’ve got to know when a guy gets it going and he can’t be the guy that we lose in transition. To answer your question, I think it’s definitely more than one thing. I think it’s a lot of things that we’re screwing up in different parts of the game. We’ll do well to start and then in the second quarter, we’ll slip up because we did well at it. We’ll take that for granted and then the next thing we’ll slip up, then we’ll clean up something else. It’s a thing where we’re not being consistent enough at the things that should be a given. There’s certain things that should be a given and right now it’s not.”
At almost a quarter of the way into the season, what conclusions have you drawn?
“I mean, right now we’re not getting it done on the defensive end. I think that’s what it comes to. You look at the Cleveland game, we scored 120-something points and we lose. That’s a lot of points to score and not win the game. Tonight we had 114 and we lose. Obviously we’re capable of scoring, we’re going to put points on the board, but we’ve got to find a way to get better at coming up with more stops and being more consistent. Even if teams make tough shots, then you live with that. But if we’re forcing teams to make tougher entry passes and if their execution is harder, the percentage is going to go down. So we can’t say well they made tough shots because if you make people shoot tough shots over and over, they’re not scoring 130 points. I think that’s what it comes down to. We’ve just got to make people more uncomfortable and we’ve got to do it more consistent. We’ll do it for five minutes and five minutes they’ll go on a run, then three minutes and three minutes they’ll go on a run.”
